Drawer slide recommendation...

[Steve Wurster]

I'm going to be building some drawers for an office built-in. The space for each drawer is about 22" square, so the drawers will be slightly smaller in width, while I can do the full 22" in depth. The height will be a little over 10". These will primarily be used to hold hanging file folders.

Is it okay if I go with typical 100 pound rated, full-opening, soft-close drawer slides for this, or should I go with something even more heavy duty? I'm not sure how much a fully loaded drawer will weigh, but it's probably fairly heavy. If you have any recommendations on slide brand, please provide that as well.

Note that I haven't yet settled on the material to use for the drawers. I was going back and forth between use 3/4" material (which would probably be plywood), or 5/8" solid stock. The assembly will be done with screws because it's easy and because there will be a larger overlay front attached to each drawer.

[Dave Zellers]

Remember that the drawer weight itself needs to be included in the 100 lbs.

If that drawer was fully loaded you might be too heavy.

[peter gagliardi]

Those are small enough that you can use the Blum under mounts. The standard duty may work, but they offer a heavy duty version that should be well up to the task.
I wouldn't entertain any other brand of undermount though. 15+ years of kitchens and other projects, and not a single callback!!

[Mark W Pugh]

Blumotion 21" undermounts http://ahturf.com/store/index.php?route=common/home

[scott vroom]

Regular Tandem 563H 21" undermounts are sufficient for the file drawers you described. I've used the Tandem 100Lb undermounts on double wide file drawers without a problem (so far). I think their 100 lb weight limit is sandbagged. Of course now that I've said that, I'll probably hear from the customer tomorrow that the slides broke. :D

[Fred Heenie]

Multiply the cubic volume of the drawer in inches and multiply by 0.01786, the approximate weight of paper to determine the capacity of the drawer. Then you can apply a slide of the proper capacity to the application. Another test is BIFMA would want a drawer of that size rated at 105 pounds.

HTH

[Steve Wurster]

I've never used undermount slides. I'm not sure I have the clearance for them given the required height of the drawer in order to hold the hanging file folders and the vertical limit I have in the cabinet.

Does anyone know of any side-mount models I could use instead?

[Bill Orbine]

Side mount: Accuride 3832 is the most popular. 3834 has the over travel. There's the 4034 and the 7432.

I tend to avoid the self closing feature because it breaks after time.

[Moses Yoder]

The Knape & Vogt 8505 is also a good choice.

[Tom M King]

KV 8505. I've had some in the house that have been pulled off of other projects, and now serving in their third spot, that get used every day. Some of them are 30 to 35 years old. I've never had one to wear out, and they still slide out easily, and go home with a nudge of a knee. I've used plenty of the undermounts building cabinets where it's more important to look good with the drawer out, but for something that's purely functional, I'll take the KV 8505's. They come in all sorts of lengths, rated at 150, and full extension.

[Paul Murphy]

paper = 75 lb/cubic ft [hardwood ranges from 38 to 51 lb per cubic foot]
http://www.reade.com/Particle_Briefings/spec_gra2.html
[8.5 x 14 x L x 75 lb/cubic ft] / [1728 cubic in/cubic ft] = weight

Heavy duty undermounts would work if you had ~ 12-1/2" drawer height
as the undermounts take 1-1/6" under the bottom of the drawer.

A hanging file folder with label holder is just under 10" height,
so if it were me I would design an opening ~11-1/2" high even for sidemount slides.
The reason for the height is the drawer bottom is ~1/2" thick,
and at the top you should leave space to avoid the "playing card in the bicycle spokes" syndrome
when the hanging folders are filled with all the stuff that ends sticking out the top.

[scott vroom]

I've never used undermount slides. I'm not sure I have the clearance for them given the required height of the drawer in order to hold the hanging file folders and the vertical limit I have in the cabinet.

Here's what I spec for file drawers using Tandem undermounts:

From bottom of faceframe.....

9/16" clearance from bottom FF to drawer side bottom
+ 1/2" drawer bottom recess
+ 1/4" ply drawer bottom
+ 1/4" clearance from drawer bottom to hanging file bottom
+ 9 3/8" hanging folder height
+ 1 1/16" folder tab clearance
= 12" tall FF opening minimum

It's a matter of personal preference, but I prefer not to see the sliding hardware when opening any drawer including office files.

[Steve Wurster]

Given Paul's calculation (which I verified at another site), I might have to step up to something like the KV 8900s. They are a lot more expensive and they take up more room horizontally, but space isn't an issue and I can deal with the price increase. At least I know I won't have to worry about the weight.

I'm limited in height to just over 11" due to the size of the cabinets that will hold these drawers. Slightly more than 10.5" on the inside should be fine, especially when I compare against a cheap commercial unit that has slightly less than that available.

[Paul Murphy]

If you really want to get fancy, recess your side-mount slides as Darrell Peart does [1-1/16" drawer sides]:
http://www.furnituremaker.com/Work_in_Progress/Media_cabinet%20_construction.htm
It's a bit more work, what with the fabricated file hanging bracket, but that is the nicest side-mount slide integration I've seen yet.

[Dave Kirby]

Why do you think you should use 3/4 plywood? Most of the weight will already be in the drawer box before you even put anything in it? Wouldn't 1/2" plywood work? You could even use 1/2" ply for the bottom as well to boost the strength. I'd go with the side mount Accuride full extension slides that have been mentioned a few times in here. Those are the ticket for supporting that kind of weight. They take a lot of abuse without fail.