Drawer slides explained: which type, and how big is your drawer box?

Transcript

The spoken text of the video, per chapter.

Why drawers go wrong at the tape measure0:00

With drawers things almost never go wrong at the saw. They go wrong at the tape measure. The drawer box has to be exactly as wide as your slide asks, and exactly as deep as your cabinet allows. In this video we let cutlistlab work those dimensions out.

The drawer unit: four drawers0:17

We take a drawer unit: thirty two high, twenty wide, eighteen deep. Four drawers stacked, like in a workbench or under a countertop.

Number of drawers and distribution0:27

In the Drawer card you set the number of drawers, and below it the distribution. Equal makes the openings the same height. Increasing gives you a deep drawer at the bottom for machines and shallow ones on top for tools. Watch the Fronts line: it gives the front heights in inches, and they follow immediately.

Three kinds of slides0:47

Now the slide. There are three kinds: the side slide against the side panel, the undermount slide beneath the box, and the bottom slide for light drawers. Watch the box width while we switch. Move to the undermount slide and the box width jumps up: it sits under the box and only asks three sixteenths of an inch on each side.

Side slide clearance1:13

A side slide asks for half an inch on each side. That is not our rule but the thickness of the slide itself, the figure on every box. The cross-section shows where that half inch goes. If you calculate by hand, this is exactly the number you forget.

Box depth and inset fronts1:30

The box depth follows from the cabinet depth, the back panel and the space behind the box. Set the front to inset and it sits inside the carcass: the slide moves back by one front thickness, and the box gets that much shorter. Forget that and your drawer will not close.

Box front or separate front piece1:51

Two ways to build the front. Either the front is the box front itself, or you build a separate front piece and screw the visible front onto it. The second is more work and far more forgiving: you align the fronts once the drawers are already in. You set the gap between them here.

Slide mounting dimensions2:10

Under Slide mounting dimensions you get, per drawer, the height of the slide's axis, measured from the compartment floor. Those are the numbers you mark on the side panel. Switch the 32 millimetre hole row on and the app checks whether every slide lands on a hole, and tells you when it does not.

The drawer bottom2:30

The drawer bottom can sit between the box sides, be screwed on underneath, or drop into a groove or a rebate. In a groove it is stronger and you see no screws from below. Pick In groove and the app adjusts the bottom size, and it makes sure the groove never goes deeper than the box side can take.

What do I need2:49

In What do I need the slide length is already worked out, from your box depth and the slide type, not from the cabinet depth. Below it the cam connectors and the dowels, with a note saying what they are for: the bottom and the top of the carcass.

Tip: measure the diagonals3:07

A tip from the shop: dry-assemble the four box parts and measure the box before you screw a single slide down. A box that is one millimetre out of square will bind, and you only notice once everything is fixed. Measure the diagonals; they should be equal.

Next video: wall of cabinets3:23

Pick your slide first and the rest follows: the box size, the mounting height and the shopping list. In the next video we put several cabinets side by side into a wall. Open cutlistlab.com and pick Cabinet designer.