Installing drawer slides perfectly straight and parallel?

See this blog.

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/2367#reply-24813

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Jason,

The parallel part should be easy if your cabinet sides are parallel to each other. If that is not the case, then you need to go back and get them that way. That is a basic part of cabinet-making. As for getting them in at the same level on both sides of the cabinet, I usually do that with a spacer. I cut a piece of 1/4” hardboard or plywood to support the slide while I put in the screws. I start at the top of the cabinet and go down so I can just cut off the spacer as I go.

Hope this helps. If not, I will be building a couple of cabinets before long. I will be glad to blog the process so you see how it is done (at least in pictures).

-- -- Rob Hix, King George, VA

Some folk insist on hanging drawer guides after the cabinet is assembled so what ever floats your boat. If you find that easier then go for it.

At 6’ 4” I dont fit well into a cabinet so I pre hang the drawer guides before I assemble the cabinet even if it means having to remove the guides for finishing. At least they are hung and screw holes are there.

I used to make a jig and have since bought an adjustable steel jig (which means I only hjave to lay out the drawers once ) but suffice to say that a framing square will work to keep guides straight and parallel. Most drawer guides, the first pilot hole goes 37 mm back from the front and continue on increments of 32mm.

Gary’s advice is good, but dimensional placement would depend on what guide you use.

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

GaryK, that post assumes slides that are installed on the actual cabinet sides rather than on brackets attached to the face frame and rear of the cabinet; it’s this that has me concerned that it’ll end up being hard to get the slides perfectly straight and parallel.

RobH, same thing—the sides are parallel to each other, so that’s not an issue; rather, the issue is the addition of the face frame to the mix, which means that the slides are attached to brackets on the face frame and the rear of the cabinet. My worry is that it’ll be hard to attach the rear bracket to the rear of the cabinet carcase aligned correctly so that it holds the slide front-to-back straight. I figured that there would be good measurements that came with the Accuride brackets that give exact offsets from the outside edges of the brackets to the outside edge of the mounted drawer slides, but that’s not the case…

Best as I figure, I’ll probably just have to do one of two things:

1. Test-mount the brackets on waste wood and take exact measurements;
2. Build a quick, rough mocked-up simulation of the drawer, and then use it to position the slide brackets appropriately.

-- Jason, Capitol Hill, Washington DC

Whenever I start working with a hinge or slide that I have not used before I always create a mock up to test the fit and mounting points before I start building the actual drawers and mounting hardware. It’s a real pain to plug screw holes. I also pre-drill all screw holes using a self-centering drill bit.

In addition, and where possible, I always pre-install my slides before assembling the cabinet. I’m just not as flexible as I used to be.

-- DaveH - Boise, Idaho - “How hard can it be? It's only wood!”

Most glides comes with two sets of holes, the slots and close to it, the screw holes. Put a screw into the slots first tighten just snug enough. Then insert the drawer part, this spreads and forces the glides straight and parallel. If it is an undermount glide, the back braket sits on a slot that allows the movement. Carefully remove the drawer and lock it into place with a screw into the round holes. I learn it is fastest to drill pilot holes before I assemble the parts together. This makes measuring the holes easy because I just mark one panel and then bookmatch those lines and holes to the opposite side. The slots allows me to fine tune the glides for any minor warpage in plywood or rack after the assembly.

-- Thuan

Kreg and Rockler both sell jigs for mounting drawer slides.

-- Thos. Angle

I just wanted to follow this up with my actual experience this weekend, which went well!

As I said a few times, my cabinet has a face frame, so I installed the Accuride drawer slides with their accompanying face frame brackets. The cabinet has two drawer positions, side by side, and has a vertical support running the entire depth of the cabinet that sits between the two drawer positions. For each drawer position, I used a piece of scrap wood to make spacers that were the exact width of the space behind the face frame on the left and right sides—I slid the wood behind the face frame and against either the side of the cabinet or the middle support, marked the vertical line where the face frame edge sat, and then cut the spacer on my miter saw (making sure to mark each clearly!) I then made two more spacers on which I could rest the drawer slides to bring them to their intended heights inside the cabinet.

With the spacers all made, installing each slide was as easy as:

1. Putting the two taller spacers into the right position so that I could rest a drawer slide on them during installation;
2. putting the drawer slide into the cabinet and bringing the front bracket into position against the face frame;
3. putting the appropriate spacer between the cabinet side and the drawer slide about 2/3 of the way back into the cabinet, holding the slide in the right front-to-back alignment;
4. sliding the rear face frame bracket against the back of the cabinet;
5. screwing everything in (using the horizontal-slot screw sites on the rear brackets, allowing me to move it slightly left to right if I needed to);
6. test-fitting the drawer and being happy!

I only had to adjust one of the slides left-right in the end, and everything works marvelously now.

-- Jason, Capitol Hill, Washington DC