Drawer box sizes
Measure the opening, pick the slides, and get the box: width, height, depth to the nearest stocked slide, the bottom panel, the front, and a cut list for as many drawers as you are building. A true-size gap gauge below checks the per-side slide clearance while you test-fit.
Inside the face frame
= 23.25"
What the spec sheet says
The common slide. 1/2" each side, so the box is the opening less 1".
= 0.5"
Advanced settings1/2" sides · 1/4" bottom · Dado · 3/4" setback
= 0.75"
= 0.5"
Both together
= 0.75"
= 0.5"
= 0.25"
= 0.25"
= 0.5"
Drawer box for a 24" opening
Box width
23"
Box height
6"
Box depth
22"
Slides
22"
Clear inside
22"
Cut list for 4 drawers
- Sides × 81/2" thick — Full depth of the box, grooved for the bottom
- 22" × 6"
- Front and back (between the sides) × 81/2" thick — Box width less two sides, plus 1/4" at each end for the groove
- 22 1/2" × 6"
- Bottom × 41/4" thick — A hair under the groove-to-groove size, so it is not a press fit
- 21 7/16" × 22 7/16"
- Drawer front (overlay) × 43/4" thick — Laps the opening by 1/2" all round
- 25" × 8"
Lengths first, then widths, then thickness.
They arrive grouped by thickness — the 1/2″ sides and the 1/4″ bottoms are two different sheets — and the optimizer asks which pile you are cutting before it adds anything.
Before you cut
All 5 checks passShow the numbers
- A stocked slide length fits the cabinet — passes22" slides, in 22.00" of room. Slides come in two-inch steps, so the box is built to the slide rather than to the cabinet.
- Sides at least 2" tall — passes6.000" of side to screw a slide to.
- Groove no deeper than half the side — passes1/4" groove in 1/2" stock.
- Groove clear of the bottom edge — passesBottom of the groove 1/2" up from the bottom edge, so the bottom sits that far above the slide.
- Something left inside — passes22.00" of clear width inside the box.
- A stocked slide length fits the cabinet — passes22" slides, in 22.00" of room. Slides come in two-inch steps, so the box is built to the slide rather than to the cabinet.
- Sides at least 2" tall — passes6.000" of side to screw a slide to.
- Groove no deeper than half the side — passes1/4" groove in 1/2" stock.
- Groove clear of the bottom edge — passesBottom of the groove 1/2" up from the bottom edge, so the bottom sits that far above the slide.
- Something left inside — passes22.00" of clear width inside the box.
Slide gap gauge, at true size
Not the whole box — a slide's clearance is split evenly between the two sides, and that per-side gap is the one dimension worth a printed check while you're test-fitting. Print at 100%, check the ruler, then hold this between the box side and the cabinet side.
Put a tape on the printed ruler. If it does not read exactly 6 inches, the print was scaled — set the print dialog to 100% or “Actual size” and print it again. Do not cut wood from a template that failed this.
Half of 1" total clearance. Both sides should take the same gap — a box hung tighter on one side than the other binds on that slide.
Measure the opening, not the drawing
Face frames are not square and cabinets are not identical. Measure every opening in the run, at the top and at the bottom, and build each box to its own hole — a bank of four boxes all cut to the same number will have one that binds.
Then check the box is square before the glue sets. A drawer box out of square by a sixteenth runs on the slides at an angle and wears the ball races out on one side.
Where to buy this
- 22" drawer slides — one pairHome DepotLowe'sAmazon
One pair per drawer, and the clearance above assumes this slide type — a different make of the same length can want a different gap.
Plain search links, nothing sponsored. Prices and stock are the shop's, and a local lumberyard will usually beat both on solid stock.
Worked example: four drawers
Four drawers for a 24" × 7" opening in a 23 1/4" deep cabinet, on side-mount ball bearing slides, want boxes 23" wide, 6" tall and 22" deep, on 22" slides.
Every clearance rounds down to the sixteenth rather than to the nearest, so the box goes in. It passes all 5 of the fit checks the calculator applies.
The cut list, for all four:
- Sides × 8
- 22" × 6"
- Front and back (between the sides) × 8
- 22 1/2" × 6"
- Bottom × 4
- 21 7/16" × 22 7/16"
- Drawer front (overlay) × 4
- 25" × 8"
These are the figures the calculator above opens on. Change any field and it works the same problem for your numbers.
Embed this calculator on your site
Free to use. Paste this HTML into your page; the calculator runs in a frame, with no ads and nothing to sign up for.
About building drawers
- How much clearance does a drawer slide need?
- A standard side-mount ball-bearing slide takes exactly 1/2" on each side, so the box is the opening less 1". That figure is on every spec sheet and it is not a tolerance to shave — the slide is a fixed thickness. Undermount slides want far less side clearance, around 5/16" in total, but they also dictate the box depth and the bottom thickness, so build those to the maker's sheet rather than to a rule of thumb.
- How deep should the drawer box be?
- As deep as the slide, and slides come in 2" steps: 10, 12, 14 and so on. Work out what is left after the face frame at the front and whatever has to live behind the box, then take the next slide down. A 24" deep base cabinet with a 3/4" face frame usually lands on 22" slides.
- What size should the drawer front be?
- For an overlay front, the opening plus twice the overlay: a 24" by 7" opening with a 1/2" overlay takes a 25" by 8" front. For an inset front, the opening less twice the reveal, and the reveal should not be under 1/16" — a solid wood front moves across its width with the seasons and an inset front with no gap binds the first humid week.
- How thick should drawer sides be?
- 1/2" for ordinary kitchen and furniture drawers, 5/8" or 3/4" for wide drawers or anything that will carry real weight. Thinner sides make a bigger box inside the same opening, which is the argument for them; they also give you less to screw a slide to and less to cut a joint into.
- Where does the groove for the bottom go?
- Usually 1/2" up from the bottom edge of the sides, cut 1/4" deep for a 1/4" bottom. Keeping it that far up leaves room for the slide screws and keeps the groove out of the bottom edge, which is the part that takes the knocks. The bottom panel itself is cut a thirty-second under the groove-to-groove size so it can be dropped in rather than forced.
You might also need
- Cut list optimizerLay your parts out on a sheet of plywood and get the cuts in order. Accounts for blade kerf and keeps the grain running the right way.
- Shelf sag and spanHow far a shelf bends under books, how far it can span, and what a strip on the front edge buys you.
- Cabinet boxesA carcass cut list from the finished outside dimensions, face-frame or frameless.