A friend of mine, who doesn't have a lot of money, was flooded in the hurricane. This is a nice family, hardworking and kind, but without much money. Exactly the type of people that you love to help. After we dried out his house I offered to rebuild his kitchen for him.

I typically use Blum slides but I was trying to save a little money on this project so I ordered Accuride 3832C Full Extension Slide Self-Close Slides. I wanted to give him a nicer kitchen than he had before, so I made 12 drawers out of solid poplar with hand-cut dovetails. Given the amount of work being done on the drawers I printed the Accuride instructions and followed them meticulously.

I went to his house yesterday to install the drawers. The first drawer was really tight, I had to use a lot of force to close it. I assumed that I had made the drawer too big so I moved on to the next drawer. It was also too tight. So I moved on to the third drawer, yes too tight as well. At this point I was frustrated so I took out my hand plane and planed off a 1/16" from the sides, still too tight, so I planed off another 1/16". Mostly I'm angry at myself, I rushed into working without slowing down to think. I checked the drawers and they are very square and they were exactly the right size, at least they were before I started hand planing in anger!

Finally, I slowed down and started thinking. I pull out the next drawer slide from the box. I extend the slide and hold it straight up and down. It doesn't move. My drawers were fine all along. The slides are so stiff that the slide, by itself, barely closes. I go through the whole box and only one slide out of 24 seems correct. Maybe 6 more are adequate but not good. The other 17 are horrible. My son removed a drawer from our kitchen with a Blum side. He blew on the slide and it rolled 21" and closed from the strength of him blowing on it!

So at this point I don't know what to do.
  • Do I return the Accuride slides and request more to replace the bad ones? With a score of 1 out of 24 will the rest be any better?
  • Maybe switch brands to another side mount slide and hope that they require the same dimensions?
  • Do I switch to Blum undermount slides that I am used to? This will require me to rebuild all 12 drawers!
  • Is it stoopid to make solid wood, dovetailed drawers? Should I just make them out of plywood and be done in a single day?
  • Is there a better option than one of the above?