The kitchen island I am finishing is planned to have 2 regular drawers on t= op, side by side. Then 2 large drawers below, 1on top of the other. These= 2 will be 9.5x36x20. My friend was saying he thought that having 36" wide= drawers would be bad as they would get heavy and bind up. He felt I shou= ld split each in half. Thoughts?
Jim
The kitchen island I am finishing is planned to have 2 regular drawers on top, side by side. Then 2 large drawers below, 1on top of the other. These
2 will be 9.5x36x20. My friend was saying he thought that having 36" wide drawers would be bad as they would get heavy and bind up. He felt I should split each in half. Thoughts? ************************************************ Get quality full extension ball bearing slides, and no problems. I have similar drawers and love them.-- Jim in NC
I have heard that they are difficult to install. Is that true?
jtpr wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups. com:
We've got a couple big trays that are close to that size in an island. With the various pans and cooling racks in there, they still slide nicely. They are commercial cabinets, so I have no idea what they used for the slide.
The biggest problem with them (by far) is they're trays and not real drawers. Things get stacked and then fall into the cabinet.
Puckdropper
side by side. Then 2 large drawers below, 1on top of the other. These 2 will be 9.5x36x20. My friend was saying he thought that having 36" wide drawers would be bad as they would get heavy and bind up. He felt I should split each in half. Thoughts?
Properly designed, and properly mounted, that wide a drawer will certainly work, despite a heavy load.
However, unless you have made lots of drawers, you may want to run your drawer building techniques past some eyes that have.
FWIW, here's a MINIMUM design for a 36" width drawer that, with heavy duty slides (like the KV-8800 series), will stand up to heavy duty use and hold at least 100lbs, if not more, that will probably stand up to most kitchen island use:
No matter what, and when making drawers that mount with slides of any kind, decide upon your drawer slides before you design and build your drawers.
With most standard duty, side mounted, full extension drawer slides, the drawer width is usually 1" narrower than the rough opening; with heavy duty, side mounted, full extension drawer slides you can expect the drawer to be 1 1/2" narrower than the rough opening ... double check before building.
No more difficult than any other size drawer using the same type of drawer slides.
The kitchen island I am finishing is planned to have 2 regular drawers on top, side by side. Then 2 large drawers below, 1on top of the other. These
2 will be 9.5x36x20. My friend was saying he thought that having 36" wide drawers would be bad as they would get heavy and bind up. He felt I should split each in half. Thoughts?Jim . Put in 3, 36"wide by 24" deep by 4" tall drawers in my kitchen re-do 20+ years ago. These hold pots and pans and so far they still perform very nicely. I used 100# rated KV full extension slides. I also used 1/4 plywood for bottoms, and again plenty strong. Further I have been doing this ever since, still no problems.
And I've done them with no slides at all - just birch on birch. But if they're going to hold over 50 pounds each I'd also go with the slides or at least a little UHMW over the birch.
For the kitchen I would go with slides but I just built a tool cabinet with drawers made of Baltic birch ply and they run on maple. I put .020 X 3/4 W. UHMW on the Maple. Works "slick". ;-)
Max
I've never built drawers of the width that the OP has in mind, but I imagine that aside from suitable drawer slides, the next most important detail is the incorporation of drawer bottoms with suitable strength and support.
Depends waht you intend putting in them!
In a chest in my bedroom I have a draw which is 24x26x13. The front half has bottles of whiskey, the rear section is full of recording tape on 10" NAB spools. The latter are heavy but the draw slides well enough on 2x1 timber screwed to the sides of the chest.
I've never built drawers of the width that the OP has in mind, but I imagine that aside from suitable drawer slides, the next most important detail is the incorporation of drawer bottoms with suitable strength and support.
That is some thing to consider however when my wife doubted 1/4" plywood in the 24" x 36" drawers I put the drawer on the floor upside down and stood on it. It did bow however I was 2~3 times the weight that the drawers were ever going to see. My drawer sides were constructed of 3/4" lumber core. Drawer dados were 3/8" deep and 1/2" from the bottom.
1/4" bottoms is what I use when I build mine. But, when I build them that wide for someone else I use 1/2" bottoms so there is little chance I will ever get a call back. :)
Nothing wrong with the drawer size. The problem comes, IMO, when you want to get stuff out of them.
