Sliding Door question

Re: Sliding Door question

Dick Coers

It’ll slide better after clear finish and waxed. You should be able to find nylon buttons used under wood on wood drawers. A strip of thin plastic in the bottom of the groove is another option. An old fix for drawers was thumbtacks.

Re: Sliding Door question

John Veerkamp

Get some UMF strip and glue into the bottom of the groove.

There's a reason they make plastic tracks *LINK*

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

They work better than bare wood. I've used them on bypass doors and they do the trick. For thicker doors, you just need to make your rabbits reversed on the front and back doors.


Sliding door tracks

Yesss....

Barry Irby

I have thought of most of those things.

Maybe not thumb tacks but something similar. (All the best ideas were stolen by our ancestors)

I actually have some plastic track, but it is is set up for glass and I thought it too narrow for 3/4" thick wood doors.

I considered Formica glued into the grooves.

I miss-figured one door and glued a couple of thin pieces of oak on the bottom and its sliding better than it's brother. I am thinking about thin pieces of very dense very hard wood, Maybe Osage Orange on the bottom of both.

I think a very small amount of sanding dust and maybe grit has gotten into the tracks, I will clean them and sand them into submission.

This is something of a Mid Century Modern piece. Maybe I should have used barn door track.

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming.

Beat me to it...

Jim Matthews

+1 on this.

Put the strip in the track, rather than on the door.

Less chance to lift a corner that way.

Slippit

Jim Matthews

https://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-G5562-Sil-Free-Sliding-Compound/dp/B0000E6TJ8

Love this stuff.

Apply after finishing.

A little goes a long way.

Re: Sliding Door rollers *LINK*

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

I used rollers and guides like these from Rockler when I mad the sliding doors for our TV cabinet.




https://www.rockler.com/european-style-sliding-door-hardware

Re: Sliding Door rollers *LINK*

John McGaw

The one time I did it I used Klein's similar solution. This one requires only a single saw kerf for the rollers to run in and another for the upper guides to slide through. This hardware has become increasingly hard to find in the US for some reason, at least in the places I normally shop.


Klein Roll 12 Sliding Door Hardware

Thanks Lee and John

Barry Irby

Should have done the research first. If I had known of either of those systems I would have used one of them.

Still might.

Re: Sliding Door question

David Yoho

Since it's possibly too late for the various plastic track solutions there's still the old tried and true. I bet once you've applied your finish an application of wax will work.

Re: Sliding Door question

Barry Irby

David, I think you are correct. If I had known of the tracks and wheels, I probably would have used them. As it is, I think I am going to tune up what I have and go with it. Frankly, I suspect these doors will get so little use it really does not matter.

The one door I installed the little pads or shoes on slides better than the other. I think I will either cut away part of the bottom edge in a very slight arc to leave two limited contact pads or glue on little pads of very had wood (Osage Orange maybe.) The grain in the door is horizontal so either of these will be easy.

I am fascinated with the tracks and wheels and may get some to play with. It's the drawer runner Vs old fashioned wood on wood construction conundrum. There are no fine antique chests of drawers that had mechanical runners. Oh, Wait, they had not been invented. Could it be they were invented to solve a problem? Maybe Goddard or Chippendale would have used both of these if they had them.

Thanks for the help.