Finally figured out why my drawer bottoms kept splitting

Was using 1/4 inch ply for drawer bottoms like a dummy for years. An old timer at a shop in Portland pointed out that I wasn't leaving any expansion gap in the groove, and sure enough, my last three custom jobs all had splits right down the middle. Anyone else make this mistake early on?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.thomas1mo ago

Yeah man, I did the exact same thing for way too long. Felt real dumb when I finally learned.

wade7671mo ago

Oh man, careful with that. The "exact same thing" part isn't totally right. When I first started I was using the wrong torque specs on everything, not just skipping it. Thought I had it memorized from a YouTube video. But then I snapped a bolt on my buddies truck and realized I had been overtorquing everything by like 15 ft-lbs. Felt way dumber than just not knowing the spec in the first place.