Drawer Slide Install

[Matthew Voss]

Good morning-

I won a bid to reface a kitchen. The client wants to replace the base cabinet doors with drawers. These are face frame cabs with partial overlay doors. One particular box is almost 36" deep and with the countertop this seems to pose the biggest challenge.

I have the Mepla installation jig and I'm thinking a right angle driver is the only feasible way. Are there any other practical options?

Thanks in advance.

[Ben Grunow]

Not sure what jig you have but I know predrilling the slide holes in the cab sides is the only way to go. I made a jig from a scrap of plywood for my blum slides and it made all the difference in thw world. Use a flashlight when isntalling too. Some pillows to lay dont hurt either.

[Jamie Buxton]

I don't know why you'd need a right-angle driver, unless you have very narrow drawers. You can stick a normal drill inside the cabinet and drill sideways.

An issue with a drawer which is 36" deep is that the slides get pricy. For instance, from one of my suppliers Accuride side-mount full-extension slides cost $19 per pair for 22" length, and over $150 for 30". Maybe you want to use the 22" full-extension slide, and effectively have a 3/4-extension drawer.

[Paul Simmel]

Mat,

Just mt thinking on this one...

If the face frames ore not flush with the inside panels, you just may have a perfect solution. The slides would have to be shimmed out anyway, so you could cut your filler stock to exact dimensions for each slide... mount the slides to the filler stock/ply strips, and use construction adhesive and brads (with pre-cut templates to space the heights) for each side. So long as you mount the slides in exactly the same position on each filler, you'd get it exact.

Id' do it this way, anyway. And even if the FF's are flush, I'd still use 3/16" ply "fillers" in the exact same way, only with short screws just to hold the slides. Then, after everything is in place (and glue is set up), I'd drive a few longer screws. You'd only loose 3/8" of drawer width, and those slides will never move or come out.

The though of trying to mount slides into a previous install drives me nuts! (smile)