slides wide drawers

I just finished a set of kitchen cabinets. One cabinet has 4 38" wide drawers. Depths vary from 6" to 10". The drawers are about

21.5" deep to fit into a 24" cabinet. I don't expect a heavy load in the drawers; most of it will probably be used to store bulky plastic containers etc... The drawers are made from baltic birch (3/4" front and back - 1/2" on the sides), are dovetailed all the way around, and are 1 1/16" narrower than the European style cabinet opening to allow for .5" slides on the sides.

I planned to use Accuride 3832 HDTR (Heavy Duty Touch Release) slides. However Accuride says the drawers are too wide and will be a problem when the drawer is fully opened. The drawer can move laterally and pull the slide apart.

I'm looking for easy solutions to prevent the lateral movement. The only one I have so far is the X slide under the drawer - similar to what was used in the old barrister bookcases to prevent problems with opening and closing the glass door.

Anybody have any other sliders or ideas to solve the problem? Anybody made wide drawers and found that the lateral motion was not a problem?

Len

Reply to
l-lopez
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SNIP

Look around on this group, searching "drawer slides". For some reason there has been a lot of interest in this subject lately, and a lot of good info has been posted.

It sounds like you have contacted Accuride and received the information on lateral movement. When they advised you against using their slides in this particular application, did you ask for an alternative? They may have something perfect for you.

A 38" drawer is a wide drawer. And if not properly constructed will easily twist when loaded, more so if loaded heavily, even worse if loaded unevenly and allowed to sit.

That being said, I installed a similar slide to the one you posted on an under the oven unit in a kitchen retrofit a while back. It was a

100lb duty rating, full extension drawer that literally comes all the way out of the cabinet. It is loaded with glass cookware of all types as well as some larger casserole pans.

So far no problems.

I bought KV slides, not as sexy as Accuride, but a quality slide. I like them as they give you plenty of places to put in full head screws. I usually drill the slides and put in a couple of extras if I know there will be actual heavy duty use.

The drawer size was 32 wide, 22 deep, and 10" in depth. To keep the drawer from racking (I didn't build the drawer originally) I glued and screwed a piece of highly sanded and painted to match piece of 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" in the center of the drawer box, inside the drawer. It is screwed not only through the drawer bottom, but through the sides as well.

Experience reminded me that the wider the drawer, the increased necessity for accurate installation and need for a stable platform for the drawer. I very carefully installed the slides making sure that the sides were parallel and even in height. More so than normal.

Just as important, I reinforced the cabinet (to minimize any flexing there as well) before completing the installation.

It sounds like you have a pretty good investment in time in this project. I think if I were you, I would make myself a dummy installation (maybe use it for storage somewhere else) piece and test out the slides you are interested in and their installation.

You will be plenty peeved if you spend a lot of time building, fitting, installing, and finishing only to have yourself as well as others notice the drawers don't work well.

As always, just my 0.02.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

wrote

I agree with Robert on the KV's ... probably one of the best slides for the price around.

Have you got enough room to ADD a center mount slide in the middle of the drawer?

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be "flat mounted" in the center and is full extension to boot.

FWIW ...

Reply to
Swingman

You could always use lateral file slides (KV8500 or similar). They're designed to handle wide drawers.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Friesen

I have similar drawers in my kitchen and have installed similar drawers in other kitchens. I do however have my our drawers packed with pots, pans, and lids. I used 100# full extension side mount slides.

You should not have a problem. Additionally last year I built a tall tool chest with 8 or 9 drawers, 22" deep, 40" wide. All have self closing 100# full extension slides. No problems at all and some of these drawers are probably loaded down with 40-50 lbs.

Reply to
Leon

Leon - what kind of bottom did you put in the drawers? Did you put a stiffener in the drawer inside or underneath it? I have never built a drawer that wide (40" ! ) and would be afraid the drawer bottom would sag.

Inquiring minds over here....

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

----- Original Message ----- From: Newsgroups: rec.woodworking Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 11:14 PM Subject: Re: slides wide drawers

Leon - what kind of bottom did you put in the drawers? Did you put a stiffener in the drawer inside or underneath it? I have never built a drawer that wide (40" ! ) and would be afraid the drawer bottom would sag.

