Drawer slide options

[OneStaple]

Hey all,

Ok, I really need to declutter the shop, and a good starting point is finding homes for all the small tools that have "appeared" through the years. Homes that aren't my horizontal work surfaces. Sooo, it would appear that I need to make a tool cabinet of drawers.

My initial thought is to have about 20 relatively thin drawers that are about 33" wide, 22" deep, and 2"-4" high (internal, usable height...add 1/2" for total height). The cabinet's total height would be about 5'.

When I look at places like Accuride, they state maximum drawer widths of 16" or 24" on a lot of their drawer slides. And the slides that are rated for 33" widths and above, like I'm looking for, are in the $50+ range, which is a no-go when I'm buying 20 sets for a shop cabinet. If the load rating is sufficient (50lb should be adequate), is there really a concern in using ball bearing slides rated for 24" at a wider width like 33"? If I can use ones rated for 24", I should be able to get them for about $13 a drawer (that still mounts up!).

I'm also open to other sources/suggestions for drawer slides. I can make my own, but figured full-extension ball bearing slides would be better for something like this.

Thanks,
Tyler

[Snipe Hunter]

Scroll on down to "Roll-Out Trays"

If you want to build it yourself, I understand and kindly disregard.

I'm putting these in my kitchen as we speak. You just need to have the right sized inside dimension to your face-frame or cabinet

The kit comes with trays and glides from 15" up to 36" wide, Designed to fit 24" deep kitchen base cabinets. The drawers (trays) are 21" deep. The front of the glide screws into the face frames and the rear bracket sets in 2 holes. 3/8" iirc. My cabinets came with the holes but I did move some and I think I used a 3/8 or 6/16" brad point bit. You will have to buy a few screws but the trays are assembled. 

Unfortunately, I can't tell you what kind of weight this product can handle, I can tell you that the trays are fairly well made for a production product. I've used Accuride products and think they're very well made and strong. These aren't as strong but I'd guess 20lb load?? Soft close.

The trays are dovetailed birch (at least that's what they say). All 4 sides are finished. I did have one joint separated when I pulled it out of the box. I don't believe they're glued. They just have a brad tacking them together. I believe the bottoms are 1/8" ply with a finished topside.

If you build a Euro style cabinet, the glides would just screw into the side panel.

It's an option. Might not save you a bunch of money but it will save you a bunch of time.

[Snipe Hunter]

Here's some picks of the product



You can see the brad in the dovetail


Front of the glide screwed into the face frame

[Snipe Hunter]

The rear glide bracket slides back and forth so the tray centers itself when closed.
So you can be sloppy when drilling the mounting holes in the back of the cabinet.


The rear bracket mounting holes.

[OneStaple]

Hmm, those are very intriguing, especially from a time saving perspective. And from some brief searching, it looks like other brands do similar. I get the impression that there is only one drawer height possible (which they don't list), which is unfortunate. And no, I don't think I'd save money going that route, just time. It amazes me how much the cost of this is appearing to be between the slides, the plywood, and the wood (ok, well, that's "free" in this case).

I also found some Knape & Vogt drawer slides (rated for 80lb) that are about $11. I'm not as familiar with the quality of that brand though.

No, I don't have to build this myself. A Snap-On tool chest would be perfect, but I don't have the budget for such a luxury.

Thanks!
Tyler

[EdL]

The big HF boxes are a good bang for the buck...


Ed

[jasfrank]

KV slides are very good quality for the price.

[rwe2156]

For me, its hard to justify several hundred dollars for a utility cabinet so I've bought a couple different off brand slides off Amazon.

So far, I've been happy with them.  The last ones were self closing and work surprisingly well.

Friho and Glideright.  $6-8 a pair.

[KLaz]

I built an 8' long base cabinet over the past couple of months that has 24 drawers total, a spot for my mini fridge and then an open area with a door for storing larger items.

One of the best things I've built for my shop.  The thinnest drawer is about 2" tall.  About 22" wide.  I've been slowly using Fast Cap's Kaizen Foam to organize and it's awesome!

I used some off brand ball bearing 100 lb slides.  Think they were in the $12 range

KV 8400 are the standard for ball bearing slides.  You can get them for not much more.

I have some shop drawers over 36" wide and used 100 lb KV slides.  No issues.  Been in place for 10 years now. 

Don't over think it.  Just get some 100 lb slides and build some proper drawer boxes and get back to real woodworking 

[MsNomer]

2”-4” drawers are priceless, especially if you build them with no lip underneath and have a frameless cabinet so nothing can catch.