Blum TandemBox drawers

[Molly Hart]

We are making our own fronts, but used IKEA kitchen cabinets for most of our new kitchen, mostly because we really like the IKEA branded Blumotion TandemBox drawers. We plan to build some 18" deep tall cabinets with drawers in the bottom, but IKEA's drawers won't work in this depth. I know we can have wooden drawers built that will work just fine here, but I also figure we can assemble the Blum TandemBox drawers just as easily as we did the IKEA brand drawers (several of which we modified to fit our needs.)

Does anyone know of a retailer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that sells the Blum components? How about an online seller? Does anyone have a general idea of cost? We would be ordering assembled wooden drawers, not making them, so that's the cost we're comparing to.

[Lars Thomas]

Molly, while not enoough for a kitchen, I have two for sale in the classifieds section.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=52539

[Pete Brown]

Woodworker's hardware

http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/groupid/Cabinet%20Drawer%20Slides

Out of curiosity, what did the IKEA brand tandembox have above and beyond the standard tandembox?

Pete

[Glenn Clabo]

A little confused about your question...are you asking for this? I just ordered some other drawer slides...but this is their Blum page...good company...
http://www.woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=134-930

[Molly Hart]

Thanks, Lars - I'll take a look.

Pete, sorry I wasn't more clear. It's just that the IKEA with Blum components are so much better than most other premade cabinetry. And a lot of the other lines are 5 to 15 times more expensive, even than some of the nice solid wood front selections from IKEA.

I think that the IKEA drawers probably cost a lot less than the standard Blum TandemBox as they have huge economies of scale - guess I'll be finding out shortly, as I've located a local Blum retailer.

Actually I've heard that the IKEA/BLUM components aren't made of quite as thick a metal as the standard TandemBox. But since I'll probably only be in this kitchen for another 40 years, they're good enough for me!

I did consider a totally custom made kitchen. One shop told me that Blumotion drawers would be a $50 upcharge!! That seemed way too high to me. I suspect there was a huge "I really don't want to do this" factor in that price quote. I couldn't afford the cabinetmakers whose work really impressed me - especially when costs in the rest of the new house had spiraled out of control.

[Molly Hart]

Glenn - Thanks. I've heard lots of good things about Woodworkers, so I'll definitely do a price comparison there. I have found a local dealer as well.

[Pete Brown]

I did consider a totally custom made kitchen. One shop told me that Blumotion drawers would be a $50 upcharge!! That seemed way too high to me. I suspect there was a huge "I really don't want to do this" factor in that price quote. I couldn't afford the cabinetmakers whose work really impressed me - especially when costs in the rest of the new house had spiraled out of control.

The really good Blum Tandem with Blumotion slides (http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Drawer%20Slides/CatID/Blum%26%230174%3B%20Tandem%20Undermount%20Drawer%2 0Slides/SubCatID/Tandem%20Slides%20with%20Integrated%20Blumotion) (not Tandembox, there's a difference in implementation) cost between 30 and 50 more per drawer than run of the mill epoxy-coated drawer slides (http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Drawer%20Slides/CatID/Drawer%20Slides%2C%20Epoxy%20Coated%20Roller%20Bea ring/SubCatID/Blum%26%230174%3B%203%2F4%20Extension%20Epoxy%20Co ated%20Slides). They also take more to install as they require the bottom of the drawer to have a non-standard 1/2" clearance, and be notched and bored in the back, and have a special lock (usually supplied at extra cost from Blum) installed in the front underside of the drawer. That is all extra cost, work and setup for the people making the drawers.

I definitely think the $50 upcharge for Tandem Blumotion is reasonable.

I'm outfitting my entire kitchen from scratch and the concealed Tandem Blumotion slides are definitely a large part of the cost. They sure are nice, though :) I had CCF Industries (http://www.ccfdrawers.com/products.html) manufacture all my drawer boxes using 5/8" dovetailed solid maple with 1/4" maple plywood bottoms. They do the notching and boring themselves - I just supply the drawer fronts and the actual cabinets (also custom-made). CCF also supplied the drawer slides at a really good price.

Pete

[luc gendron]

Give www.hardwareattic.ca (http://www.hardwareattic.ca) a try. I order from them all the time. Very quick and cheap shipping. (20$ max for orders above 100$) Prices are in Canadian funds (thus US residents save on exchange rate and no taxes!)