Drawer slides- Wooden

larry merlau

Member
Messages
18,741
Location
Delton, Michigan
show me your examples of wooden drawer slides and how you put them into the piece that you have made.. and any tips on what to do to make it easier.. i have 3 dressers to make and have heard that wooden slides are the best approach to this..i have used the pre-made ones in a hutch and i also have used the hanging style on the sides with hardwood but not this many and on 36" wide drawers.. so mike show me the tricks you got alot of drawers in the shop:)

P.S charlie plesums your lingerie link in your web page didnt work:)
 
Hey, Larry,
You might want to try the archives of the Hand Tools forum over at Wood Central. A while back there was a very long and spirited discussion of drawer glides and slips. As I recall Derek Cohen (member here, too) had a lengthy treatise on the subject, too.
 
well jim the last time i was on wood central they would answer one single question from me so i went to smc and got answers the first day way back when.. and even meet some of them at the five barn picnic later on..the wood central folk.. so i will go see what derek has to say it might be on his site as well")
 
Have a couple of the mounting holes oversized to allow adjustment. Then the remaining holes can be used to lock the rail in place. On 36" I would consider a center guide on the bottom as well.
 

Attachments

  • drawers-4-002.jpg
    drawers-4-002.jpg
    105 KB · Views: 93
  • drawers-4-006.jpg
    drawers-4-006.jpg
    107.1 KB · Views: 93
  • drawers-5-001.jpg
    drawers-5-001.jpg
    104.7 KB · Views: 98
  • pre-finish-elevations.jpg
    pre-finish-elevations.jpg
    106.6 KB · Views: 94
Hi Larry... there are two methods I have used...

The classic approach is to have a frame between each drawer (also holds the dust shield). I make the sides about 1/16 inch thicker than the front, which is finish wood, so the drawer doesn't scratch the finish wood. Build the frame with 1/32 or so above, and 1/32 or so below the front of the frame - just enough to keep the drawer bottom (and top) away from the front piece.

That classic approach doesn't keep the drawer centered, so I am moving towards plan B - side runners mounted on the front and back of the carcase (so that it straddles floating panels on the sides, for example). Those runners are just under 3/4 inch high (to fit in a 3/4 inch dado in the sides of the drawers. The dado is about 1/4 inch deep in the drawer (thus requiring drawer sides 5/8 " or more thick. The runners are about 3/8 inch thick - to hold the drawer centered and provide clearance on each side.

If you have an overlay drawer, the drawer front determines the depth the drawer closes... the runner only has to be close. If you have an inset drawer front, you can get fancy with a stopped dado, and let the end of the side runner stop the drawer. Easiest way I have found is to trim the end of the runner to adjust the drawer depth. See http://www.plesums.com/wood/bedroom/lingeriechest.html for an example of the inset drawer front with the side runners... in that case, I played with the dovetails so the runner was in a wide pin. In the chest in my shop now, I purchased the drawers unassembled, cut the dado in the sides, assembled the drawers, cut the dado through the back on the shaper, and squared off the stopped dado on the front with hand chisels.
 
Last edited:
show me your examples of wooden drawer slides and how you put them into the piece that you have made.. and any tips on what to do to make it easier.. i have 3 dressers to make and have heard that wooden slides are the best approach to this..i have used the pre-made ones in a hutch and i also have used the hanging style on the sides with hardwood but not this many and on 36" wide drawers.. so mike show me the tricks you got alot of drawers in the shop:)

P.S charlie plesums your
cheap lingerie link in your web page didnt work:)
hello larry have you got wooden drawer slides tricks? I need to learn them so can you help me out?
 
Last edited:
Rickey, welcome to the forum.

If my instructions (two different options) in post 5 of this thread don't make sense, give me a call or drop me a note.

The lingerie chest link has pictures of the rail in a groove in the sides of the drawers. This is my preferred approach if there are floating panels on the sides of the chest, etc.

About half way down the page at http://plesums.com/wood/bedroom/drwhite.html are pictures of the frame between the drawers that function as both glides (bottom support for the drawer above) and kickers (top support for the drawer below). This works well for wide and heavy drawers.
 
Top