Slides for Very Small Drawers

[Bob Deroeck]

Hi,

I will be building 8 very small drawers for a bathroom vanity and would appreciate recommendations for drawer slides. The opening for each drawer in the face frame is 9" wide and 5" high. The vanity is about 24" deep. I was planning on making drawers about 20-22" long. Photos of the vanity are shown, below.

I've researched the threads on drawer slides, but most pertain to much larger drawers for kitchen cabinets. One thread did recommend for small drawers using a single side-mount slide, but located on the drawer bottom. The post stated that installing the slide on its side would reduce the load rating to about 35% of the rating if installed vertically, which wouldn't be a problem with such small drawers. Another post suggested using a single, center, bottom mounted wooden slide.

I'd like to use full extension slides, but could live with 3/4 slides, if necessary. The slides will need to tolerate high humidity. So, wood swelling and metal corrosion could be issues.

I'd appreciate all comments and recommendations.

Thanks.


Bob

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[Justin Ludwig]

Side mount full extension will reduce the width of the drawer by 1" outside and 2" inside (if using 1/2" drawer material. If you don't mind side exposed guides, then you have numerous options to choose from: KV, Accuride, Fulterer, Tru-Trac, etc. Given you have inset doors, even with a 1/16" margin, you may see some metal from the side mount guides.

The only time I mount a full extension guide horizontally is on spice rack pullouts and then it's one at the top for left-right adjustment. The bottom of the pull out has a pair of side mounts installed normally.
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[George Bokros]

I am building a vanity now. My drawer openings are 10" wide and 5" high for the two top drawers and I used Blum under mount full extension slices. No loss of drawer width for the slide just the drawer sides and in my case that was 1" (used 1/2" maple for the drawer sides.

Worked well. Wife is happy.

[Bob Grier]

As Lud says, Blum tandem slides will work. They are undermount full extension slides and the standard clips work with drawers 4 3/4" interior width. They make a narrower clip for narrow drawers but the standard will work for you.

[Peter Kelly]

Blum Tandem or Hettich Quadro undermount slides would give you the maximum drawer width. I'd also go with a shorter 16" drawer. A 22"-20" D x 5" W drawer box is going to be really awkward in a bathroom. I can near guarantee that those drawers will not be opened any more than 7"-8" in regular use.

[Jamie Buxton]

There is no free lunch. I use Blum Tandems for darn near everything, but while they don't eat drawer width, they eat drawer height. If you use "quarter inch" plywood drawer bottoms, your 5"-tall drawer opening will net an interior height of 3 3/4" for the drawer. That's okay for some things in a bathroom, but not for others. I would have built the vanity as three drawers tall, not four.

[Lee Schierer]

There are slides that are thinner than the typical 1/2" slides/ Rockler has some that are only 3/8" thick (http://www.rockler.com/mini-ball-bearing-drawer-slides-select-length) and there are other sources as well. Do a google search for miniature drawer slides.