Drawer Support Frameless Cabinet

[Jan Bianchi]

I'm building frameless cabinets but want to use undermount slides for the drawers. Should the rails for the drawer supports be dadoed and glued and screwed into the side of the case or are good screws sufficient to hold them? If dadoed, is the router the best tool?

[Frank Drew]

Jan,

The combination of dado/glue/screws would certainly be better (i.e. stronger) than simply screwed (or glued and screwed, which I'd probably lean towards), but unless the drawers will be carrying very heavy loads, probably isn't necessary. I'm assuming the case sides are plywood.

A router would probably be easiest if you're doing stopped dados; if you plan to run the dados all the way through and then maybe apply edge banding to the case sides, a table saw with a dado set might be quicker and more accurate.

[Jan Bianchi]

Thanks, Yes, the case is plywood. I think the drawers aren't going to be that heavy--just regular kitchen utensils, so it would certainly be easier to just glue and screw. Since I'm using prefinished plywood for the cases, I assume I would need to scrape the case so the glue has a chance to bond?

[David Giles]

Jan, you could dispense with the rails altogether. Attaching the undermount slides to the case wall with screws, front and back, will be more than sufficient to hold the drawer. I'm not suggesting that you delete the rails, just saying that they do not need to be an integral part of your drawer support system with undermount slides. Use the rails for case construction and overall ridigity. If the drawer fronts are overlay, it is quite easy to dispense with all rails and mount the drawers with a 1/16" gap between the fronts. Blum undermount slides with 3-way adjusters will make this easier than some other slides, at a cost.

[Jamie Buxton]

There's two kinds of slides called undermount. Are you talking Blum Tandems or equivalent? If so, you can simply screw them to the cabinet sides. The screws are sufficient to support the slides and the drawer.

[Jan Bianchi]

Yes, I am talking about Blum Tandems. But I don't like the look of the cabinet without the drawer support/rail, so I think I'll use them anyway. But I'm glad to know they aren't necessary for the weight of the drawers.

[fRED mCnEILL]

Actually, I'm not sure you can even see the cabinet when using Blum undermount. I have 36inch wide drawers that hold dishes(i.e. heavy) and they work quite well. I think the slides are rate for 125 lbs. 6 years old and no problems.

[Bill White]

Pocket screws?
Bill