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Kevin Perez
11-30-2015, 5:48 PM
I am building a shaker style, cherry nightstand for my wife and have a question about drawer slides. I know I can go the traditional route and make it all wood, but my wife really likes the soft close slides she has seen in other cabinets. So, I was thinking of using some sort of undermount, soft close slides on this project. (I want the dovetails and drawer sides to be unobstructed.) The design calls for an inset drawer face rather than an overlay. Will this make a difference? Any recommendations on this? Am I making a mistake? Thanks!

Dave Richards
11-30-2015, 5:59 PM
It seems to me that using drawer slides like that would reduce the available depth of the drawer too much. Of course maybe I'm picturing the wrong sort of Shaker style nightstand. Have you got a picture of the piece?

glenn bradley
11-30-2015, 6:32 PM
Agree that a look at the style/design would help. My nightstand drawers get used so seldom I just went with wooden glides and grooves in the drawer sides despite using full extension glides on my more frequently used dressers and such for the bedroom. They certainly make things like Blum's Tandem Blumotion from 9" up so obtaining them is not an issue. You do need to make the drawer box compatible . . . that is, don't make your drawer box and then expect an undermount to just fit ;-)

Kevin Perez
12-01-2015, 12:53 PM
The piece will look similar to this, but will be deeper than it is wide due to space concerns where it needs to go.
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Shawn Pixley
12-01-2015, 3:21 PM
Kevin,

It certainly can be done. But you will need to design it fresh. The glides will need space for your drawer to be inset so as Glenn said, "you'll need to design the drawer to fit and you will lose drawer depth (vertical) accordingly". For the table itself, you will need to adapt the internal structure to support the glides at the rear and at the bottom rail under the drawer.

My thoughts:
1 Pick out your drawer guides first (do the research to understand what clearances they require) and the bottom thickness needed. You will be raising the center of gravity as well. So think stability especially if you go for full extension glides.
2 If the drawer depth with the glides (but existing proportions) is inadequate, then the aprons and rails need to be adjusted (be sure you like the new proportions)
3 Figure out how you want to support the drawer glides from the table (in the X, Y, & Z dimensions). You need this to be able to redesign and then build your drawer.
4 Determine whether you will use a drawer stop or just depend upon the glides.

Dave Richards
12-01-2015, 3:52 PM
A traditional drawer in a table like that is such a simple arrangement, it seems a shame to make it more complex with metal drawer glides. and to get a useful drawer depth, you'll probably need to add at least an inch if not more to the drawer height.

Kevin Perez
12-01-2015, 7:15 PM
Thanks. I am torn about whether to go metal or not. My experience with traditional drawers is with store bought or inherited, crappy furniture; the drawers never worked smoothly, would get stuck when being pushed back in, and would tilt way down when extended. I've never done an all wood drawer before, and thus have some fears about it not working well. Maybe I should just go for it, though.

Dave Richards
12-01-2015, 7:41 PM
I think you should. With properly fitted drawer, kickers and guides, it should work very smoothly.

FWIW, here's a detail from a table (https://flic.kr/p/AMuRQX) with similar construction to the one you are making. The runner at the bottom are glued to the side aprons so they are flush with the top of the bottom front rail. The guides are flush with the inside face of the legs and the kickers are flush with the bottom face of the top rail. Both the guides and kickers are glued to the side aprons as well. And you'll need something to attach the top to. The kickers will be perfect for that.