Hello all, looking for tips and advice when installing Blume undermount slides of which I have a not bad handle on but installing the drawer fronts seems to tax my patience to say the least. Does anyone have tips on drawer front installations and the slides also? Any help is appreciated
Regartds,,
Carpenter5
Replies
drawer fronts to drawer boxes is always a trickyjob, here's a method that works for me, i assume we're discussing kitchen cabinets
drive two screws through the drawer box from the inside and back them out until just the tip protrudes through the box
close the drawer box and hold the front in the correct position over the closed drawer box
hit the drawer front with your fist hard enough to leave a mark in the drawer front
drill a small pilot hole and fasten to the box
I mark were the sides and bottom of the drawer will meet the drawer front. Then lay the drawer front face down , on a non-marring surface, and set the drawer box onto the front line up to the marks and attach with a couple of 18 gauge brads. Slide the drawer box back into the cabinet and check to see how close you are to the correct position.
The brads are lightweight enough to be twisted about to tweak the face into proper alignment. You have to be close to start with or you will pull the brads out and have to start over again. Once you have the front were you want it to be, add a couple more brads , then attach with screws. Always be careful and double check the length of the brads and screws you use.
Here's 3 different ways, I use them each as appropriate. In every case you need to set screws from inside the drawer after it has been positioned.
1) With the back taken off the cabinet, or using an access hole and a long screwdriver, hold the drawer front in position while a helper pushes the drawer out from the rear. Keep the drawer face up tight against the box, then have him set a few pins from the inside. This is my "default" system.
2) Double-sided tape. Good system for otherwise impossible situations.
3) Blum also makes (perhaps others do too) drawer front adjusters. They are a tight fit into a 20mm hole made in the rear of the drawer front. Screws from the inside engage the adjuster and you have some 3mm of play in any direction before you set the screw hard. This system is more work to set up but infinitely more adjustable. Useful if you have a unit with many drawers that influence each other and you need to play with all of them until it's just right.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Hello David, I will definetely try your 2nd suggested method using double sided tape. I think this would work better than putting the screw through the drawer and then following up with a pilot hole etc.... Obviously you want to make sure no dust collects on the back of the drawer face. Do you recommend a certain type of tape? Also, when you have a bank of darwers, do you set them all up first into position and then proceed to screw them afterwards.
Regards,
Carpenter5
P.S. the work in the pictures from your website look fabulous :)
We use double-sided tape made by 3M just because it's available and works fine.If you've got a bank of drawers to set, first make sure you've got a shim that's exactly the right size for the gap between each drawer. You can simply measure the total height of the cabinet opening, measure the total height of all the drawer faces, then divide the difference by the number of gaps (the number of drawers + 1). Then you can safely work from the bottom up, fixing a drawer front and then setting the next with the shim on it and so on. As I said, if it's a really compound situation, the Blum adjusters are a great solution. For instance, we used them to set the drawer fronts on the "Stainless Filing Cabinet" that's in the slideshow of the website. Getting 30 drawers with equal gaps between them would have otherwise been a serious nightmare without the ability to adjust and re-adjust.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
...And don't forget you still have the height adjusters in the front corners after assembly.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Here's a technique which works well if you're using applied pulls. Place the false front in position on the drawer box in the cabinet, shim all around for equal reveals, then mark the two screw holes for the pulls. Drill those holes and temporarilly attach the front with small screws. Open the drawer and attach the front permenantly with screws drilled from inside the box.
Chip Tam
Seems like all of these suggestions will work but...........................
Why not use a system so the drawer runner and drawer face is always in the same position??? This is part of the beauty of 32mm hole spacing you see in euro boxes. The mounting holes for the drawer front connectors on versions that have them also have a set dimension for x & y. Could be adapted for wooden drawers too if you're willing to use an adjustable cam along with the screw connection.
Blum actually will give you one for free. You can easially adapt it to meet your opperation.
I use hot melt glue and masking tape. Apply the tape to the drawer box and the back of the face. With the cabinet laid on it's back, I apply two generous dabs of hot glue to the tape on the drawer box and position the drawer face. I then stand the cabinet up, open the drawers and drill my pilot holes. A good pull on one side of the face will break the hot glue bond and allow you to remove the face. Then I peel off the tape and the glue with it and install the drawer face with screws through the pilot holes.
One caveat; in my experience, the blum undermount (Tandem) slides allow a lot of play - especially in the up/down axis. Fitting drawer faces with the cabinet on it's back using these slides doesn't work very well. In fact, I've had so many problems with these slides coming out of adjustment I won't even use them anymore.
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