Full Extension Drawer Slide - Can I?...

[91FE]

I've got a situation where I'm trying to fit some new drawers into an existing metal cabinet that I use as a tool box. Long story short... I can't fit the drawers where I want them in the cabinet with regular full extension slides. I could make the fancy under-mounts work... but they'll cost a small fortune.

While it's not their intended use, can I install standard full extension slides on the flat under a drawer?

[billwmeyer]

I think I saw Norm do that on his cd storage case. The problem I would question is how much weight it would bear.

Bill

[Uncle Cracker]

If I understand your idea, the downforce in the fabbed setup would be at 90-degrees to the design. Can't see how that would be good, in the short term or the long.

[pelligrini]

It would probably hang up once you pulled out the drawer a distance and it started tipping.

Be careful about using lesser quality extension slides. A while back I used some inexpensive extension slides from the borg on a rackmount server cabinet. They were rated for 100 lbs. The quad P-Pro server was about 90 lbs. I think I got only about 6 slides out of them before it broke. It took an hour to get the server unstuck. I'm still finding ball bearings rolling around our floor years later.

[cabinetman]

Side mount full extension slides aren't designed to work under load when turned 90 degrees. If you screwed vertically mounted wood, like 3/4" X 1.5" tall (exposed, on the underside of the drawer) and a corresponding member on the side of the cabinet, so that there is 17/32" between the drawer member and the wood on the side of the cabinet, regular side mounts can be used as their intended mounting position as an undermount. There are undermount full extension slides that can be bottom mounted that will carry the weight. Wood can be screwed to a metal drawer bottom or metal cabinet side. Or, you could contact cement or epoxy the wood to the metal.

You may have to apply a buildup to the drawer underside, or inside cabinet ends to get the wood to clear metal edges or structural metal bracing.
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[Tom Miller]

Long story short... I can't fit the drawers where I want them in the cabinet with regular full extension slides.

Maybe it's time for the long version.

On the off-chance you're in the same (or similar) boat:

I goofed up on some drawers once -- didn't include the 1/2" clearance each side for the slides. So, I buried the slides into the 3/4" thick drawer sides, and it actually came out quite well.

Regards,
Tom

[91FE]

Maybe it's time for the long version.

Fair enough, but the long version is pretty long. Let me pull together a sketch and better description to post.