? another question about drawer slides

[CC]

Is there a reason the drawer slides ( accuride type ball bearing slides) are attached to the middle of the drawer sides instead of the bottom. Is this a personal preference or a load bearing issue? Maybe a carry over from methods when using wooden slides? Looks to me like it would be a lot easier to align the drawers by placing the slides on the bottom of the sides. Most woodworking shows and the books I have looked at show them placed in the middle. I have not built any drawers yet but am getting ready to make some soon. Any information on the placing of the slide portion to get correct alignment would be appreciated too Thanks CC

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[Tom Watson]

The center position works better in a shop that uses line boring equipment as part of their 32mm work. For small shops that don't use the production equipment it really doesn't matter.

I prefer using the bottom mount, because I usually dovetail the drawers and want to see as much of the result as possible (without recourse to the more expensive undermount slides).

Accuride used to have a template available for downloading from their website.

[Chris Melanson]

Like Tom said it is more personal preference than any thing. I prefer the middle mount route as I find it easier to position the drawers themselves. If I may add something about full extension slides. On the drawer side hardware put the slide 3/32 back from the front of your drawer and your cabinet side hardware flush with the face of your cabinet.You will find that your drawer closes better and your gap between the carcass and your drawer front is already set also you will no longer require bumpers for stops. You will also have a nice quality solid feel when you close your drawers because the slides already have a bumper built into them at the rear of the cabinet side hardware.

CHRIS

[bridger]

I put the bottom edge of the glide flush with the bottom edge of the drawer. just seems easiest for me....

[Leon]

I prefer to mount the slide on the bottom of the drawer as it is much quicker to set the slide and drawer on a flat surface and use the surface for alignment. Placing the slide any where else on the side requires a jig or a tape measure. If you do use the bottom of the drawer however you need to allow for the drawer to be shorter for those instances when the drawer height is close to the opening height as the bottom mounted slide will lift the drawer off the opening bottom 1/4" or more.

Keep in mind also that bottom mounting may situate the mounting screws such that they go in to the drawer bottom dado and may not hold as well. Caution should be used when determining the location of the drawer bottom.

[CC]

Thanks for all the information from everyone that replied. Looks like it is a matter of personal preference, but Leon mentioned to be careful the screws on the drawer mount slide do not go into the dado at the bottom of the side rails for the drawer bottom. I had not thought of that and will watch for it. CC

[Mark & Juanita]

On the drawers I have built, I make the dado slightly higher in order to allow the screws to engage the wood without going through the dado. I put the dado 3/8" above the bottom and used 3/8" long screws (the slide provides the margin. Downside is you do lose some interior volume.

[Mark]

I'm a sick puppy. I like making more work for myself.

I have a set of drawers I need to make as wide as possible in a 24" deep hole.

I'm using 3/4 poplar for sides with a 3/8 dado in which to recess the slides and appropriate relief (if needed) routed in for the unlatching levers. The 1/8 the slide would protrude from the drawer side would be for gap between the cabinet stile and flush face. I figure a 24" hole, 22" slide and 20" (or 18") drawer will allow a sufficient setback from the front to not interfere with the visual of the dovetail fronts, to get acceptable extension and use the built in stops for the flush faces.

Why do I hurt myself like this? The cabinets themselves are unnecessarily complicated. And getting worse.

[Chris Melanson]

Why don't you just use under mount full extension slides???????????

CHRIS

[Mark]

Because the slide would extend into the drawer below it except for the bottom drawer. It's slide would be recessed into the 3/4 inch ply base.

In reference to:

[Chris Melanson]

unnecessarily

[Mark]

Chris.

I'll be looking into these.