Toolbox Drawers again

The Accuride slides are probably the best on the market. As you may already know, the guides should be selected according to the weight of the drawer when full. I would suggest a full extension guide as they allow the drawer to be pulled all of the way out of the cabinet (to get to those little items that tend to hide in the back). Most guides require 1/2” of clearance but be careful as a few require 3/4”. Make sure to make the drawer box at least 1” smaller but not more than 1 1/16” smaller than the cabinet opening. Follow the manufacturers instructions for installation and you should be OK. I personally would not use bottom mount guides for a tool cabinet. Bottom mount guides, in my opinion, do not hold the weight or function as well as the good old side mounts. Hope this helps, just ask if you need more information.

-- Don, Pittsburgh

King, I am not familiar with Accuride. You could try the manufacturer’s website, they may well have details on fitting & what suits best. Good luck.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

BBQ, try http://www.wwhardware.com or http://woodworker.com They usually have a good sale on guides.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

accuride are not cheap, but you get what you pay for. I don’t know the weight rating but I would guess they are rated for 150#. They call side mounted “file drawer slides” and they are full extension +1 1/2”. I used them on large kitchen drawer that has substantial weight in it & they work great. They feel strong enough for me to stand in the drawer.

-- Chris

The Accuride slides are very good. The operation is smooth and quiet. I second what Don said. The side-mounted slides will hold about 135 pounds. The center-mount bottom slides hold only about 35 pounds. Full extension is really convenient compared to 3/4 extension.

Rockler has a jig for installing draw slides that has a magnet so it is will handle various types of slides. Having installed slides in my kitchen, there is a point in time at which using a jig to reduce the hassles of being upside down and sideways inside the cabinet becomes very desirable. I think the jig sells for about $30.

Have fun!

-- Rich, Seattle, WA

I have been using Accurides for decades. They will work perfect for your application. I believe the 3832 series is what you will want to get. They are rated at #100. they are 1/2” wide. You can mount these in frameless and in frames. You will need to purchase rear mounting brackets if you go the frame route.

The accuride 3640 slides are 3/4” wide and are rated at #200

Most people use the 3832 series. They also have some series in a self closing slide.

You will definitely want to side mount these slides. They will give you the maximum rating.

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

Accurides fer sure.

One small hint for frameless. Due to the inherent inaccuracies of wood working, figure on making your drawer boxes 1 1/16” less than the width of your opening.

Accurides have a “tab” stamped into the sides that, when mounted, will “flex” just slightly. If you make the drawers “exact” and they end up being tight it’s a pain to make a box narrower. If they’re a hair loose, the “tabs” will allow some give without binding.

-- arborial reconfiguration specialist

Accurides are solid slides. I used them on the miter saw storage station that is pictured in my workshop. I built the station several years ago and have not had any problems with them. I put some large drawers in some of the cabinets and the full extension slides work like a charm.

The only problems I have had with them were due to operator error in constructing a couple of the cabinet openings since the tolerances for these slides are fairly tight as mentioned above.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I get my utility type-tool box glides from ebay. You can get them cheap and buy as many as you like. I’ve been very happy with them.

-- Tony, Ohio

I used Accuride Full Slides on 2 projects and could not ask for anything better. I love them!

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

I recently had Accuride send me a bunch of slides for evaluation for our kitchen. I was very impressed. We’re not going to use them for our kitchen drawers, but only because of a few details of the soft-close feature, and we’ll definitely be using them for several other projects where we need linear slides.

So far as I can tell, it’s basically Blum and Accuride at the top of the heap, and then everyone else down on a lower level (and, yes, we bought a number of different slides to evaluate for the kitchen). So, yeah, I’d feel totally okay with using Accurides in your toolbox.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke