Storage beds and drawers

[Airsource Ltd]

I've just been into Feather and Black looking at a storage bed. Looks very nice and everything, drawers seem robust with dovetail backs and tenoned fronts, but the drawers don't have metal runners - just one flat edge resting on another, so obviously nowhere near as smooth an action as say a kitchen drawer.

Is there any reason why a bed might not use kitchen drawer runners, or is this just being ridiculously cheap on what is certainly not a cheap bed?

Tempted to have a bash at making my own.... (to give it a DIY angle) though it would be far in advance of any woodwork I've done so far - a mason's mitre on a worktop is my limit to date....

Ben

[NT]

It cuts costs. There's also the question of load rating, if you're talking about full depth drawers, kitchen runners wouldnt cut it. There's also the q of how far out you want the draw to come.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

And how much use the drawers hare going to get. A kitchen drawer gets a lot of use and would quickly wear anything that just slid hence the double wheels.

I'm not quite sure what the OP means by "just one flat edge resting on another". Is this the bottom of the drawers sides resting on another bit of timber? If so it's how drawers have been made for donkies years. Decent bit of smooth timber rubbing against each other and lubricated with candle wax works well. Not as friction free as a double wheel runner were the momentum will close a drawer for you after a light push but good enough.

If the bed is as well made as it has been described I don't see it as a problem. I doubt the maker has waxed the surfaces so they will be a bit rough in action.