Slide out shelves

[Darin Higginbotham]

Just wondering if it is possible to convert a cabinet to slide out shelves, the cabinet has european face frame hinges and the door is in the way is there a way to fix this short of changing the hinges. I am building the sliding shelves so I can customize them if needed. Thanx in advance.

[Don Wurscher]

Darin, just got through doing this very thing for my daughter, it is no picnic with those European hinges.
Blum makes a E-Hing that will alow the door to swing out of the way, but you still have to contend with the hing itself.
what I did was to install drawer slides on the Accuride 3832 Pilaster Kit, then shimed the shelf standards out far enough on each side to clear
the hinges. this made the shelves narrower then what I would have liked (Lost about 1 1/2" in width) but it worked.

[Steve Jenkins]

You can also use whatever slides you want and either shim them out or make false walls inside the cabinet that end just behind the hinges. the false walls make a much cleaner look.

[Kerry Adams]

Getting ready to do this. I will be attaching the door to the bottom shelf or box, then it will slide out like a drawer. The other shelves will just slide out as normal-no hinges involved.

[Jerome Hanby]

I'm in the process of buildig Tom Clark style shop cabinets. My first cabinet had all slide out shelves. Part of Tom's "simple" method is putting plywood spacers on the cabinet side's inside face for the rawer slides. This leaves room for a face frame and I think the most important part, makes it easy to layout and install all the stuff while the side is flat on your workbench that would be a pain once the cabinet is assembled. Doesn't make thing easier to insqtll in your case since the cabinet already exists, but the spacers might give you a simple way to clear your doors and hardware.

[John A langley]

Darin and Kenny. Google tenntex. They make a system called "Quick Tray". The shelves are adjustable, they are easy, if you can't find them local, pm me. I buy them by the case.

[glenn bradley]

What Steve said. I just ripped hardwood stock to thickness or, when convenient dimensions prevailed, stacked plywood strips as spacers. This does cost you a little room left to right but, the ability to immediately move forward without a change out of all hinges involved makes it worth it to me. I used full extension slides (and wouldn't bother with 3/4's for this purpose) and so my spacers were about 1-3/8" tall and as deep as the space behind the face frame to the back of the carcass. Commercial blocks are made for this purpose.

http://www.mcfeelys.com/product/FSC-...ast-Blocktrade

http://www.tenntex.com/

http://www.mcfeelys.com/product/MP-B...r-Mount-Socket

http://www.wwhardware.com/drawer-and...de-accessories

[Don Wurscher]

One thing I forgot to mention, is that using the pilaster kit allows you to adjust/readjust the shelves as needed.

[Bill Huber]

When I did my cabinets I did not like mounting the slides to the face frame of the cabinet. What I did was to mount the bottom shelf/drawer to the bottom of the cabinet. On the second shelf/drawer I made 2 bridges out of some 3/4" stock and mounted it just like the bottom shelf. It makes for a very strong install and you can make you shelf any size you want.

[Peter J Lee]

Just to see some possibilities, I think its worth looking around the Rev-a-shelf website. I don't think I've ever heard a negative comment about the tenn-tex solution mentioned. I thought forum member Richard McComas had a nice solution that you can see in this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...mas+adjustable

We've got a few awkward and/or poorly utilized cabinets here and I plan on attaching the pull outs to the doors similar to Kerry.

[Mike Goetzke]

I thought I was the only one with this problem. I built cabinets for our kitchen and when it came to making pullouts for two tall pantry cabinets I really saw two things: 1) disadvantage of hidden hinges (Blumotion clip-top in my case). 2) face frame construction. In the pantry they probably reduced the storage space by 25%! Anyway, here is what I did after much searching. I didn't like the looks of adjustable type systems nor the white/black/tan look of slide spacers so I made my own spacers out of the hardwood I used for the cabinets. At the front I screwed them into the back side of the FF and used the manufactures rear brackets at the back (I used Hettich soft-close sildes - similar to Blum). I used my Woodpecker's story stick and Wixey digital angle gauge and made quick work of it:




Mike

[Grant Wilkinson]

I use these from Lee Valley. They must be available at other places, too.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware...614,43616&ap=2

[Gary Redden]

I do not think I would do it without replacing the hinges also, I use 155 degree zero protrusion when I do slide-outs.

379875_1709186385414_1710734569_846724_1687540320_n.jpg

399726_1709186505417_1710734569_846725_854768797_n.jpg

Gary

[Larry Edgerton]

Many of the kitchens that I build have no lower doors whatsoever, only drawers. One option, although a bit more intense would be to just do drawers and make new fronts to match. Doors with pullouts are clumsy in my opinion and I do not see the point.

Larry

[Kent A Bathurst]

I just did this - "helped" a friend execute a Christmas present promise for his wife.

Here's what I found - the drawer glides need 1/2" between the shelf and the opening. The hinges projected less than 1/2" - but not by much. Since they were face-frame cabinets, with full overlay doors, the front end of the glides were screwed directly into the face frame, and everything cleared just fine.

"We" did have to build a frame to mount in the back of hte cabinet to support the glides. He had purchased glides to match the length of the drawers he wanted, which were 4"+ short of the cabinet depth. If he had gotten full-length glides, then he could also have gotten the accessory mounting brackets to screw to the cabinet backs, and the framing would not have been needed.