Since it is a kitchen, I'm guessing you intend to store pots and pans. They - especially skillets - tend to get stacked one on/in another and little ones sort of get lost. As an alternative, think about installing two shallow (2-4 inch) trays behind a pair of doors...open the doors and you can see and have easy access to everything. That's what I did in our island: two shallow drawers on each side at the top, two pairs of drawers each side below the drawers with two trays behind each pair of drawers. Works well.
The top drawers are for small stuff - spatulas, cooking forks, etc. - and all are divided into compartments with moveable partitions so that you don't have to paw through a mess of stuff to find what you want.
An easy way to compartmentalize drawers is to cut a series of shallow, evenly spaced "V" grooves along each side about 1 - 1 1/2" apart using a saw tilted to 45 degrees; the partitions can then be easily made by sanding/cutting a male "V" on 1/4" ply. Depending on the drawer size, it may be a good idea to add one or more permanent partitions either fore and aft or cross wise or both. Those would also need "V" grooves. If you decide to do this, keep in mind that the grooves need to line up, one side to another, which means you have keep "right & left" in mind when positioning them for cutting.
1/4" bottoms is what I use when I build mine. But, when I build them that wide for someone else I use 1/2" bottoms so there is little chance I will ever get a call back. :)
How is Durrette coming along?
Nobody ever complains when you built something too strong (unless it's a breakaway prop for a movie set).
I tend to run the sagulator and size things accordingly as simply supported shelves. Then any reinforcement adds strength.
Y'mean Tourette? How is that old cuss?
-- Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation. -- Thomas H. Huxley
Only on a small arse
Well, after a design consult with the bride, I have decided to go with 4 dr= awers instead of 2. So there will be six altogether. The top holes in the= face frame are 4" x 16", the 4 bottom ones will be 9 1/2" x 16". =20
Anyway, this being said, the next question is slides. I have gotten a lot = of links to sites for these but none really tell me how they get installed,= at least on the site. I'm sure stuff comes with them. So, at the risk of= taking this thread in another direction I need to ask a simple (for you) q= uestion.
The distance from the front of the face frame to the back of the carcass is= 22 1/2". I want to use undermount soft close heavy duty slides. Blume ha= s 21". How adjustable is the back of these things? Do they adjust at all = or do I get exactly 21" and I need to build the back of the carcass out to = meet them?=20
Again WWYD?
Thanks for all the advice, Jim
drawers instead of 2. So there will be six altogether. The top holes in the face frame are 4" x 16", the 4 bottom ones will be 9 1/2" x 16".
links to sites for these but none really tell me how they get installed, at least on the site. I'm sure stuff comes with them. So, at the risk of taking this thread in another direction I need to ask a simple (for you) question.
1/2". I want to use undermount soft close heavy duty slides. Blume has 21". How adjustable is the back of these things? Do they adjust at all or do I get exactly 21" and I need to build the back of the carcass out to meet them?The size of your drawer slides in that space will depend upon whether you need to use 'rear mounting brackets' that come as accessories to most slides.
You can download installation instructions on most manufacturer's website for the particulars.
With face frame cabinets, if you can attach the drawer slides to the BOTH sides of your DRAWER OPENING using a spacer, you don't need the "rear mounting brackets", thus the maximum length slide you can use in a
22 1/2" depth cabinet would be a 22" drawer slide.Here is how to do that:
CAVEAT: with most undermount drawer slides the drawer WIDTH, the drawer HEIGHT, and the DISTANCE from the drawer bottom to the bottom of the drawer sides are CRITICAL dimensions and decided by the specs for the slide you want to use.
With most undermount drawer slides you also need to drill two shallow holes in the drawer back for the undermount part of the slide to hook into the back of the drawer.
IOW, with drawer slides, and particularly with undermount drawer slides, the drawer MUST be build to exacting specs for the type and brand of drawer slide being used.
Therefore, in this situation it is most important to buy the slides you want to use BEFORE you start building drawers.
This will insure that you build the drawers to the manufacturer's specs for that type of slide; and that you actually are in possession of the slides themselves, as the drawer built for a particular undermount slide will likely not work with other brands and sizes.
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