Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Tim of San Leandro

>I've heardCSH....custom service hardware?....has decent ball bearing slides at excellent prices.

For hand tool drawers....I'd use the traditional runner/kicker and let the drawer be the guides or employ wooden slides. Wax the parts that contact each other to help facilitate opening/closing.

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Howard Pollack

>Try these folks: http://www.gliderite.com/ - I bought a box of slides from them, they are really well made, much better than most, and very reasonalbe in price. They often sell on e-bay, search: drawer slides. Real easy folk to deal with. I have no relationship with them except as a very satisfied customer. -Howard

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Chris Knight

>You don't say if this is "fine furniture" or utility stuff. For the latter, in drawers under my bench that have served well for several years and look like they will go on at least as long as me, I used the method of extended a quarter inch ply base out at the sides of the drawers and which slides in matching dados in the case sides. A bit of wax and they slide perfectly, even when quite heavily laden.

One advantage of this method, apart from being dead easy and quick to make, is that it loses very little of the available volume inside the case.

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I plan on using wood in my under bench cabinets.I think metal slides are like power tools.They get the job done easier and quicker but what's the rush? They don't have any personal feel to them,and in my opinion they just don't fit under a bench used for hand work.Plus,the space they take up isn't compensated by appearance.

Look at the Toolbox Book. There are some nice examples of drawer slide options in there.

Jack

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Patrick Gibbons, Houston, TX

>I adapted a plan from one of the ww mags that suggested using 1/2" aluminum angle. A shallow trench on the carcass to put them into and a 1/8th" dado for them to ride in on the drawer sides. I was going to use this and couldn't find a source for the angle. After I built them I found a local hardware store that carried the product. I'm still going to make some more storage and I now have the angle aluminum to use.

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Ernie Miller Topeka

>I'm using wooden slides the ones that are finished are waxed up and work quite easly. They take up less room and look much better. I have used both maple and popular when making mine and the maple works best but either work.

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Whatever brand you choose get full extension ones you don't want to have get down to have a look in the drawer.

Full-extension ball-bearing slides

Paul M. in San Diego

>My dad's bench had drawers with wooden supports, and after about 30 years they were badly worn out. When you opened a drawer, you could only open it 1/2 way, and then you had to dig through the back of the drawer to get what you wanted. Any further, and it started tipping and threatened to drop it's 50lbs of contents on your foot.

I used full-extension accuride slides on my bench. I like being able to get to the back of a drawer without grovelling. I used heavy-duty (I think around 80lbs rating but I could be wrong), as I wanted to be able to use a pulled-out drawer as a bench slave to support the end of a board if desired. They cost more, but you only cry once.

They do, but...

Dan Moening in Sacramento

>be forewarned that CSH does not include screws and does charge shipping.

I purchased a number of sets of Accuride clone drawer glides from them and the quality is indestinquishable from the originals. I don't recall the total cost but even with a trip to the hardware store for screws and the cost of shipping it was still a very good deal.

Dan.

Re: Bench Tool Cabinet Questions

SteveC

>I'm using Accuride 100lb full extension on mine. For my purposes, they're faster and should last longer. If I had more time and considered my bench fine furniture (I don't) I would make wooden ones. If you are going to make wooden slides, one trick is to use p-lam (formica) as the bearing surface for the runners. A little wax and it slides great and the p-lam lasts longer than wood over the long haul.

Depends on drawer contents

Jim Cosgrove

>The drawers in the tool chest under my bench run on waxed wooden runners. Very slick. However, my drawers are quite shallow--many are only 1.5 inches deep because I use them for hand tools. That way, I do not have to dig through stuff to get to the tool I want. My largest drawers are about 4.5 inches deep and hold planes and other stuff. Before I decided on drawer sizes I figured out what I wanted to put where and then measured the tools to determine the shallowest drawer in which they would fit.

I like the fact that it is easy to pull the drawer all the way out and set it on top of the bench. Also, the runners are very easy to replace if they every wear out.

On the other hand, if you need drawers for p*w*r tools or other heavy stuff, you certainly might want to consider HD full extension slides.

Re: Depends on drawer contents

SteveC

>Jim, I agree completely. I didn't mention it my previous post but I am using the top two rows of drawers on my bench for hardware. I thought the metal slides were a better choice in that instance.