Personally I don't like the mechanical slides. A properly fitted drawer works as well as and slide, unless you want full extention. The bottom of the drawer should be elevated about 1/16 inch (formica, strip of hard wood, or make the drawer side 1/16 wider than the face). Keep the runners waxed, so that the drawer slides on the wax, and not wood, and the drawer can last indefinately. Another plus is that your drawers will have an extra inch of width. robo hippy
If the dado/runner are close fitting and the back of the drawer is higher then the opening is wide you won't be able to remove the drawer. Or even insert it in the first place :)
The solution is to round over the specified areas with a jig saw, rasp, sander, whatever. Sort of like a rule joint. For example, imagine you are holding the runner in front of you looking at the side of it...left side is the front, right side the back. The front edge is perpendicular to the top and bottom edges. Now round over that bottom left corner so it is more or less quarter round rather than square. Do the same at the top back of the dados.
When you pull the drawer all the way out the too high back will hit the face frame and prevent it from being pulled out. When you let loose of the drawer, its weight will cause the drawer front to drop down a bit; it won't fall because it is supported by the runners; it won't drop very far because the back contacts the face frame. However - because of the radiused runners/dados - you can lift the drawer front above horizontal...doing so pivots the back ...pivoting the back means that its vertical section becomes less than the drawer opening and that means the drawer can be removed.
That's about as detailed as I can get. Can't tell you how much to radius, I just "eyeball it". I make backs about 1/4" higher than the normal clearance; i.e., if you've allowed 1/8" clearance at the top for sides and back then add 1/4" to that. I cut off about 25% of the extra back height adjacent to the sides and round over the proud edges - no reason other than esthetics.
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.