Any reason not to mix pine with cherry?

[Toller]

My cherry cabinet has a 2" face frame. I want to hang some draw slides and will need to put rather thick shims in to support them.

Pine would be an aweful lot cheaper than hardwood; what problems would result? How does the wood movement compare to cherry, with and against grain?

Thanks.

[Toller]

No, the pine would simply hold the drawer slides. The side of the cabinet is 1 1/4" away from the drawer, so I need to put a shim in to attach the drawer slide to.

[Bob S.]

Toller,

If you're thinking of using the "Borg" pine, even the best they have is typically about 12% mc and you'll probably pay more for #1 pine there than you would for some kiln-dried #2 poplar from a local mill or hardwood supplier.

Bob S.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

No, you don't. Lee Valley has a set of extras that hold the slide in the back and another that screws into the face frame. You need 1/2" clearance between the FF and drawer sides. I don't know if they fit all slides, but they did fit the ones I used on my TV stand last week. Ed

[Leonard Lopez]

I thnk pine would be too soft for drawer slides.

Len

Toller wrote:

[Eric Tonks]

As far as I know, such woods have been mixed since the masters created furniture. Pine and other woods have been used in secondary and hidden locations. Personally, I do not like to mix soft and hard woods within a project. It just doesn't seem right according to my way of doing things. I find the expansion rates too different, and screws and other fasteners designed for hardwoods do not hold as well in softwoods and vice-versa. However, I often use poplar or birch as a secondary wood along with other "good" hardwoods.

[Silvan]

Screws and pine don't get along very well, and I'd expect you might have problems over the long haul with the slides wanting to work loose and pull out.

I guess if I were building something, I wouldn't want to go any softer than soft maple for holding screws. It's almost as cheap as poplar, but a lot less squishy.