Drawer slide issue

[Uncle Ben]

Hey everyone, I've got a drawer slide issue that I thought the woodworkers in the forum would know the most about. I replaced all the 30 year old metal slides in my kitchen will all new soft close/self close slides, and all of them are working fine EXCEPT for one bank of 3 drawers. There is one cabinet that has 3 drawers on top of each other, and the solf close/self close will not work at all on two of them, and won't work consistently on one of them. The part that slides forward and back (with the latch/switch on it) that is on the cabinet side of the slide gets pushed back when you first insert and seat the drawer, and after that the soft close will not engage and the drawer does not self-close and just slams shut.

I installed the exact same slide on about 12 other drawers in the kitchen and they are all working consistently. I also tried removing the non-working slides and swapped them for a different set, but those behave exactly the same. I tried different brands and a different set of the same brand that is installed throughout the kitchen, so there seems to be an issue with the cabinet or the drawer itself (which I read can cause these issue), but not sure how to determine the exact cause or how to remedy it.

Here is an image of the slides I'm using. Any ideas??
Thanks!!

 

[PCustoms]

Cabinet or drawer boxes are crooked.

I'd lean towards cabinet if all 3 are doing it.

How are these mounted? I assume face frame based on cabinet age...

Odds are you have the slides "racked", which can be compensated in the mounts.

 

[The Cobbler]

sounds like something is out of alignment , screws are binding or the width isn't correct . hard to guess at it .

 

[Uncle Ben]

PCustoms, you're correct, they are face frame cabinets. The front edge of the slide is flush to the front edge of the faceframe, and I'm using a spacer strip at the rear of the slide to fill the gap to mount slide inside the cabinet, since the faceframe off-sets the slide inward. This is working fine on the rest of the cabinets.

 

[Shiftless]

I have had similar trouble with my installs.
As others have said, there is likely a misalignment issue. When I had that problem, I cut a piece of 1x2 the exact distance between the cabinet walls measured at one point and then moved the stick around to see the variation. Once you know where the trouble is, you can remount the slides using shims to get the slides perfectly parallel. Perfect to within 1/32 inch. I found that little steel washers placed between the slide and cabinet right where the screw goes through worked. Hopefully you won’t have to use your belt sander to shave 1/16 of an inch or so off the side of the drawer. Do what you have to do. Good luck.

edit: I build the cabinets and mount the slides on the insides of the cabinet walls.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Thanks, Shiftless.

 

[PCustoms]

PCustoms, you're correct, they are face frame cabinets. The front edge of the slide is flush to the front edge of the faceframe, and I'm using a spacer strip at the rear of the slide to fill the gap to mount slide inside the cabinet, since the faceframe off-sets the slide inward. This is working fine on the rest of the cabinets.

I bet your box is out of wack.

Assuming the fronts are even, Try loosening the rear screws, then slide the drawer partway in to see if the slides move.

Mine are mounted with a rear bracket that gives adjustability, this was the process to dial things in.

 

[Uncle Ben]

I will try that, thanks PCustoms!

 

[PCustoms]

I will try that, thanks PCustoms!

Welcome.

This might not fix it, but should indicate where things are wonky. The other thing that may help is pull the slide out to full extension, out a good (need fine increments) level on each side to compare, one may be "pitched".

Think of this as a squishy cube, right now you've got something like this:



You need to figure out what's off and get it back to a cube.

My bet is the spacing on the rear is off. If you push it closed is the drawer front making even contact?

 

[Shiftless]

My bet is the spacing on the rear is off. If you push it closed is the drawer front making even contact?

That’s a good bet.
But that hinges on the drawer being perfectly rectangular. One of my drawer fronts doesn’t make perfectly even contact with the face frame because the drawer itself is an eighth of an inch off over a 36 inch width. The sides are parallel within spec. I could tear off the drawer front and shim it out, but I’m not that much of a perfectionist.

 

[PCustoms]

That’s a good bet.
But that hinges on the drawer being perfectly rectangular. One of my drawer fronts doesn’t make perfectly even contact with the face frame because the drawer itself is an eighth of an inch off over a 36 inch width. The sides are parallel within spec. I could tear off the drawer front and shim it out, but I’m not that much of a perfectionist.

Your sides/slides can still be perpendicular to each other but not 90 degrees to the face.



As odd as that looks, it would close.


If you have a trapezoid then it won't work

 

[Shiftless]

Your sides/slides can still be perpendicular to each other but not 90 degrees to the face.



As odd as that looks, it would close.


If you have a trapezoid then it won't work

That’s a good (but of course highly exaggerated) illustration of what I was talking about. The slides will work fine as long as the sides of the drawers they are mounted on and the cabinet sides they attach to are parallel.

 

[PCustoms]

That’s a good (but of course highly exaggerated) illustration of what I was talking about. The slides will work fine as long as the sides of the drawers they are mounted on and the cabinet sides they attach to are parallel.

I have half a mind to make and end table or nightstand in that shape now. Just not sure where to put it