Drawer Box Sizing With Blum Blumotion Drawer Runners
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Nancy Hiller is a weekly contributor to the Store Blog. Expect for her articles every Monday morning and be certain to check out her book,Making Things Work.
The drawers in this bar are fitted on Blum Tandem slides.
So you've decided to mountain the drawers for your project on Blum Tandem slides. What practice you demand to know before y'all start cutting out drawer parts?
1. Cull your slide model and length
Notation: The post-obit instructions are for Blum Tandem 563 slides. The drawer width requirements are slightly dissimilar from those for model 569.
The slides come up in 3″ increments, starting at 9″ and running up to 30″, but the virtually normally used length is 21″, because information technology'due south the size that works with standard 24″-deep base cabinets. Why not use a 24″ long slide? A standard 24″ deep cabinet won't accommodate information technology. The slide lengths are nominal, not actual; they refer to the depth of the drawer yous'll build, not the length of the slide. The slides themselves are a little longer than their nominal size, to conform the adjustment features.
A few weeks ago, I shared how to install Blum Tandem Slides with two jigs in a blog postal service. One time you have the slides in place, here's what comes next.
2. Make up one's mind the thickness of your drawer box parts
The thickness of your drawer parts will bear upon the length of the drawer'southward forepart and dorsum, so it'southward a good idea to determine this element early on. My preferred thickness for most applications is 1/two″, because it looks finer than, say 5/viii″ or three/4″. That said, if you're starting with 4/4 stock and are just going to be turning the unneeded thickness into chips, you may prefer to keep your parts thicker to relieve material and fourth dimension. For this exercise, I'll use 1/two″ as the thickness.
three.Determine the other dimensions of your drawer parts
Remember from my last post that if y'all're using Blum Tandem slides, you lot'll need to use a face to the drawer forepart to muffle the spaces around the drawer box. The face can be inset, one-half- or full-overlay. In this post, I'll stick to the drawer box, carve up from the face.
You need to consider three master dimensions in determining the size of your drawer: width, depth (front to back; in this instance, the depth of the drawer corresponds to the length of the slide), and top.
A. Drawer depth from front to back (i.e., length of sides)
For this exercise, nosotros're going with a standard 21″ (nominal) drawer slide. Considering I'm going to build the drawer with through dovetails, my sides volition be the full (nominal) length of the drawer slide: 21″.
This drawer is made with through dovetails.
The same would apply if I were putting the drawer together with biscuits; the sides would need to come all the way to the front end of the drawer box, with the front end and back fitting between them, for maximum strength (i.e., to resist coming apart nether the tension of being pulled forward).
The crude arrow points to the dorsum of the drawer, where the tilt adjustment mechanism fits into a hole in the drawer'due south dorsum.
If you plan to employ blind dovetails such as those produced past many router jigs, you volition need to decrease the corporeality of wood left at the front and back from the overall length of the slide to determine your drawer sides' length.
B. Acme
Because the runners are designed to sit between the drawer sides and are 1/2″ loftier, the height of your drawer will need to factor in this ane/2″ beneath the drawer bottom plus the thickness of the lesser, plus nonetheless much vertical clearance y'all need for the contents you plan to store in the drawer. Allow'south say you're building a drawer for a food processor, a blender, and a few other minor kitchen appliances. The get-go question: Tin can you take the appliance apart to reduce the superlative y'all'll require?
This food processor and blender simply demand 10″ in tiptop for storage when the parts are disassembled.
Now add together your net superlative requirement + drawer bottom thickness + 1/2″ required past the slides to become the net vertical dimension. *Note that the drawer sides don't have to come up to the top of the contents. For many applications, information technology's more than convenient to have lower drawer sides, as they make moving bulky objects in and out of a drawer easier. For apparatus drawers, I oftentimes make the sides, front, and back simply high enough to go on the contents from sliding out — and then, in this case, 4″. Just the net vertical dimension is still determined by the height required by thecontents.
This big drawer for storage containers has relatively high sides, to keep the containers and their lids from falling over the edges. A similar drawer for large items such every bit appliances or pots and pans could be fabricated with lower sides.
You'll need at to the lowest degree nine/sixteen″ below the drawer sides and 1/iv″ higher up them, i.e. a total of 13/16″ in additional height, to determine your minimum vertical opening.
