To make drawers are corner clamps necessary?

[stoppy]

I'm going to be making at least a couple dozen drawers for shop storage. Will be using pocket holes and glue. Are corner clamps necessary and/or do they make the process easier?

Any particular brand better?

[Ridgeway]

I'm going to be making at least a couple dozen drawers for shop storage. Will be using pocket holes and glue.  Are corner clamps necessary and/or do they make the process easier?

Any particular brand better?

I have made lots of drawers w/o using corner clamps.  The joinery and the base help keep everything square and in alignment.  You can use slower setting glue until you get comfortable with the assembly process.

I find corner clamps are only "needed" for gluing up miters like in a picture frame, and even then there are simple workarounds, like clamping blocks.

[rwe2156]

I'm going to be making at least a couple dozen drawers for shop storage. Will be using pocket holes and glue.  Are corner clamps necessary and/or do they make the process easier?

Any particular brand better?

IMO no.  But you can make your own corner clamping blocks very easily out of 3/4 ply.

If the material is cut square and to the same length its going to be very close right off the bat.  I usually assemble the drawer, clamp if needed, measure diagonally & skew clamps as needed to bring square.

Since you're pocket screwing you don't need to do any clamping - just screw them together, insert the drawer bottoms using glue, check diagonals and fasten the back of the drawer bottom to hold it.

[JohnnyEgo]

When I first started woodworking, I used the cheap stamped Pony corner clamps all the time. I rarely use them now. I still have a couple of the much larger Harbor Freight corner clamps that I use from time to time for things like cabinets and book cases, and two small ones I sometimes use for small miter boxes like Ridgeway.

They do one thing really well, and that is hold the area of their clamping surfaces at 90 degrees to one another. They don't guarantee both boards will be 90 degrees to one another for the length of the boards or width of the joint. They are useful for alignment and support, but I found I needed them less and less as my jointery techniques matured and I got better at ensuring my stock was straight and my cuts were perfectly square.

So they are useful, though not necessarily essential, and in my opinion, best used in pairs.

[Chuck in NC]

IMO no.  But you can make your own corner clamping blocks very easily out of 3/4 ply.

If the material is cut square and to the same length its going to be very close right off the bat.  I usually assemble the drawer, clamp if needed, measure diagonally & skew clamps as needed to bring square.

Since you're pocket screwing you don't need to do any clamping - just screw them together, insert the drawer bottoms using glue, check diagonals and fasten the back of the drawer bottom to hold it.

What I do, too!

[Rob Young]

I've always had a bit of trouble with pocket hole screws and things slip-sliding about. Unless I do take the time and make a rigid clamping assembly.

For drawer boxes in quick stuff they do work fine and I've got one of the rapid Kreg corner clamp thingies and a small pile of L blocks I made from MDF that I can clamp in. A bit fussy but since I also dab glue on the mating surfaces things do tend to get a little greasy and this helps.

I suppose if I was trying to make a living at this stuff I'd develop better and faster technique because mucking about with the clamps does slow things down.

[AHill]

Not necessary, but for larger drawers, they do help maintain square. If you're 1 degree off 90 deg square, you'll have a 0.2 in error for every 12 inches length. That's almost 3/16". Square depends a lot on how square and accurate your cuts were to begin with. Just make sure your diagonals are equal during assembly.

[stoppy]

Talking about making/using right angle jigs reminded me I have Lee Valley right angles, I'll be using them. Thanks for all the tips.

[Cooler]

For shop drawers I used 1/2" and 3/4" plywood bottoms.  If you cut the bottoms square, it should square up the drawer.  In any event, if you use glue, I would take corner to corner measurements, and if they are not equal, than square up that by  using a diagonal clamp.

Diagonal A and B should be equal.  If they are not, then a bar clamp on the longer diagonal can be used to square things up.  When the glue dries it should remain square.

[John Mihich]

I like using those small spring corner clamps - just to hold things together until I get the big clamps on.  Not required but I like being able to let go - especially when I pull the wrong size clamps.