Spent a whole afternoon fighting a simple drawer slide install

I was putting in some under mount slides on a set of kitchen drawers last week, the kind where you have to get the side clearance and the front-to-back spacing just right. I measured everything three times, but the first drawer kept binding. I kept adjusting the rear bracket by tiny amounts, thinking it was a height issue. Turns out, the cabinet box itself had a very slight twist I hadn't caught, so one side was about 1/16" out of square over the length of the slide. Fixing that meant shimming the entire cabinet off the wall, which took about 4 hours total for what should have been a 30 minute job. Anyone have a quick method for checking cabinet boxes for twist before you start hanging doors and drawers?

3 comments

3 Comments

william_craig726d ago

Man, that reminds me of the time I tried to hang a closet door in my old apartment. The frame was so out of whack I ended up using a whole pack of those little cardboard shims from the hardware store. I was convinced I'd messed up the hinge placement, but nope, just a wall that wasn't even close to straight. Felt like I was building a house of cards just to get it to close without scraping.

dianawilson25d ago

Ugh, that's the worst. It makes you wonder how many other things in that place were just slapped together. Like, was the electrical wiring just as crooked? Kinda scary when you realize the people who built it didn't care at all.

the_robin25d ago

Honestly, that kind of thing is just part of the job sometimes. Older houses settle and even new builds can have small issues you only find during install. A quick check with a long level across the front of the cabinet opening usually spots a twist before you get too far into it.