Help with drawer slide installation

[scott vroom]

I'm building some face frame base cabinets for my office and am stumped on how to install the drawer slide hardware where the cabinet side is not flush with the faceframe edge. Do I have to shim out the slides to flush them up to the FF, or do I buy some of these http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware/page.aspx?p=50305&cat=3,43614,43616&ap=2? I want nice quality self closing sliders, and some heavy duty ones for the file drawers. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction...my eyeballs are falling out from Googling and I need some quick relief:o

Thanks-

[Peter Quinn]

Yes, I usually pack out (sort of like shimming, but along the whole length of the side of the case) the case sides to bring them flush to the FF and just treat it like a frameless installation. I generally leave about 1/4" or 3/4" set back from the face frame to the case sides so it can be packed out with sheet stock, but you can also just plane some material to match if the gap isn't the exact thickness of your sheet stock. Its just that simple. Glue and screw your packing material to the case sides, your done!


I have also used blum univerasal mounting clips and rear mounting clips for retrofit applications. KV and accuride make similar clips to mount to the rear for FF applications, but with any of them you need either a solid cleat as an attachment point at the rear or 1/2" backs to screw to, so design for that as required.

[Bill Huber]

I just take some poplar and glue it flash with the frame and the depth of the cabinet, a few screws hold it in place while the glue sets up.

[Lee Schierer]

I make poplar supports that sit on the internal frames to support the drawer slides. I generally plan the width of the face frame so I can fit 3/4" material inside the cabinet along the sides of the drawers to support the drawer slides.

[Robert Malone]

I make poplar supports that sit on the internal frames to support the drawer slides. I generally plan the width of the face frame so I can fit 3/4" material inside the cabinet along the sides of the drawers to support the drawer slides.

I do the same thing as Lee. If that helps!

[Jay Jolliffe]

Same here....I never liked the plastic spacers. Never seemed to be the size I needed & had to cut them down. I like to support the slide the whole length.

[scott vroom]

Guys, thanks for the responses. It looks like poplar shims glued and screwed is the way to go.

Another question: I was checking out the Kreg drawer slider alignment jig. It looks like it's worth the $29 cost....anyone use one of these? It aligns and holds the slide in place with a magnet while you screw the slider into the cabinet....seems like a have-to-have jig.

http://www.mcfeelys.com/product/KR-0400/Kreg-Drawer-Slide-Jig