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View Full Version : Drawer width for side mounted slides


Larry Browning
12-20-2011, 9:12 AM
I am building the NYW router table. It has drawers 3 drawers on the bottom 2 on one side and one large drawer on the other. Divided by a center partition. I missed getting the partition centered by about 1/16" making one side about 1/8" wider than the other. The drawers use side mounted slides. It seems to me that I am going to have to adjust the width of the drawers to match the openings. My question is, how much drawer width tolerance is there using these side mount slides? Common sense tells that that there is not much, but I really don't know.
Todd Burch
12-20-2011, 9:21 AM
Probably depends on the brand. I typically use KV slides, and if I recall correctly, there is +0 and -1/16" tolerance.

Instead of making two different sized drawers, you can make the smaller size and shim the slides out on the wider opening.
Jerome Hanby
12-20-2011, 9:29 AM
Maybe it's just my inherent inaccuracy manifesting, but I now always get the slides installed before I build the drawers. Building the drawers first has always left me with a miserable task of trying to shim and adjust...
Kent A Bathurst
12-20-2011, 9:36 AM
Probably depends on the brand. I typically use KV slides, and if I recall correctly, there is +0 and -1/16" tolerance.

Instead of making two different sized drawers, you can make the smaller size and shim the slides out on the wider opening.

That's what I'd do..........a strip of good 'ol 1/8" masonite down the side of the drawer, behind the slide.
Tom Ewell
12-20-2011, 9:48 AM
you can use washers behind the mounting screws to shim out as well
JohnT Fitzgerald
12-20-2011, 10:00 AM
you can use washers behind the mounting screws to shim out as well

This was my thought. If the drawers have to be the same size, I'd use washers on each side of the wider opening, to bring each slide out just a little.

Since the drawers are different anyways (one large one on one side versus 2 on the other), and the drawer fronts would have to be different widths, is it really necessary that the drawers be the same width?
Larry Browning
12-20-2011, 10:45 AM
is it really necessary that the drawers be the same width?

Not at all, I haven't build the drawers yet. But I think it would be somewhat easier if they were the same width. Less setup changes. I am planning on cutting out and machining all the drawers before assembly.

I think I like the washer shim idea.