drawer slides

[Elwood Dowd]

Just because the space is 48" does not mean the drawer has to be that large. I think you would be hard pressed to find a drawer that deep in similar furniture. I would suggest the drawer units to have depths of

10", 24", 30", and 30".

Do you actually need full-extension slides? "Regular" slides work just fine, and are much cheaper. I don't use the full-extension variety without a good reason. Take the extra money and put it into sandpaper and finishing.

Um... probably. But since you have an AOL address you are probably used to that. ;D Seriously, AOL filters a lot of that stuff, though you may notice an increase.

[Dan]

Newbie here. I finished out an attic to make a bedroom. On either side of the new room, I have built-in drawer units that hold 2 columns of 4 drawers each. Since these units follow the pitch of the roof, the bottom 2 drawers in each unit are 48" long; the next ones up are

32"; next, 24"; the top drawers are 10" long. All of the drawers are 30" wide and 6.5" deep, constructed of 1/2" sanded plywood with fir fronts.

I'm confused about drawer slides. I'm pretty sure I'd like full extension slides, but the only 48" slides I could find are really expensive. I have 4 of these 48" drawers, and I'd rather not spend $400-500 on hardware for them. I'm wondering if I can use a shorter slide, say a 28" full extension for the 48" drawers. I know it wouldn't open as much as a 48" slide would, but can it be installed? If so, I could use any helpful tips. I am open to any suggestions.

Thank you,

Dan

p.s. I notice other folks put some phoney characters in their email addresses. Did I screw the pooch by using my real one? Will I be bombarded by spam and viruses?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've not seen the 48" slides, but just think about this: How much potential weight can be put into a 30 x 48 drawer? The slides have to be rather hefty to handle the load when extended fully. Pick up a 48" stick at the end. Now hook that 48" under a 10 pound bag of potatoes. Leverage is a wonderful thing.

I'd either go with a shorter extension or look at another method of handling the drawers that will give good support.

I have a few email addresses. One has never been used to send mail, only to receive it. It gets 20 spams a day on average. I use one at work and post to newsgroups on a regular basis. Never got a single piece of spam at that address. One factor is how easily the random name generators can come up with your address.

[Mike Hide]

why not just build the 48" drawers like normal drawer construction was done with out slides . lightly loaded would be good ,such as sweater storage, remember you don't have to keep potatoes in it....mjh

[Wes Stewart]

|Newbie here. I finished out an attic to make a bedroom. On either |side of the new room, I have built-in drawer units that hold 2 columns |of 4 drawers each. Since these units follow the pitch of the roof, |the bottom 2 drawers in each unit are 48" long; the next ones up are |32"; next, 24"; the top drawers are 10" long. All of the drawers are |30" wide and 6.5" deep, constructed of 1/2" sanded plywood with fir |fronts. | |I'm confused about drawer slides. I'm pretty sure I'd like full |extension slides, but the only 48" slides I could find are really |expensive. I have 4 of these 48" drawers, and I'd rather not spend |$400-500 on hardware for them. I'm wondering if I can use a shorter |slide, say a 28" full extension for the 48" drawers. I know it |wouldn't open as much as a 48" slide would, but can it be installed? |If so, I could use any helpful tips. I am open to any suggestions.

I built a drawer to go into the storage bay under the dinette seat in my travel trailer that is 48" deep. If you are willing to give up another inch in width, (might be too late for you) you can use two sets of slides bolted together to get the full extension. You will likely have to make some custom length screws to join them without interference but it can be done.

You also have to think about drawer loading since at some point there is going to be some significant cantilever.

Otherwise, you can use shorter slides and put up with blindly digging in the back of the drawer.

| |Thank you, | |Dan | |p.s. I notice other folks put some phoney characters in their email |addresses. Did I screw the pooch by using my real one? Will I be |bombarded by spam and viruses?

Yes

[igor]

Very clever!

