Vent: My drawer box glue-up method was a mess for years

Victor Shah · 2026-03-12T20:10:07.615371+00:00

I was building a set of kitchen drawers for a client in Portland, using my usual method of glue and brad nails. The boxes always felt a bit off, never perfectly square. Last month, I watched a video from a guy named Mike Pekovich where he just used glue and a few clamps, no nails at all. Tried it on a test box with some 1/2" Baltic birch. The joint was way tighter and the square was dead on. How do you guys clamp your drawer boxes without them slipping?

ryantorres7mo ago

Glue and brad nails" was my whole life too, man. I spent more time hammering in those little bent nails and cussing than actually building. My boxes looked like a parallelogram collection. Trying Pekovich's clamp-only method felt like cheating, but then the square actually stayed square. Now I just use some corner blocks and a strap clamp, and it's almost boring how well it works.

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susan_wright347mo ago

Yeah, @ryantorres, boring works.

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adamk957mo ago

Honestly, it's just a drawer box. If it holds socks and slides in and out, the client will never know if it's a perfect square. My old nail gun boxes have held up for a decade.

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