How to Select the Drawer Slides?

Do you have a set of drawers that squeal each time you pull it out? Ever had your important files trapped inside your jammed drawers? If yes, then this is for you! It is time to get your drawer slides replaced.

Drawers have become an important part of modern lives. Having a good set of drawers helps you to utilize most of the available space and to organize your essentials in the most efficient manner. If you are about to change the drawer slides, you may have some questions such as what size drawer slides do I need. So, how do you select drawer slides?

Naturally, the size of drawer slides is an important factor. In this post, we are going to tell you how to select the right set of drawer slides.

How to Select the Drawer Slides?

To select the right drawer slides you must know how to determine the correct size of drawer slides, the types of drawer slides available in the market, and the motion features of the drawer slides.

What Size Drawer Slides Do I Need?

To find out the right size of drawer slides, it is necessary to remove the drawer box from the cabinet. After this, you must record accurate measurements of the depth and width of the cabinet, and record the width of the drawer. Finally, calculate the clearance space available between the drawer and the cabinet walls.

How to Remove the Drawer Box?

 Pull out the drawer completely to its full extension.

• At this point, try to give the drawer box a slight upward tilt. This will result in the front wheels of the drawer popping out from the drawer slide.
• In case you find it difficult to remove the drawer this way, you may try giving the drawer box a downward tilt in its fully extended state. The hind wheels of the drawer can pop out of the glides in this way.

Now, you have successfully removed the drawer box.

How to Record Accurate Measurements of the Drawer and the Cabinet?

• Take a measuring tape, a pen, and paper to note down the measurements.
• Now, we need to measure the front to a backward depth of the cabinet box. For this, you need to start measuring from the frontal edge of the cabinet to the back or the innermost edge of the cabinet. Take care that you don’t accidentally include the frontal board of the drawer while making the measurements.
• Next, we need to measure the width of the cabinet box. For this, start measuring from one side of the inner wall of the drawer space of the cabinet to the opposite side. This means to measure from the right inner wall to the left inner wall of the cabinet or vice versa.
• Further, we must measure the width of the drawer. Start measuring from the outer wall of the drawer box on one side to the outer wall on the other side.

So, we have made all the measurements.

How to Calculate the Clearance Space Available Between the Drawer and the Cabinet Walls?

• This is obtained by subtracting the width of the drawer from the width of the cabinet as we explained above.

Types of Drawer Slides

 There are several drawer slides available in the market. However, in order to select the right one you need to take several points into consideration such as the clearance space available between the drawer and cabinet walls and the height of the drawer.

Based on the location of the drawer slides, they are available as:

Side-mounted Drawer Slides

 This type is fitted on both sides of the drawer. This type requires a clearance of 1/8 inch on both sides. If the clearance available is shorter, one must go for the under-mounted or center-mounted varieties.

Under-mounted Drawer Slides

 This variety requires a lesser height of the drawer. This is because more space is taken up by the slide fitted beneath the drawer.

Center-mounted Drawer Slides

 This type of drawer slide doesn’t come in pairs, unlike the above-mentioned varieties. This is fitted beneath the drawer and in exactly the center. Similar to the under-mounted type, this takes up a little space to incorporate the thickness of the slide.

Based on the range of extension, they are:

• Full extension drawer slides
• Three-fourth extension drawer slides
• Over-extension drawer slides