[Wes Stewart]

|On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 07:52:55 -0700, Wes Stewart wrote: |>

|>I built a drawer to go into the storage bay under the dinette seat in |>my travel trailer that is 48" deep. If you are willing to give up |>another inch in width, (might be too late for you) you can use two |>sets of slides bolted together to get the full extension. You will |>likely have to make some custom length screws to join them without |>interference but it can be done. |>

|Very clever!

Thanks. Poverty is the mother of invention... or something like that [g]

Wes

[mp]

For the bottom drawers you could probably use rollers instead of slides. Dirt cheap too.

[Chris Melanson]

Why not just buy slides that are prebuilt like that and save yourself the headaches. Like the ones in the link.

is a reason why you don't want to build drawers more than 24 inch deep or 30 inch wide. They become to cumbersome first of all and tend to twist while moving them in and out. And also as Ed stated the leverage factor will break the slides. I never understand why people don't just buy the right hardware first of all instead of wasting time and effort to jury rig something that nine out of ten times dose not work the way it is suppose to or not work at all and then end up with more problems than you started with. It is like spending dollars to save a nickels.Anything worth doing is worth doing right in stead of half assed and not being happy with the results.

Chris

"Wes Stewart" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

[Chris Melanson]

Sorry the link just brings you to the home page. this one should work:

[klaatu]

You could put a drawer inside a drawer. On the 48" use a 28" glide and a 20" for the inside drawer. Reverse contents each season.

[klaatu]

Or just put a short box in the back of drawer.

[Dan]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Since the drawers and cabinets are already built, I think I'll go with shorter slides. I that case, I assume the best way to install them would be to center the slides on the drawers. Again, open to guidance and suggestions.

Dan

[George E. Cawthon]

I agree. However if you wax the slides, you don't need to worry much about the loads. The drawers for my tools are considerably smaller, but some carry very hefty loads. I built a chest with drawers the width of a single bed by 20 inches deep for my kid when he was small. He loaded some of those drawer with a lot of weight and never had a problem.

Mike Hide wrote:

[nospambob]

[Wes Stewart]

On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 19:57:30 GMT, "Chris Melanson" rants:

| Why not just buy slides that are prebuilt like that and save yourself |the headaches. Like the ones in the link. |

because those slides aren't what I'm talking about?

Or that I could buy my hardware locally and assemble it in the time it took to download Richelieu's web site info.

|There is a reason why you don't want to build drawers more than 24 inch deep |or 30 inch wide. They become to cumbersome first of all and tend to twist |while moving them in and out. And also as Ed stated the leverage factor will |break the slides.

I didn't know that. Neither does my heavily loaded, 24" wide, 48" deep, 10" high drawer that has bumped around right over the badly sprung axle in my fifth-wheel trailer for over 20K miles. [g]

| I never understand why people don't just buy the right hardware first of |all instead of wasting time and effort to jury rig something that nine out |of ten times dose not work the way it is suppose to or not work at all and |then end up with more problems than you started with. It is like spending |dollars to save a nickels.Anything worth doing is worth doing right in stead |of half assed and not being happy with the results.

Me neither, yes and yes.

[NoOne N Particular]

A 48x30 drawer is pretty big so even with 1/2" plywood bottoms, I would be concerned about the bottoms sagging over time.

Wayne

[George E. Cawthon]

[Bill Thomas]

Several people have wandered about the value of 48 inch deep drawers. I would have used them for storing prints and other artwork and artwork supplies, linens, out of season clothes and blankets. We usually do not see such drawers because they stick out 48 inches from the wall and hence people do not get them; when such drawers do exist they, do not have full extensions so you can get to the back of them.

As for different lengths, full extension slides do exist for all the lengths Dan wants. Dan can use different strengths of slides and hence different price categories depending on the expected weight of the drawer and contents. The 48 inch price sounds like an extra heavy duty slide for an equipment cabinet or file drawer.

Dan wrote:

[Juergen Hannappel]

[...]

If you alredy built the drawers this advice probably comes too late, but if not: You could make just ONE bottom drawer on each side unad not use drawer slides at all but rather put wheels under it and let it ride on the floor, then you can pull it out all the way without problems.