WOODWORKING

ESSENTIALS

BY DAVID THIEL

Casework Construction:

Cabinet Hardware

W

hether your casework is a bookcase, kitchen cabinet or highboy, the hardware you use to prop up the shelves, hang the doors or make the drawers slide smoothly can make or break the look and function of the finished piece.

We want to focus on three categories in this chapter: drawer slides, door hinges and shelf supports. Then, we'll use a little space at the end to talk about some specialty hardware.

Drawer Slides

For many woodworkers who build traditional 18th- and 19th-century furniture the topic of drawer slides is one that's handled on the table saw. These pieces of furniture use wooden drawer runners and guides that are frequently built into the framework of the piece itself. While these are appropriate and functional, that's not what we're going to talk about here. We're talking about mass-produced metal ball-bearing drawer slides.

Metal drawer slides are two-part hardware, with one part mounting to the inside of the cabinet and the mating part mounting to the drawers. How the two parts interlock and move is specific

Putting drawer slides on in the correct location takes a certain amount of careful calculation. Most slides, however, allow a certain amount of adjustability, which provides some room for forgiveness.

to the manufacturer and design, but they all use the same concept.

Drawer slides take up some space in the cabinet and that will affect the overall storage space available in the drawers and cabinet. In general you'll lose 1" in width to allow for the drawer slides. But different slide designs will

offer different spacing and locations, which we'll talk about further.

Drawer slides can be grouped into two large sub-groups: side mount and under mount. Within these two groups slides can be either three-quarter or full extension. Full-extension slides allow access to all of the drawer's interior,