Drawer Slide Issues

[Patrick Harper]

I just finished an outfeed table that has 4 drawers. The bottom two drawers are roughly 19" wide and 12" tall. The top two drawers are 19" wide and 6" tall. I'm using Richeliue 14" side mount full extension slides. I've confirmed that the carcass and drawers are square. However, both of my bottom drawers tend to exhibit a bit of extra friction in the middle of the slide, and they want to call out of the slides if pulled to full extension. My first thought is that the drawers are slightly too narrow which is causing the friction and the fallout at full-extension. However, the openings and drawer widths seem to be consistent within less than 1/32nd. Any thoughts?

[Andrew Hughes]

How about the side of the drawer box is it flat.Maybe you have screws that are bowing the slides.Same goes for the carcass.

[Patrick Harper]

I will check this when I get home from work.

[Lee Schierer]

How are you determining that things are square? It sounds to me like some thing is out of square. Measure the ditch of the drawer Bottom at the front , middle and back. The measurements should be identical. Then measure the drawer box diagonally. The measurements should match. Next sit the box on a flat surface and see if it rocks from corner to corner. Once you recheck the drawer check the width of the drawer opening where the slide sits in the carcase with a story stick. The stick should fit the same all along the length of the slides.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

If these are ball bearing slides, and they want to fall out, then it sounds like the drawer box portion is not inserted correctly. What is the drawer box to side gap?

[Larry Edgerton]

If those are Chinese slides I have had an issue with my own that I traced back to the grease used being too thick. I sprayed one with carburetor cleaner and it worked well until the cleaner evaporated so I took them to my parts cleaner[car guy] , cleaned off the grease, and oiled them up with synthetic motor oil. They worked fine then.

Larry

[Martin Wasner]

If those are Chinese slides I have had an issue with my own that I traced back to the grease used being too thick. I sprayed one with carburetor cleaner and it worked well until the cleaner evaporated so I took them to my parts cleaner[car guy] , cleaned off the grease, and oiled them up with synthetic motor oil. They worked fine then.

Larry

I've used motorcycle chain lube to get cranky side mount slides to behave better with good results. LPS-2 would likely be a very good lubricant for this application as well.

Side mount slides in my experience like to have the drawer a little smaller rather than larger. If everything is perfect, (which isn't likely or very repeatable), you can build things to the tight number. KV8400's spec the drawer to be 1" to 1-1/16" less than the opening. It's usually better to go with the 1-1/16".

[Patrick Harper]

I think I've figured out the problem, but not exactly what caused the issue. After some more investigation, I discovered that the ball-bearing track had somehow made itself past the stop and wedged itself. I disassembled everything and tried the slide out on the drawer box (outside of the carcass). After inserting the drawer half into the carcass half, the problem reoccurs. The ball-bearing track makes its way passed the stop and gets wedged. I think it may just be a case of cheap slides. These are normally about $12/pr, but were on sale at the local borg for $5. I purchased a replacement. If this doesn't work I'll just try better slides.

[Patrick Harper]

The replacement slide fixed the issue. Smooth as butter now. Thanks for everyone's help. Next time I will buy better slides.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

KV 8400's are my favorite ball bearing slide. Very, very smooth.