drawer slides: side to side play normal?

[adrian]

I'm making a file cabinet and I installed the first drawer using Accuride 4043 drawer slides. These are a type with the rails that ride on top of other rails so the whole slide is about 3 inches wide. After installation, I found that it seems to work fine, but the drawer will shift from side to side by about 3/16". I'm concerned that this will be a problem because I'm doing inset drawers and have cut the drawer fronts 5/64" narrower than the opening. The user will be able to shift the drawer over far enough that the drawer front hits the frame.

Is this amount of side to side play normal? Other "light duty" sides I have around the house don't seem to do this.

[Swingman]

Not unusual, but may be excessive for your application and, IME, can be amplified by errors in the drawer opening width.

You will want to try shimming the drawer slides, on one or both sides, to see if you can remove some of this slop.

[adrian]

Can I expect to get the side to side play down below 5/64", or is some play unavoidable?

How would you suggest shimming? (Washers? Piece of veneer?)

[Swingman]

Out of necessity there must be some side-to-side play. I wouldn't obsess with it, however. Do what you can within reason, and and what makes you feel better, and you will find that your inset drawers are going to work just fine. :)

All of the above ... IOW, whatever will do the job. When I get in a bind in a kitchen install, the construction site dumpster generally has something ... packaging cardboard/plastic, pieces of shims, anything that will get the job done ... permanently, so you won't have to come back.

[adrian]

You think they would work fine if I don't shim at all? I mean, the main reason I'm worried about it is that I don't want the drawers to slam into the drawer frame when the users (like my 4 year old) close the drawer.

[Lee Michaels]

"Swingman" wrote

Exactly.

While working on my porch modificaions for an elderly couple, I needed some shims. I ventured into that tomb of a garage with at least 40 years of accumulated junk and found something that worked.

Both my grandfathers and my father were great scroungers and recyclers. I remember all of them telling me to go find something that works. No matter the problem, go find something that works. That is a lesson that has stuck with me my whole life. Not all solutions come in a mass manufactured package at the big box store.

[Neil Brooks]

UHMW tape comes to mind. Could you do that?

[Swingman]

Try some minor shimming and see how it works. Doesn't take a second to just loosen up a cabinet side slide and stick a piece of cardboard behind it and tighten the screws.

It it doesn't bind the drawer, and you gain something, go with it, or try doing it to the other side also ... tweaking drawers to go in and out of a opening is a trial and error endeavor regardless of what slides you use, or don't use.

Make it a source of satisfaction that you've "tweaked it to the max"! :)

[Steve Turner]

I was taught the same thing, and I'll spend hours massaging something I found in the garage to fit the need at hand before I'll make the four mile drive to Lowe's Depot to get the exact thing I need. Of course, I've been burned so many times by the Borg NOT having the exact thing I need that I can hardly blame myself. :-)