full extension slide help, please

[Dan Bundy]

Building a coffee table that has four drawers, two stacks of two. The slides are Lee Valley 100-lb full extension slides.

Trying to put the drawers in and all go in nicely except the lower left. It slides in about halfway, then stops. I can't really tell if one side or the other is cause. Is there a way to figure out what's causing the problem. I'm guessing there's really not a lot -- either slides are misaligned (not the same height), they are installed "sloped" front end higher than rear or vice versa, or something is out of square. Seeing as how the other three went in easily, I'm thinking case is OK. I also used the same spacers for the left and right side slides. Drawer width at front and back seemed to measure the same. Diagonals of the drawer were maybe a 1/16th off, but I was getting frustrated, so I probably need to measure those again.

The installation instructions don't say anything about what to look for, nor does the plan (Wood Magazine). They seem to just assume all will be hunky dory. They never met me!

If someone can give me a systematic way to start checking this (or if you live close enough to Frankfort, KY, to take a look, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks
Dan

[Andrew Fleck]

Dan,
I would check the drawer itself. Actually the first thing I would do is pull one of your other drawers out that fit correctly and see if it will go into the problem area. If it doesn't fit it has to be your drawer.

[George May]

Is there a mounting screw sticking out and hitting the slide? which would prevent it from sliding all the way in.

[Richard Coers]

Ball carriages okay? You should be able to load the drawer on one side, then the other, and see that one side is really stuck. If not, it must be the drawer. Check diagnals to check the drawer for square, measure front and back for same width. The tolerances for drawer fit all have to be undersize. Basically no tolerance allowed for oversize. Drawer slides are noted as a width, +0, -1/16.

[Dan Bundy]

I actually did try one of the other drawers (the one that goes directly above the problem drawer) and it didn't go in either. Nor did the bottom one work in the hole above, fwiw.

As best I can tell, all of the screws holding the slides are in as far as they will go. The drawer mounts easily, but only gets in about halfway before stopping.

Without a drawer mounted, the slides attached to the case (ball carriages), slide in and out smoothly.

Before I even glued the drawers together, I dry fit them all and slid them into their openings with a pair of slides next to them to make sure there was enough room. I ended up putting the sides back in the planer to take about 1/32" total off each drawer width. they all seemed to go in well, so I was surprised when this one drawer didn't fit.

So now, do I just try shimming, say, the back end of one side, Give it a try and then keep moving the shim to see if I can get something good to happen? then try shimming various points along the case sides?

If none of the shimming works and I decide the drawer is too wide, how horrible an idea is it to run a drawer side over the jointer to narrow it up a bit? Drawer is ~19x18x5.

I thought I about had this project licked, then this. It's like my father always used to say, "It's always something, my little Roseanne Roasannadanna."

thanks for the tips so far.

Dan

[fred klotz]

Sounds like the cabinet mounted portion is too tight at the rear, or the front of the drawer is too wide. As previously mentioned, there is a fair tolerance for excess clearance, but none in the other direction.

And, I have resorted to running a drawer side over the jointer. After checking for any hardware, and reassuring myself that the drawer is actually too wide.

It's always easier to shim too wide cabinet mounted pieces than it is to make the drawer smaller.

[Brent VanFossen]

When the drawer stops moving, does it do so suddenly, as if it runs into a screw, or does it just get tight and wedge? It could be one of the screws on the drawer portion that is a little tall that prevents the slide from going in. If the cabinet is narrow, it could cause the glide to fit tighter and hit the screw where it doesn't in the opening for the drawer above (you said you swapped drawers with the same issue).

If it's a sudden stop on one of the glides, that side will resist movement while the opposite glide will move an extra quarter to half inch. In other words, one side will stop hard and the other will allow you to push it a bit more until the drawer torques and stops.

If the drawer gets tighter and wedges, you may be able to see a shiny spot of compressed wood grain or scuffed or damaged finish at the tight spot. That will give you a clue where to remove material.

Make sure it's not something as simple as a drawer bottom reinforcement or something in the enclosure that's just in the way.

Can you remove the top drawer while you install the bottom one and watch with a mirror and flashlight?

You said, "Without a drawer mounted, the slides attached to the case (ball carriages), slide in and out smoothly." What if you removed the slides from the case and attached them only to the drawer? Do they also glide freely?

[Rick Potter]

I don't know if this is the same problem, but I just tried installing a full extension KV in a new kitchen carcase, and it would not go all the way in. No drawer, just the one slide mounted on flat plywood. Took it off and it still wouldn't work laying on the bench. I cannot see anything wrong with it, nothing is bent, and it is new, out of the box. I have also used at least 30 from the same batch and this is the first one to bind up.

I guess I just got a bad one.

Rick Potter

[Joe Scharle]

Make a pinch gauge and check parallelism front to back of both the drawer and opening.

Pinch gauge: 2 small overlapping sticks, beveled on the ends, held by 'pinching' them together.

[Dan Bundy]

I finally got to fool with it some more yesterday afternoon. NOt sure what I did, but I got it working. I tried it in the other two openings I hadn't put it in yet, and it sort of worked in the lower right (it was originally lower left), but it seemed like the drawer part on one side wasn't quite in the ball guides, so I shimmed that with some tiny (#8) washers and it worked like it was supposed to. Tried it again in it's original space and it worked fine. Doesn't make any sense to me, really, but it's working, so I'm happy.

Thanks so much for all your input. Can't beat the Creekers for advice and support.

Dan

[Lee Schierer]

Sometimes the intermediate slide part gets out of position, usually too far in and when you insert the drawer the drawer will stick about half way in. There are two ways to fix this. First, pull the drawer out and make sure the inner part of the slide with all the captive balls is pulled as far forward as it will go. Install the drawer being careful not to push the inner slide in until it engages the track on the drawer. Then push the drawer in. If it still sticks part way closed, just push hard and the part of the slide mounted on the drawer will slide on the balls and go closed. It won't hurt the slide. The balls can't turn because the intermediate slide has hit the stops and is holding the balls in place.