Drawer slides – soft close? self close?
I must make about 16 drawers for my kitchen remodel. To this end, I was excited to read a recent artical by Scott Gibson in Fine Woodworking titled “A woodworkers Kitchen”. This artical allowed a very simple method of building thes drawers which consisted of making the sides with 4 pieces of 1/2″ plywood joined at the corners with biskets. A 1/4″ plywood bottom is then glued and nailed up to the underside. Using this method I have now assembled 6 of the drawers and now I am in the hunt for drawer slides. As a minimum, I want full extension ball bearing slides mounted on the side (too late to consider undermount). Does anyone make these slides with a projecting angle attached to the inner slide that would “cradle” the bottom of the drawer and cause less stress on the joint between the bottom of the drawer and the sides? This would also cover the end grain of the bottom as recommended in the artical. Also, can anyone tell me the meaning of “soft close” and “self close”? Are these worthwhile features?
Thanks for any and all help on this.
Replies
I have used this Grass slide for the type of drawer you mention:
http://www.outwaterhardware.com/catalog/form08.asp?page=0645
However, it is a 3/4 extension, although it does have a modest "self-closing" feature.
For full extension slides, I use Accuride. As far as I am aware, all their slides are side mounted, and thus, would not cover up your exposed drawer bottom.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
Blum makes a drawer guide that your're thinking of. You could use a side mount guide also . I have been building drawer boxes for custom dabinets like what you are doing for the last 15 years ( only using butt joints w/ no biscuits ) and glue using side mount guides and have never had a call back because of a joint or bottom failure, as long as your joints are tight to begin with. With todays glues, undermount drawer guides are really not needed ( at least for strengh ). KV makes a guide that has a 1" overtravel that works nice and is priced right. So, as long as you're drawer boxes are tight ,you're guide choice doesn't have to be limited , in my opinion.
Paul
At least in undermount slides like the Blum Tandem and the Hettich Quadro, "self close" means that the slide pulls the drawer in for the last inch or two of travel. "Soft close" means that the slide pulls the drawer in, plus the slide has an oil-filled damping cylinder which slows the drawer's motion during that last bit of travel. Sometimes the soft close slides are called no-slam. IMHO, soft close is not worth the extra cost.
I would check the Accuride web site. They are an industry leader. I have used them a lot. I also like some of the KV stuff. The self close feature is cool -like magic- but not always worth the extra money.
One question- How are you accounting for the drawer slides when sizing your drawer boxes to fit the opening if you don't have the hardware yet? I would purchase the hardware before I built anymore boxes. Sometimes there are subtleties that want to be accounted for when sizing-up depending on what you are using. In general side-mounted slides take up about an inch of width per drawer. I say "about" because sometimes that measurement needs adjusting.
-Paul
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