DIY pull-out pantry: how the slide system actually works

Transcript

The spoken text of the video, per chapter.

Build a pull-out pantry yourself0:00

A pull-out pantry from a kitchen supplier easily runs into hundreds, and then you are stuck with their size. You can also build one from sheet goods, with two ordinary ball-bearing slides. In this video we show how that system works.

The base cabinet0:15

We start with an ordinary base cabinet: thirty four and a half high, twenty four wide, twenty four deep. Exactly the size a pull-out pantry usually goes into.

Pull-out pantry in the compartment0:26

A pull-out pantry cannot sit behind a door, so first we take the door and the shelf out of the lower compartment. Then you tap the compartment and pick Pull-out pantry in the palette. The pull-out takes its size from the compartment, with a little clearance at the sides and room for the top slide. So there is nothing for you to work out.

The pull-out as a cabinet of its own0:46

Tap the pull-out and you edit it as a cabinet in its own right, with its own letter. Shelves in it, heights divided, material chosen: everything you can do with a cabinet you can do with the pull-out. The parent cabinet stays in view.

One or two slides1:02

Slides per pull-out is set to Auto. Up to and including fifteen and three quarter inches of pull-out width, one slide at the bottom and one at the top will do. Any wider and the app puts two at the bottom and two at the top, because a single slide starts to sag under the load.

Upright below, flat on top1:21

Now the heart of it. The bottom slide stands upright, on its edge, against a strip. That is how it carries the weight, because a ball-bearing slide is far stronger in that position than lying flat. The top slide lies flat, and it carries nothing: it keeps the pull-out upright and stops it tipping forward when it is full.

Why a mounting strip1:43

That is why there is a mounting strip in your cut list. A slide standing upright needs a vertical face to screw against, and in the middle of the compartment there is none: the slide sits under the pull-out, not against a side panel. The mounting strip creates that face. One per slide, on the bottom of the compartment. At the top no strip is needed, because there the slide lies flat against the panel above.

Sizes and slide length2:10

Under Per pull-out are the three dimensions you need in the shop: the width and the height of the pull-out, and the slide length. The app picks that length to suit the depth of your cabinet, and the app warns you if you pick a slide that does not fit.

Two pull-outs side by side2:27

If you want two side by side, for a wide cabinet say, you set the number here. With Copy layout you push the shelves of the first pull-out into the others in one go, so you do not do the same work twice.

Close-up in the build manual2:41

The build manual has a close-up of the slide system: three views with numbered balloons, and below them what each number is and at what dimension it goes. Front view, side view and top view, so you see from every side where the slide sits.

Tip: top slide at the workbench2:58

The hardest job is getting the top slide exactly above the bottom one. Do it at the workbench, before the panel above goes into the cabinet: lay it upside down, and measure the centre of the slide at the front and at the back from the end, to the dimension in the build manual. If the pull-out still runs stiff later, shift the top slide in its slotted holes: the bottom one carries, the top one adjusts.

Next video: the build manual3:24

Two slides, two mounting strips and a carcass of sheet goods. A pull-out pantry is nothing more than that. In the last video of this series we show everything the build manual works out for you. Open cutlistlab.com and pick Pull-out pantry.