Side-Mount Drawer Slides as Under-Mounts?

[Jonmustang]

The quick question is this: can you lay a side-mount drawer slide on its back and use it as an undermount slide? I called Knape & Vogt once a long time ago to ask the same question and I think I remember them saying that it could work, but it would decrease the load capacity by quite a bit.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

[sni-per]

I tried that once, for an opportunity to go with a little bigger drawer, and my experience was that it held very little weight, and didn't slide like I had hoped. I will admit though, that I tried to use a set of cheap HD sliders.

 

[rsanter]

I did that on the bottom pull outs in a kitchen application using accurides.
If I recall they were rated for it but at about 20% of the weight rating they had in their normal direction.
To be safe I ended up using 4 of them and it worked fine.
For a toolbox that will get lots of weight I'm not sure it's going to work as well

Bob

 

[Jonmustang]

I did that on the bottom pull outs in a kitchen application using accurides.
If I recall they were rated for it but at about 20% of the weight rating they had in their normal direction.
To be safe I ended up using 4 of them and it worked fine.
For a toolbox that will get lots of weight I'm not sure it's going to work as well

Bob

Okay, that's not necessarily bad news in my case. I'm retrofitting a narrow drawer and making it into a pull-out turntable tray. The weight of the tray + turntable is probably under 20lbs.

AFAIK, slides by KV or Accuride are rated individually and not per pair, so two slides rated at 75lbs would have a combined limit of 150lbs... 20% of which is about 30lbs when used as undermounts, right? Maybe I could step it up to using two 100lb-capacity slides just to be safe.

 

[machine_punk]

Going just from what I remember, you generally can, it just reduces the load rating by 50%. I seem to remember that if you go to the manufacturer's site and look up the white paper (tech sheet) on the particular slide you want to use, it will give you the load rating for using it like you mentioned. Been a while since I was looking at this, but I'm fairly confident in it.

Kev

 

[rsanter]

What depth do,you need.
I have some of the 24" accurides I could,part with

Bob

 

[Jonmustang]

What depth do,you need.
I have some of the 24" accurides I could,part with

Bob

Probably 14-15" actually, but I do appreciate the offer!

 

[Jonmustang]

I've attached an image that shows the overall idea. Since this is a great place for discussing projects, I'll ask for some thoughts on my ideas...

I'm trying to do this project fast and easy, so I wanted to use the tray that you see in the photo since it is already veneered all around. As you can tell, it'll be a tight fit in the opening even with the dustcover removed. The turntable has about 1/4" of clearance from above when the tray is sitting directly on the lower platform.

Most drawer slides are about 1/2" thick, so I figured I'd dado cut recesses into the tray to allow it sit lower on the slides (when mounted underneath).

Of course, I could attach sides to the tray and do a side-mount slide, or use a thinner tray, etc. Many of ways to skin a cat, but undermounting seemed to me like the easiest way to get the existing tray to mount really low.

 

[Krash Kadillak]

I swear I had an entertainment center just like that at one time - teak, and all 'open' without the drawer you are making.

 

[Jonmustang]

I swear I had an entertainment center just like that at one time - teak, and all 'open' without the drawer you are making.

Hah, yea, these things were pretty popular, I think. You can barely see it, but I have another one next to it. I'm kind of making a Franken-cabinet for a vintage stereo system I'm putting together for a friend.