# Blum slides won't engage self close without weight in drawer



## SoCalWoodGal (May 22, 2016)

I've just finished my trash pullout kitchen cabinet, and with much fussing over Blum 563 slides (easiest glides my ass) have the drawer box installed. All worked pulling in and out. Then I attached the heavy door to the drawer box. Now it soft closes, but stops short of full close with about 3/4" to spare.

I've tried angling the front of one of the glides upwards, fiddled with the adjusters on the back of the glides, as well as just staring at the box, willing it to work. It occurred to me that the weight of the door was too much for the self close to fully engage with minimal weight load in the drawer box.

To test, I put 10 lbs hand weights in the back of the drawer box. Now it fully self and soft closes, no problem.

Here's my question:
Do I find some way to weigh down the back of the box? If so, ideas on how? The 2 bins take up all the space in the drawer box, so it would likely have to attach to the outside rear of the box.

If not weighing down, is there an adjustment to the glides I can make that would fix this? I've scoured online and all I can find is that apparently, no one in the history of earth or time has had anything but perfect, amazing, never-failing Blum glides.

Would be grateful for any tips you might have.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Is there something like a ramp at the back 
of the slides? I'm not familiar with that
slide but self-closing standard cheap drawer
slides use a sort of ramp so the wheel at
the back of the slide goes from traveling
horizontally to traveling a little downward.

Is the cabinet level from front to back?


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## SoCalWoodGal (May 22, 2016)

ramp? Not sure what that means, these are the install instructions: https://www.hghhardware.com/ASSETS/DOCUMENTS/ITEMS/EN/98011_installation%20instructions.pdf
The cabinet is slightly lower on the right side than the left.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I think you just have too much weight at the
front with the bins empty. That sort of slide
can take 100lbs or so but I'm pretty sure
it needs to be reasonably distributed.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

The 563 has a pretty good tolerance for oversized and undersized drawer boxes, but if it is a little tapered, or out of square, or the left guide sits further forward than the right guide in the box, then not so much.

It could be binding up just enough to not close all the way, but, with the weight, the inertia overcomes the slight bind.

If this is my drawer, I am checking that I have things sized correctly, the cabinet and drawer box are square, and the guide pin hole is drilled in the right place..

BTW, I'm not sure who claimed the 563's are the easiest guide. Though, once you have things dialed in, there are few issues that I am aware of.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

There is no ramp on a Blum Blumotion slide. The self-closing mechanism is driven by a spring that is actuated by a small pin that sticks down from the bottom of the slide and trips a release allowing the spring to pull it closed.

If the tray performed well without the door, then the weight the door must be creating some torque that's causing the slide to bind. The fact that adding weight at the back fixes it supports that. Since you have 1/2" of space under the drawer, attaching a weight underneath in the back won't obstruct anything. A piece of scrap iron, some lead weight, it's up to you. You know the weight you need, so finding a 3/8 to 1/2" thick plate of metal to provide the weight is your only challenge. It'd probably be better to go thinner than 1/2" so you have room for some strapping or whatever to secure it in place.

Really nice looking cabinets, BTW.


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

sorry cant help with this style we use to custom make our trash can pullouts something like this : http://www.rev-a-shelf.com/p-447-double-soft-close-top-mount-1-5-face-frame-wood-waste-containers.aspx


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## BorkWood (Apr 4, 2018)

Isn't there a tilt adjustment on the rear of the slides? May want to check those to make sure they aren't tilting all the way towards the front or something, though you may have to adjust your door some if you change them much. Other than that it sounds like your best bet is adding the weight unfortunately.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

I've never known load distribution to be an issue with these guides.

And none of the guide's adjustment devices will cause a failure of the mechanism.

Again, I am checking my sizes against the specs, squareness of cabinet and drawer box, proper placement of the guides' cabinet members and proper placement of the pin holes in the back of the drawer box.

99.9% of all issues would be fixed with these alone.

Edit: If a cabinet is installed with a "twist", that will give ANY drawer guide some grief-just one more thing to check. (Shims are our friends)


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