Can we talk about how long it took me to figure out I was measuring my drawer slides wrong

Spent 6 hours last Saturday fighting a set of undermount slides before I realized I was subtracting the wrong 1/16th from my cabinet opening and now I have to re-cut three drawer boxes.

2 comments

2 Comments

paule531mo ago

...and honestly I used to be one of those guys who insisted you always measure from the back of the cabinet, like that's some kind of iron law or whatever. But after messing up three drawer boxes in a row (yeah I feel your pain) I finally realized that undermount slides are a completely different animal with their own weird little rules. The trick for me was just measuring from the front face of the cabinet box instead, subtracting the slide's own length from the drawer box itself (if that makes sense). It's one of those tiny details that makes you feel like a real dummy when you finally figure it out, but hey, at least now we know for next time.

derek_bell1mo ago

So you're saying you measure from the front of the box instead of the back? How do you account for the cabinet face frame or overlay gap when you do it that way? I've always gone off the back because I figured the slide's mounting bracket locks into the back of the cabinet, so measuring from the front seems like it'd throw off the whole depth if your face frame is thicker than standard. Not calling you wrong or anything, just trying to wrap my head around it because I've been measuring from the back for years and my undermount slides always end up either too tight or too loose. Maybe I should just try your method on my next build and see if it clicks.