Guys - I'm in a quandry

[Fred Voorhees]

I am about ready to build all new kitchen cabinets for my home....and I had planned to use drawer slides from Rockler...either Accuride or CenterLines...with either a soft close or self close features. The price is not scaring me away from these....it's the reviews on some of them that is giving me pause. From what I understand, there is very little tolerance when it comes to the width of the drawer and the opening of the face frames on the cabinets. Apparently you need a half inch on each side and from what I read...any deviation from the half inch means binding and rough operation of the drawers. I am sure that some of you must have gone through the installation of these particular slides in the past and I am asking for your views on the installation and how difficult/easy it was and if there was much tolerance in the widths of the drawers as opposed to the face frame openings for the drawers. My wife would be perfectly happy with the cheaper and quite honestly, much easier slides that use the rollers on each side of the face frame and the single down the middle of the opening front to back track that guides the single nylon wheel mounted to the back of the drawer carcass. But I wanted to give her a dream kitchen with the fancy closing drawers and if at all possible, that is what I would like to do...but these review horror stories are causing me to rethink my plans. Any thoughts?

[Randy Henry]

I just finished our new kitchen, made everything myself, except the crown molding. About 50 raised panel doors, and 25 drawers (some are pullout shelves behind doors). I could have sub'd out the doors/drawers, but I had the wood, and spent all this money on a 5hp shaper, and a Leigh d.t. jig, and all the other machines to do it myself. With the money you will save doing it yourself, you can upgrade the slides to the Blum tandem, with Blumotion. They are easy to install, if you keep everything square. The new ones have 4 adjustment points that allow for a little tuning in case something is out of whack. I bought the rear jig from Blum, and wasted $50..once you cut the notch, set the slide on the bottom of the drawer, tap the prong lightly with a mallet to mark the hole, and drill a 1/4" hole, halfway through the back of the drawer. Then make a jig off that first one. The written instructions are over complicated. Just do a Youtube search on them, and there are several videos of how to install them.

[John TenEyck]

As much as I like Rockler's, they are not the economical choice for buying drawer slides. Blum is arguably the top of the heap, and you can buy them much cheaper on-line from other suppliers. PM if you want to know the cheapest source I've found. KV's soft close also are very nice. Both Blum's and KV's website is excellent, and both have very clear instructions on sizing the drawer box to the cabinet opening. It's really not very hard. You MUST build the drawer boxes to very closer tolerances, but if you're not up for that you probably shouldn't be making the cabinets either. Sorry if that comes across harsh; it's just a statement of fact.

Build the cabinets first, then size the drawer boxes based on the actual measurements of the openings. You'll be fine - and your wife will love those smooth, soft closing drawers.

John

[Matt Meiser]

Try Woodworker's Hardware or A&H Turf for much better pricing on slide.

I have absolutely no regrets buying Blum Tandem's in our kitchen. Blum 3/4 extensions in my parents' kitchen are a different story.

[Fred Voorhees]

As much as I like Rockler's, they are not the economical choice for buying drawer slides. Blum is arguably the top of the heap, and you can buy them much cheaper on-line from other suppliers. PM if you want to know the cheapest source I've found. KV's soft close also are very nice. Both Blum's and KV's website is excellent, and both have very clear instructions on sizing the drawer box to the cabinet opening. It's really not very hard. You MUST build the drawer boxes to very closer tolerances, but if you're not up for that you probably shouldn't be making the cabinets either. Sorry if that comes across harsh; it's just a statement of fact.

Build the cabinets first, then size the drawer boxes based on the actual measurements of the openings. You'll be fine - and your wife will love those smooth, soft closing drawers.

John

John.....no harsh feelings here. In fact...I was just thinking...I intend on using my Leigh dovetail jig for making half blind dovetails at the front of the drawer carcass and honestly...I usually leave like a sixteenth of an inch or less more than the depth of the dovetail so if I factor that into the equation...and make the front of the box that much oversized, by the time I sand the thing down smooth...it should not be much of a problem to hit my marks.

[Bill McNiel]

Fred,
I fully reccomend the Hettich Quadro soft closing undermount drawer slides. A few years ago I did considerable research into "fancy" drawer slides and found an article in FWW May/June 2008 where they performed a rather comprehensive comparison and review. The article includes straightforward info on how to build the cabinet and drawers for a variety of styles (flush, overlay etc.). The Hettich slides are virtually equal to Blum et all at about half the cost. I have used them on several commissions with favorable results. If you want to PM me I will send you the article (I'm just not computer savy enough to include it here.

BTW- Definately build the cabinets first and then the drawers. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

[Loren Woirhaye]

You just need to get your stops dialed in. There's a little play and room for variation with the slides, like 1/32" each. Decide if you're going to make your drawers and fit your cases to them or vise versa. That way you're not flying blind with a cutlist for the whole job, taking a gamble that the drawers will fit. If you're going to dovetail the drawers, I recommend making them first. I don't think dovetailing is needed with modern ball bearing slides personally. I usually rabbet, glue and nail.

[john lawson]

X 2 on the Blumotion

[Bill McNiel]

fred - did you get the email with the article?

[Yonak Hawkins]

Fred, I have installed lots of Accuride slides. It takes a little time but it's not too difficult. There's not a lot of leeway in the 1/2", like Loren says, maybe 1/32" (it's best if you're spot on), but I make my drawers a little bit extra wide and cut a dado in the sides for the slides. That, not only, adds a little extra width for the drawers but gives an additional location for depth control. My drawer sides are 19/32" thick with a 5/16" deep dado and 3/16" gap between the drawer side and the opening.

[Jery Madigan]

The Blumotion slides folks are talking about are the 563H model.

[Peter Quinn]

Blum tandem undermounts with blumotion....very forgiving, smooth reliable performance, tolerances not required quite as tight as with accurides. I've installed a few accurides.......case is a little out of square.....very little, or drawers aren't perfect, here comes the binding, out comes the shims, thus starts the pain. Grass and KV are two others to look at but blum has been used in every shop I've been, so that's my go to.

[Rick Potter]

I am using KV 8450's, soft close, in my new kitchen. No experience with Blum tandems. If you want easy, and the wife is ok with 3/4 opening, the Blum white epoxy coated slides that fit on the sides are really easy to install. Used them in my last kitchen, 15 years and counting. Would have saved a bundle and used them again, but she wanted full extension this time.

Rick Potter

[Mike Hollingsworth]

All methods of good drawer construction require tight tolerances.

[Mike Goetzke]

Fred,
I fully reccomend the Hettich Quadro soft closing undermount drawer slides. A few years ago I did considerable research into "fancy" drawer slides and found an article in FWW May/June 2008 where they performed a rather comprehensive comparison and review. The article includes straightforward info on how to build the cabinet and drawers for a variety of styles (flush, overlay etc.). The Hettich slides are virtually equal to Blum et all at about half the cost. I have used them on several commissions with favorable results. If you want to PM me I will send you the article (I'm just not computer savy enough to include it here.

BTW- Definately build the cabinets first and then the drawers. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

I did our kitchen myself too and ended up with the Hettich soft close. I purchased them at CSH. I also purchased some long slides for the trash and two big bins in the island from Blum that weren't available fro Hettich but they all perform well. We also installed Blum soft close euro hinges on all the cabinet doors too. I was going to go cheap on the hardware but glad I didn't. (Another shocker will be the price of decent pulls & knobs). Here is a link to our kitchen ( http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...hen&highlight= ).


Mike