Widening Drawers for Drawer Slides - Smooth move for drawers slightly too narrow for drawer slides.

[@candicegimbel5727]

thanks. shopping for edge banding.

[@bobt2522]

Yes, my first thought was to cut some thin shims. I kept my critical fingers still and I learned a new technique to add to my skill set. I enjoy Dave Stanton's channel too.

[@wb_finewoodworking]

Thanks for your restraint with the critical fingers. I’m the first to admit I’m not perfect nor do I know everything. I’m jus trying to help others by, as you said, adding a new technique. You never know when something will come in handy. Dave’s a great guy. He helped my get my channel discovered by some of my viewers and subscribers.

[@DavidStanton]

Nice fix Don.

[@wb_finewoodworking]

Thanks.

[@priayief]

Wow! What a cool solution! Thanks. Now, maybe you can solve my problem ... my drawers are slightly too wide.

[@wb_finewoodworking]

Thanks. Do you have a router table or belt sander? I think I know of a video for your issue. I’ll have to take some time to search for it. I can’t remember who made it but it’s there.

[@priayief]

@@wb_finewoodworking I've got both. Thanks in advance.

[@priayief]

@@wb_finewoodworking I should add that I've looked for solutions and not found any. I'm guessing I'm about 1/8 inch too wide.

[@wb_finewoodworking]

@@priayief that’s quite a bit for any methods I’ve seen. It would depend on drawer side thickness and the thickness of the slide.

[@priayief]

@@wb_finewoodworking I think I'm going to try using my belt sander and sanding down both sides of the drawer. These drawers are made of 3/4 in. plywood and they're in my workshop, so they don't have to be elegant, just functional. Right now, they're just a little too snug.

[@eeloie2787]

First time I've seen one of your videos. I'm in the process of building my first drawer and so afraid I've got the measurement wrong. But at least now i know how i can fix it if it's too narrow. Thank you. But what if it's too wide? Well i guess I'll be doing a lot of sanding since i don't have a table saw! 😂 Thanks again for the lesson!

[@TheGrantAlexander]

Great job fixing the problem Don. I had the opposite problem on one of my latest projects.. It was a lot more work than adding some edge banding, lol!

[@wb_finewoodworking]

Grant, thanks. Yes, you problem was much bigger than mine. I remember you talking about it on the podcast.

[@TheGrantAlexander]

@@wb_finewoodworking yes I did mention it on the podcast, with a bit of help of a router I was able to inset the drawer slides just enough to make it work :)

[@wb_finewoodworking]

@@TheGrantAlexander I saw someone on KZbin (think it was Fix This Build That) do something similar on the table saw. He took about a 1/8th inch off the section on the sides of the drawers where the slides went by raising up the table saw to the right height and running the drawers through with the opposite side against the fence. Fortunately for him he designed the piece with the drawer runners to be close to the bottoms of the drawer slides.

[@bobziroll]

Many side-mount drawer slides have their cabinet-side attachment points on little tabs cut out from the rest of the slide body. This makes it so you could shim behind the cabinet-side part of the slide with, e.g. some washers, and those tabs will slightly bend in when screwed down. (Although I suspect you’d be better off bending the tabs a bit first so you don’t strip out your screw holes in the cabinet.) I also thought of the edge banding idea when I was building my work bench and didn’t do a great job of making my walls parallel. I added banding to the walls themselves, but doing it to the drawers would’ve been a lot easier. Or, now knowing about those tabs, I would probably just use washers behind the slides.

[@hustletradinginvesting8453]

Genius. I like ur idea. Thanks

[@douglantow7219]

Maybe use the edge banding to edge banding the top side your plywood drawers?

[@wb_finewoodworking]

Doug, I did edge band the tops of the drawers. That’s why I had some to use for fixing the drawer width.

[@davesanders7893]

Looks like I'm the first one to leave a comment. Good video. I'm interested in seeing everything that you are making for your lathe because I might want to make it for mine. As for how you made the drawers, I like it and think that they would be able to hold a lot with no problem. I would probably still put a little glue on them, but that's my personal preference.

[@wb_finewoodworking]

Dave, thanks for jumping in and leaving a comment. I appreciate your comment. As soon as I can get back to the lathe cabinet I’ll be posting more videos on the build. Unfortunately I’ve had some projects with a higher priority interrupt it. My wife, Pam, wants some other projects done first and I agree on their importance. I did put glue on the first drawer I made but it caused more mess and time loss than it was worth. Since Dave made his drawers without glue I decided it would work. I do have several turning videos on my channel. You may find one or more of them helpful.

[@number6396]

what do you do for drawers that are too wide??

[@wb_finewoodworking]

That I haven’t encountered. It really depends on how tight they are.

[@Neil1701]

What if they’re too tight?

[@wb_finewoodworking]

I’ve seen someone shave a little off of the drawer sides with a table saw. He raised the blade up to the height of the top of the slides. It worked very well. Obviously he didn’t assemble the drawers like I did using pocket screws.

[@Neil1701]

Thanks for such a quick reply. They're tight by maybe 1/16" (or 2mm) I may try to either sand both the draws and the dresser body. And if that doesn't work maybe use a plainer. I used pocket screws also so I don't think the table saw would be a great option.

[@wb_finewoodworking]

@@Neil1701 Those sound like good solutions. Good luck.

[@83liamm]

8:05 We can all relate