Drawer Kickers
2013.07.03
With all the drawer runners in place, I began making the kickers. These are essentially upper drawer runners, and help keep the drawers from tipping as they’re pulled out. I made a scrap block the exact height of the drawer opening, to gauge where the kickers should be located relative to the runners. This also helped me mark how much to plane them down so the top of the kicker would be flush with the top of the aprons and legs.
The nightstand tops will be held down by screws through the kickers. So I marked out for three screws on each, and drilled through holes and countersinks.
As every woodworker should know, solid wood expands and contracts across the grain with changes in relative humidity. The best way to accommodate the movement is with design. Beyond that, there are various methods to allow for movement in cross-grain attachments. I will have such a cross-grain situation with screws going through the drawer kickers into the top. Lee Valley makes a handy reference guide to help calculate how much movement there will likely be. In my case, I did not have to consider the entire width of the nightstand top, only the furthest distance between screws, which was 8″. For simplicity and margin of safety, I assumed the tops were entirely flatsawn. My calculation ended up with about 1/8″ of movement across the 8″, so only around 1/16″ at each screw. To allow for this, I simply distorted the two outer screw holes with my scratch awl, making them roughly oval along the grain of the runner.
I used the scrap block again during glue-up to place the kickers relative to the runners. I slid it back and forth, going for a somewhat snug fit that still allowed the block to be pushed back and forth.
Drawer Runners