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I'm building an odd drawer, and I can't use my usual undermount slides. I'm stuck with sidemounts. I bought KV softclose 8405 soft-close slides. The initial pull to get the drawer out of the cabinet is high. Other manufacturers sell similar slides -- Accuride, Fulterer, and a bunch of no-name brands. Does anybody know of a sidemount softclose which doesn't require so much force to pull out?
This has come up several times on various forums and its always seemed the only solution is to ditch the softclose all together. Overcoming the mechanism just gets difficult in certain situations (small/light drawers especially). We are doing a job right right now with long length 8500's and when you add the pull-out force with the less than smooth operation of a side mount as compared to an undermount, it just doesnt feel good. Unfortunately I dont think there is much of a solution. Ive tried stripping the KV slides of all the factory goop and re-lubing with Permatex Superlube and other light weight lubes but cant get them to where I would like. There are just too many balls and other factors at play to get them super slick and I think the envelope of the slide doesnt allow the involved mechanism of an undermount though I dont really see a difference between and undermount and side mount with regards to the pull-out force to release the soft close. Its just that the undermounts are that much smoother getting to and from.