I purchased some full extension Accuride slides and I’ve already installed one-half of each slide to four drawer boxes. The drawer spaces are 27 1/2″ wide and the slides are 1/2″ deep. So the space between them is 26 1/2″. Should I make my drawer boxes the same width as the space between the slides or should I make them 1/16″ or more less wide to avoid an overly tight fit? My boxes will be made of 1/2″ cabinet grade plywood so I can’t really shave the sides with a plane to perfect the fit. Is there a standard protocol for doing this? The directions that came with the slides are very poor.
Thanks,
Lyptus
Replies
1/16 less is ok , 16th big is a no no
There is some slight play in these slides; they are marginally forgiving. That said, it's best to just shoot for an exact fit (1/2 inch on each side).
It also depends on how accurate the width of the cabinet and drawer sides are.
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998 to 2007
The side mounted slides require 17/32" each side for proper operation. The drawer box should be 1 1/16" smaller than the opening. This is true for most side mounted slides and has been for years. Just go to the Accuride website and choose your slide, a pop up window will come up.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
I had never heard of this 17/32" side space requirement. So I went to the Accuride site. What is shown is a tolerance. For each side they allow 0.031 over and 0.0 under the 0.5" design dimension.Personally, I've always made my boxes a bit small and use a thin shim behind the cabinet mounted component if needed. A scrap of veneer tape is about 1/32" thick making for very convenient shim stock.(Not that I'd EVER use veneer tape anyplace else.)
I'm an old architectural woodworker. We do slides by the thousands. Going with .05" doesn't give you any play, the tracks can bind and if you are .05001" they won't work. 1/32" on each side is just right but don't go anymore. We can't afford to tweak, shim or otherwise rework any part of our cabinetry in this business, you have to get it right the first time. Read the bottom of this page.
http://www.accuride.com/Industrial/Product/Details.asp?ProductID=106&CatID=8Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
I just finished a 10 drawer dresser and learned a good lesson the hard way. Never read the instructions to the slides, measured with a tape measure for thickness and then made my drawers 1" smaller than the cabinet. When I started installation it didn't take to long to figure out that I had to shave 1/32 off of each side of the drawer with the table saw. Thank goodness I did the drawers with dovetails and glue only. There not to pretty to look at now but they work properly. Lesson learned the hard way.
There's quite a bit of work in making 10 drawers, isn't there Chad. Personally, I hate metal slides and refuse to use the soulless, sloppy things on my own work. I much prefer center mounted wood slides. Unfortunately, customers and architects want them and now they want the self and soft closing ones, how gauche!Accuride doesn't seem to be real clear on their installation instructions, you have to look around. I just did a job where the customer bought the slides at HD, no brand name, no instructions. It's the same for any 1/2" slide I've ever used, you need 1/32" extra per side.Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Metal slides aren't gauche, they're simply not wood.
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