Adjusting drawer slides

[bdk5]

I've just installed my first set of drawers on a project and had a question about adjusting the slides for smooth operation. I'm using full extension ball-bearing slides and I mounted them using spacers to keep the height consistent on both the carcass and the drawer boxes. However, when I slid the drawers in, some of them are a little tight. More specifically, when opening or closing the drawers, it takes a little more force to move the drawers when the pieces of the slides come together. It's hard to describe, but if you think about full extension slides consisting of 3 interlocking bars (the piece attached to the drawer box is one, and it slides into the "center" bar which slides in the bar attached to the carcass), the drawers travel smoothly as a bar is extending from one of the other bars, but at the point in travel where one bar becomes fully enclosed in another (i.e., the travel of the drawer is being transferred from one bar to another) it gets stiff. My guess is that the width of the carcass is just a bit too much, putting stress on the slides, and the solution is to shim out the slides. Is this a correct assumption? Or am I missing something else?

Thanks,
Bryan

[cabinetman]

Most of the full extension slides require an overage in the opening of a 1/2" plus 1/32" per side. You may or may not need to shim to get a very good fit. The opening has to be square to the cabinet, or you'll have a problem with the drawer seating flat to the face.

On some of the full extension slides when you insert the drawer and push it back you'll feel a resistance about half way. Just push the drawer past this point and it will go all the way in. Make sure you have lined up the drawer member with the corresponding channel on the cabinet member.

[Woodwerker]

Most of the full extension slides require an overage in the opening of a 1/2" plus 1/32" per side. You may or may not need to shim to get a very good fit. The opening has to be square to the cabinet, or you'll have a problem with the drawer seating flat to the face.

On some of the full extension slides when you insert the drawer and push it back you'll feel a resistance about half way. Just push the drawer past this point and it will go all the way in. Make sure you have lined up the drawer member with the corresponding channel on the cabinet member.

Seems like you've done this a few times
Spot on advice above