OT: Replacing Drawer Slides

[Joerg]

Hello Jim,

Or worse. "Why is the carpet is wet?" ;-)

That's exactly what happened a couple of years ago. We had barbeque with
visitors so everyone was outside. Then someone went inside but came back
in a hurry. "The carpet is all wet". A toilet tank had cracked for no
particular reason, no earthquake, nothing. Of course, these things do
not feature an excessive runtime shut-off.

Just imagine this happening while you are on vacation.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Jim Thompson]

Hello Jim,


That's exactly what happened a couple of years ago. We had barbeque with
visitors so everyone was outside. Then someone went inside but came back
in a hurry. "The carpet is all wet". A toilet tank had cracked for no
particular reason, no earthquake, nothing. Of course, these things do
not feature an excessive runtime shut-off.

Just imagine this happening while you are on vacation.

Regards, Joerg

A neighbor, while on vacation, had a pipe burst in the ceiling over
the sunken living room.

By the time water reached door threshold and the water showed outside,
it was too late... everything ruined :-(

...Jim Thompson

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Hello Jim,


That's exactly what happened a couple of years ago. We had barbeque with
visitors so everyone was outside. Then someone went inside but came back
in a hurry. "The carpet is all wet". A toilet tank had cracked for no
particular reason, no earthquake, nothing. Of course, these things do
not feature an excessive runtime shut-off.

Just imagine this happening while you are on vacation.

Regards, Joerg

Insurance company, disaster recovery team, and some tens of thousands
of dollars claim.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Joerg]

Hello Spehro,

Insurance company, disaster recovery team, and some tens of thousands
of dollars claim.

Not in California. "You use it, you lose it". Most likely their won't
renew the policy after such a claim and you may get blacklisted.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Joerg]

Hello Jim,

A neighbor, while on vacation, had a pipe burst in the ceiling over
the sunken living room.

By the time water reached door threshold and the water showed outside,
it was too late... everything ruined :-(

That is sad. We had something similar around here but it turned out to
have been vandalism. Someone jammed a garden hose into an attic vent,
turned it on and took off. It wasn't noticed until water was gushing
down the street.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Hello Spehro,


Not in California. "You use it, you lose it". Most likely their won't
renew the policy after such a claim and you may get blacklisted.

Regards, Joerg

Well, I guess that it's one way to keep insurance rates down!


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Joerg]

Hello Spehro,

Well, I guess that it's one way to keep insurance rates down!

Not really. It is very expensive and some companies do not even write
California anymore. In our area rates shot up big time after some
careless kids started a wildfire. We installed a metal roof but that
didn't help. They make blanket decisions. The only way to get it below
$2000 was to accept a huge deductible, the highest they had.

When we came to CA it was hard to buy car insurance because we had lived
outside the US before. So the only way to get it was the carrot, only
giving them our home coverage if they take the cars as well. Now it's
the other way around. You can buy car insurance at every street corner
but a house is tough.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Doug Schultz]

I think Anthony was right though
is there no way to remove the drawer front?
lots of time there is a drawer box and then nice front on it
if thats not the case then get the glides close using a screw that is too
small but only like 2 screws per drawer where the slide screws to the
cabinet. THen when you have em all in you just kinda nudge the drawers
around till they are true.
Then you put in the full size screws to secure them in place.

Doug

 

[Guest]

Yep. We have a rule around here... the management states, "No
"honey-do" projects during the week, but on the weekend, you're mine"
;-)

About 30 years ago, while rummaging through Boeing surplus, I happened
across 3 pairs of the type of glides you're decribing. I bought them
because they were there, and I just couldn't pass them up-but I've never
used them. These are 3-section ball bearing glides clearly designed to
support something the weight of a full grown man. Because of the third
section, you can pull the drawer out to the edge.

What am I offered?

Norm Strong

 

[Jim Thompson]

About 30 years ago, while rummaging through Boeing surplus, I happened
across 3 pairs of the type of glides you're decribing. I bought them
because they were there, and I just couldn't pass them up-but I've never
used them. These are 3-section ball bearing glides clearly designed to
support something the weight of a full grown man. Because of the third
section, you can pull the drawer out to the edge.

What am I offered?

Norm Strong

They're readily available with 100# ratings at Lowes or Home Depot.

My problem is they don't mount the same as Blum, so there are
alignment accuracy issues.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Paul Hovnanian P.E.]

[snip]

That works, but only for depth alignment. The heavy duty ball bearing
guides that I bought do not have vertical slots. Probably because they
wouldn't hold when the drawer is loaded and instead slowly slip down.
Thing is, if the rails aren't 100% level and tracking each other the
drawer is going to be "sticky". Same if the horizontal distance meanders
because of wrong shims. There just is no tolerance.

The slides I bought do have vertical slots. They aren't intended to hold
the drawer load, but only to hold the slides in a vertical position
until screws are located and installed in the adjacent round holes.

In order to ensure proper operation, the slides are mounted to the
drawer first. Here, care must be taken to ensure that they are parallel.
This is easier to do, since this work is done with the drawer box on a
workbench where suitable jigs and clamps can be used.

 

[Joerg]

Hello Paul,

The slides I bought do have vertical slots. They aren't intended to hold
the drawer load, but only to hold the slides in a vertical position
until screws are located and installed in the adjacent round holes.

That's cool. Mine didn't have that. One way out would have been to use
really small screws in holes I wouldn't use, move until true and then
install the big ones. But I just measured very diligently and it came
out perfect. Or so says my wife who is the ultimate authority when it
comes to judge the outcome of our honey-do projects.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Rich Grise]

They're readily available with 100# ratings at Lowes or Home Depot.

My problem is they don't mount the same as Blum, so there are
alignment accuracy issues.

Give me the dimensions of the cabinet, the mounting hole patterns
for the slides, and some photos, and I'll draw you up a little
adapter/shim/jig. The accuracy of the actual alignment will depend
on how sturdy the cabinets themselves are, and how good you are with
a tape measure and a level.

Cheers!
Rich