Upgrading drawer slides?

[muskaman67]

Ok guys, lets say i just purchased a craftsman roll cart and want to do a little bit up upgrading and reinforcing to make it feel like a snap on roll cart. do you think its possible? do you think im able to upgrade the slides? cause i would be thinking it would be a lot cheaper doing it this way if at all possible. thanks.

 

[peter_x]

Are they ball-bearing slides? You could see what fits:

http://www.rockler.com/CategoryView.cfm?Cat_ID=41

 

[Rickster]

I was able to change the friction sliders on my Kennedy over to roller ones with no problems. I purchased them from Kennedy. I was not as lucky with the Snap-on box. Those boxes seem to be either roller or friction slider and they mount to the box differently. I've not tried to upgrade a Craftsman. I would recommend taking a good look and some measurements off yours and then heading over to Sears and check out how the rollers are mounted and if they'll fit your box.

 

[Packard V8]

IMHO, it's only worth the effort if someone gave you the slides. Here are my thoughts.

1. You can't shine $hit, no matter how hard you rub. If the box is built cheap, it'll be a cheap box with expensive slides. When I've priced replacing all the slides, I can buy a better box on craigslist for the same money and no labor every time
2. I'm not in love with roller slides except on the really big, really deep boxes. Most good big deep boxes already come with roller slides. On the smaller boxes, friction slides work just fine.
3. I've seen a few cheaper boxes with cheaper roller slides die quickly. If the drawers are loaded to capacity, the plastic balls die, the drawer fronts bow.

your box, your money, your decision. let us know how it goes.

thxn, jack vines

 

[Chris Adams]

Without exact info, you are just asking 'how high is up'. Lots of answers.

Putting rollers in a friction box only works on a very few boxes. Most Craftsman boxes are not possible to convert as the slides are part of the metal.

The labor/slides costs would be out of line.

Now if it has slides, say a two drawer roll cart, and you want better slides, yup, you can do that.

Just swapped a couple slides on a SnapOn chest, the original slides were 24 ball bearing, the replacement slides were 32 bearing and way smoother.
So even a SnapOn can benefit from a slide upgrade.

Seriously, though, it usually costs way more than the effort is worth.

If it has removable slides and you can get some cheap slides it may be worth while just for fun.

 

[muskaman67]

ya after pricing out the slides and all it better just to dish out like 200 or 300 more and have a good tool box. thanks.

 

[Moose-LandTran]

I was able to change the friction sliders on my Kennedy over to roller ones with no problems. I purchased them from Kennedy. I was not as lucky with the Snap-on box. Those boxes seem to be either roller or friction slider and they mount to the box differently. I've not tried to upgrade a Craftsman. I would recommend taking a good look and some measurements off yours and then heading over to Sears and check out how the rollers are mounted and if they'll fit your box.

My Snap-on bottom and side boxes have friction slides, but have the slots in both the box and the drawers to mount ball bearing slides. But the friction slide carriers are spot welded in.