Let'due south say I'm going to utilize a 1/2″ thick bottom for this drawer because these appliances and the others I'm going to shop in information technology are relatively heavy. This means I need:
ten″ + 1/2″ (drawer bottom thickness) + 1/2″ (slide requirement) = my net vertical dimension, i.e. eleven″
At present I'll add the 13/16″ of infinite for clearance below and above to yield the minimum vertical opening: eleven 13/16″.
If I'k putting this drawer at the bottom of a three-drawer stack in a cabinet with a traditional face frame and drawer rails, this means the distance between the lesser chiffonier track (i.east., the top edge of the bottom confront frame member) and the kickoff drawer rail (i.e., the lower border of the bottom-most drawer runway) must be at least 11-13/16″. Of course, I can make this altitude larger if I have infinite and aesthetics demand it,but I cannot make it smaller.
You need to go through the calculations higher up to lay out the vertical components of your chiffonier (unless you lot just want to space your drawers based on how the faces will look, rather than trying to program for particular objects that need to exist stored). In one case y'all've done that, if y'all determine it would be near convenient for your drawer box to exist just 4″ high (even though the space it will fit into volition be at least 11-13/sixteen″ high), go for it. That's the dimension I'g going to utilize here.
And so now nosotros know that our sides will exist four″ 10 21″.
C. Width
The width of your drawer box'southward front and back volition be determined by (a) the blazon of joinery you plan to employ, (b) the thickness of your drawer parts, and (c) the width of the opening.
For case, if you're making your drawer with biscuits, the forepart and dorsum will fit betwixt the sides. If you're making your drawer with dovetails, the front and back will run the total width of the drawer.
The width of the opening is the width between the chiffonier sides, or, if you're using a face up frame, between the face up frame stiles. *Notation: If your face frame stiles beetle into the carcase, you will either need to shim out the sides by the amount of that protrusion then that the drawer slides volition sit down flush with the within border of the face up frame (as in my last mail service) or you will demand to use a rear mounting bracket.
Yes, this is the same image equally the last 1. Hither I'm using it to show what's meant past the "opening width" — i.eastward., the width between the face frame stiles. Because of the fashion Blum Tandem slides are engineered, there will be a little gap between the outside of the drawer (at left and right) and the edges of the face frame.
Rear mounting brackets (the L-shaped parts at bottom correct) let for installation in cabinets with confront frame stiles that protrude into the carcass. In this case, the drawer slide is screwed to the cabinet at the forepart, then slotted into the rear mounting bracket which is screwed to the back of the chiffonier.
What matters ultimately in determining the width of your drawer box is, to quote the Blum installation instructions:
"Inside drawer width must equal opening width minus 42 mm (1-21/32″) for TANDEM to align and function optimally."
If you're using biscuit joinery, this makes information technology like shooting fish in a barrel to figure how long the forepart and dorsum need to exist, because the length of the front end and dorsum is precisely equal to the "within drawer width." Say your drawer opening (the opening between the face frame stiles) is xv″. Your "inside drawer width" will be
Drawer opening of 15″ – ane-21-32″ = 13-xi/32″.
If y'all're using dovetails, the calculation takes an boosted step:
Drawer opening of fifteen″ – 1-21/32″ = the inside drawer width of thirteen-11/32″, equally above. Now you need to add the length for the pins, which volition be the same as your drawer sides' thickness. And then if the sides are 1/ii″ thick, the whole calculation will exist:
Drawer opening of 15″ – 1-21/32″ + (2 x 1/two″) = 14-11/32″. Because 21/32″ is only a hair over five/8″, and considering, as I mentioned in a higher place, I'thou using drawer sides that are 1/ii″ thick, I tin can have a shortcut and just decrease 5/8″ from the opening width in calculating how long my drawer box front and back should exist.
So here'southward my finished cut list, based on 1/2″ thick stock for a drawer box 4″ high fabricated with through dovetails:
Sides: two @ ane/2″ x four″ x 21″
Forepart and back: 2 @ ane/ii″ x iv″ x 14-3/8″.
I will cutting my parts to length and do the joinery with the back at the same width every bit the front, so rip it to fit over the drawer bottom after I've cut the grooves in the front and sides.
The Blum Media Center at blum.com has installation guides for all hardware. Look for "runners" so get to the Blum Tandem sections. https://world wide web.blum.com/us/en/02/90/ E'er brand certain that you lot're following the instructions for the specific model you are using.
– Nancy Hiller
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Source: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/sizing-parts-for-drawers-on-blum-tandem-slides/