Inquiring minds over here....

Robert

Yes, on the Tool Chest I did put in "some" stiffeners. The drawers vary in depth top to bottom and the deeper drawers received stiffeners. The drawer sides are 1/2" Baltic Birch and the bottoms are "dado'ed in" 1/4" plywood. The deeper drawers that will hold more weight, have 2, 1/2" x 3/4" lengths of Ipe Pocket holed on each end. They run from the front to the back of those particular drawers under the plywood bottom and are evenly spaced from one side to the other, basically at 1/3 the width of the drawer intervals. That said, if I removed all the drawers from the chest there would be a large unobstructed cavity. Basically the face frame does not have horizontal dividers between the tops and bottoms of the drawers. Because there are no dividers the drawers are pretty closely situated to one another, bottoms close to the tops. IIRC there is about 1/8" clearance between the top of a drawer and the bottom of the drawer above it. There is "slight sag" on the heavier drawers as the Ipe strips will rub the drawer front directly below. The rub is slight however as the lower drawer always stays shut with no hint of opening when the heavier drawer above it is opened. If both drawers are opened there is no indication that the lower drawer would be dragged shut if the upper drawer is closed. the false fronts on the drawers are the same height as the drawer fronts however are

1" wider than the drawer fronts to conceal the drawer slides on the sides.

On the heavier drawers there is some degree of wobble, one side starts to go in first when fully opened. This is the concern of the OP. The wobble is absolutely a no issue situation with absolutely no hint or fear of the slides separating. There is no wobble at all if you push the drawer closed from the center. You really have to try to make the drawer wobble.

On the kitchen drawers the drawer sides are short and there is a lot of space between the drawer bottoms and tops. I used no stiffeners on those drawers and the bottoms are made of 1/4" plywood also.

Reply to
Leon

Read the above statements as the Ipe was 3/4" thick and I ripped 1/2" wide strips from that board, the width from the bottom of the drawer front and back to the bottom of the plywood bottom. The Ipe strips/stiffeners are approximately 22" long with a single pocket hole on each end that I used a

1" pocket hole screw to attach to the fronts and backs of the drawers.
Reply to
Leon

Thanks for the great explanation. It makes a lot of sense, and now I know why I didn't know what OP was talking about.

Your hint?

Opening from the center. When I stopped to think of your post, I realized that all the really wide drawers I had built that rode on slides were in kitchens. That means all the drawers had center pulls! AHA!

So when the wide kitchen drawers were loaded or unloaded, the opening and closing motion was coming from exactly the center of the drawer, thus no racking or wobble. That's why I hadn't seen that.

When my full extension slides would wobble or have excessive movement, it was always because the drawer needed an adjustment tweak. After that, the wobble went away.

What you said made perfect sense to me. Way to go Leon!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Thanks for the great explanation. It makes a lot of sense, and now I know why I didn't know what OP was talking about.

Well I think that Accuride may have been advising on the side of caution. I think Op was lead to believe that the drawer end of the slide would seperate form the carcus end of the slide if there was any racking. I have never seen this come close to happening providing the slides are a decent quality abd properly mounted.

Your hint?

Opening from the center. When I stopped to think of your post, I realized that all the really wide drawers I had built that rode on slides were in kitchens. That means all the drawers had center pulls! AHA!

So when the wide kitchen drawers were loaded or unloaded, the opening and closing motion was coming from exactly the center of the drawer, thus no racking or wobble. That's why I hadn't seen that.

Our kitchen drawers that are 30" or so inches wide don't have drawer pulls, they hide behind 2 lower cabinet doors. They can be pushed from just about anywhere with out a problem. That still is a pretty wide drawer. Those drawers were make out of 3/4" lumber core. the extra stiffness in the drawer sides may contribute to no wobble plus those drawers with pots and pans are no where near as loaded as my tool chest.

When my full extension slides would wobble or have excessive movement, it was always because the drawer needed an adjustment tweak. After that, the wobble went away.

What you said made perfect sense to me. Way to go Leon!

Robert

Reply to
Leon

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