Drawer Open - Drawer Close

[jteneyck]

Why would you need to deal with the slack?  It doesn't hurt anything.  If you added a spring or counterweight it would want to pull the open drawer shut the second you let go of it.  That might have merit in some applications, but probably not a universally good idea.   

John

[MsNomer]

I'd be concerned the slack string would get caught between drawers.

[JGrout]

I'd be concerned the slack string would get caught between drawers.

I agree; it might take care of itself but there are a lot of places for it to get caught 

Putting the string in the center or the drawers might alleviate most of that I guess

[jteneyck]

Well that's a valid concern but I haven't seen the spring/counterweight feature used on the couple of examples I've seen.  I think you'd want a very low spring force or light counterweight not to pull the drawer back shut, unless of course that was a desirable feature.  Might be a good idea in some applications. 

John

[MattP]

I agree; it might take care of itself but there are a lot of places for it to get caught 

Putting the string in the center or the drawers might alleviate most of that I guess

I think you could also screw a couple eye hooks to the back of the case, and feed the line through them. If I'm envisioning the set up correctly, I think that'd tend to pull your slack away from the drawers, which is where it seems to me your line would be most likely to get caught.

Does that make sense?

[Snipe Hunter]

Put holes in the back panel of the cabinet with some sort of smooth grommet. Put eyelets on the back of each drawer and run a string as shown, tied off behind the bottom drawer.  The length between the weight and the top grommet (when drawers are closed) is equal to the half the distance one drawer opens.... not the way it's shown in the diag. I'd have the string running through holes so it's accessible. Another option is to use eyelets inside the cabinet so the string isn't exposed but servicing it would be a nightmare unless you had a large enough hole at the top to get inside and cut the string or untie the weight to pull a drawer out. I might even use a fishing swivel with a safety pin clip to attach the weight so I wouldn't have to deal with a knot there. .

Consider braided fishing line.... 80 to 100 lb test maybe? Wax it. I can send you some 80lb. It's pricey and you won't need a whole spool.