Anyone use these soft close drawer adapters?

[OFWW]

Was it Baltic birch? Not the three ply stuff?

I'm surprised with a shot like that, that she or whoever, didn't use something other than a camera while they had the opportunity. ;)

[nailshooter41]

You are correct, sir. Check it out:

d07af0.jpg.html

That is a 30" drawer (plus or minus) that is about 12" deep. You can see t he 2x2 crossbar I glued/screwed in the middle. It did two things.

First, you can see the black screw through the side holding it in place. T his allowed me to push the sagging bottom back up, screw it to the 2x2, and glue it all together. It tightened up the drawer a whole lot, too.

Next, the "stuff" she put in the drawer could now sit on the crossbar inste ad of being on the thin bottom with no other support. Her glass casserole pans and some other Pyrex ware sit on the edge of the bottom next to the fr ont or back that is dadoed into the sides, then lay across the 2x2.

I sprayed it all out with enamel when I second coated the drawer fronts and it looked like original equipment.

Although that repair was several years ago, I still see that client for all kinds of maintenance. Last year she let me look around at her kitchen whe n I was there for some work, and that drawer is as stout as the day I put i t in. It is probably carrying about 60lbs of "stuff" now, and will easily extend all the way out with no binding or wobble.

I like that line of slides. I actually used them the first time many years ago to rehab a shop built (not mine) wide body file cabinet in an office. I positioned them differently, but they worked just as well. Good stuff.

Robert

[Leon]

No, just common 1/4 cabinet quality birch plywood, probably 3 ply. I place my drawer bottoms in groves on all 4 sides. That gives the bottom significantly more support than the typical method of sliding the bottom in under the drawer back and fixing with a few screws or brads. Plus those particular drawer sides, front, and back were made from 3/4" thick lumbercore and the groves for the bottoms were 3/8" deep.

And much more difficult to repair if the bottom fails and needs to be replaced. But I have almost always built drawers this way and none have failed, that I know of. Now I did build about 30-40 drawers for some bathroom cabinets for Swingman in 2011. His specs called for the bottoms to be slid in under the back of the drawer and fixed in place. Those drawers did however have 1/2 thick maple veneer plywood bottoms.

:-0 O. M. G.

[OFWW]

For some reason I thought the drawer bottom should be enclosed on all four sides.

Is there a minimum height above the bottom for the groove? In solid sided drawers I used 1/4" with a 1/4" x 1/4' groove when replacing drawers in my grand kids chest of drawers. They had 1/2" sides.

It would seem to me that a 3/8 grove should have a 1/2" space between it and the bottom of the sides, ends? Or is that excessive?

Were the drawers used as compartmental/bunk beds in an orphanage? :)

[Leon]

LOL, It is for me, I build them like I would a box.

That is a good amount to go with. I basically have my 1/4" drawer bottom "top side" 1/2" from the bottom of the sides. In real world reality the bottom side of the bottom ends up being a bit over 1/4 from the bottom of the sides as the plywood is narrower than 1/4" and I fit the slots to match the actual thickness of the plywood bottom.

It is all dependent on what you expect to put in the drawer and if you expect the bottom to bow from the weight. On my wide kitchen drawers that holds pots and pans I expected the plywood bottom to bow somewhat at times. I probably cut the groove 1/2 to 3/4" from the bottom.

I can't really allow too much but can certainly not allow enough.

no.. ~) Those were drawers built to last in to the next, next millennium. The sides were solid 3/4" maple.

[dpb]

On 02/13/2016 9:03 AM, Leon wrote: ...

That way is, of course, very typical furniture drawer construction and in a lot of commercial cabinetry.

For heavier or larger kitchen drawers I don't think it matters terribly if one uses at least 3/8" instead of 1/4" ply or the more costly and labor intensive solid stock.

It generally has not been the bottom pulling away from the rear side that is the failure observed in my experience but the thin ply itself just isn't stiff enough and so bows excessively w/ time. This is only exacerbated by the thinner material available now and by more than just the relatively thickness as bending moments are ~bh^3 where the thickness is the height, h. Hence, a 64th short on a quarter isn't just

7/8 ~ 90% as stiff but (7/8}^3 or only 2/3-rds!

[dpb]

On 02/13/2016 11:44 AM, dpb wrote: ...

I knew that seemed too bad even as I sent it...it's

Still, you lose more than just proportional which can be significant for wide, deep drawers.

[Swingman]

Why I do this to the bottom of wider drawers (you can see the supports in the bottom of the drawer next to the one in the foreground.

Just cut them from drawer side scraps.

[J. Clarke]

hauler.

Is the drawer bottom supported on all four sides? The problem that usually happens with a too-light drawer bottom in the usual design where it slides in from the back and is only supported on three sides is that it bows and then slips out of the dadoes on the sides. Turning the drawr upside down and standing on it doesn't offer that failure mode.

[Leon]

Yes! the drawer bottom is supported on all four sides on the bottom. I only turned it upside down so that when I stood on the bottom that it did not bottom out against the floor. Upside down gave the plywood more room to flex.

[Swingman]

I use either 1/4" crown staples, or appropriately sized screws and washers, or both on wider drawers, into the bottom edge of the drawer back to mitigate that greatly

If you need more, simple to screw a support across the same area.

Easily replaceable drawer bottoms can be thought of as a "feature", and will stand the test of time if executed properly, and it's easy to do that.