Half blind dovetails and Blum undermount slides

[uwkandiko]

I'm completing a dresser and am trying to decide if I can do half blind dovetails with the drawer fronts with Blum undermount soft close slides or would I have to do a full dovetailed box and then apply the fronts?  Looking at the hardware, there is a small bit that runs along the side of the drawer inside the carcass, possibly preventing a tight fit for the actual drawer front, which would mean with half blinds, the drawer would sit a bit further in that of the sides of the front or I have to cut a bigger gap around the drawer face in order to account for the mechanical slides.  A bit confusing, I know.  If anyone has done drawers with halfblind dovetails and undermount slides, can you chime in and let me know anything to watch out for?

Thanks
Josh

[jteneyck]

Yes, the outer slide attaches to the inside of the cabinet and there will by necessity be a gap between the side of your drawer sides and insides of the cabinet. 



With a false front you take care of that gap when you make them.



You can still use a 5 piece drawer, you will just have to undercut the front so that it overhangs the sides far enough to cover that gap.  I see it done on commercial cabinets all the time.  They look like the ends of the front were milled with a core box bit a little higher than the tails sit and the the pins are cut.  Hope that makes sense.

John

[shoottmx]

These drawers have half blind dt fronts with Blum undermounts:



These were the first drawers on which I had used Blum (or any other) slide. If I had a do over I'd have had one less drawer per box as the undermount takes up a lot of vertical space in the drawer, other than that they are fantastic.  Here's a shot with them opened. 

[jteneyck]

I just thought of something else.  Blum's slides are made for two different width drawer sides.  One is for 3/4" thick stock, the other is for 1/2" and 5/8" thick.  The inside width of the drawer box is constant for any given opening in your cabinet, so the gap between the outside of the drawer sides and the cabinet will be smaller if you use 5/8" stock (assuming you are using those slides) compared to 1/2" stock.  Try it and see if the gap suits you; if it does you will be able to use standard half blind construction w/o having to undercut the drawer front as I mentioned earlier.  With 1/2" stock, however, you would have to do it that way to get the gap down to something pleasing.  

John

[uwkandiko]

Thanks everyone!  I think I might got back to side mounted slides as I don't want to sacrifice any more drawer height with applied fronts.

[rwe2156]

Your drawers are trying to tell you something.

Rule 9b of furniture building: no metal drawer slides.  

[Robert Adams]

Your drawers are trying to tell you something.

Rule 9b of furniture building: no metal drawer slides.  

 Rule 1 of drawers in furniture building. 

       "If the unit see regular use only metal drawer slides" 
     
          Part b. "If the unit is a show piece and doesn't see regular use use wood slides" 

         Part c "If the unit is for a customer use only metal slides as they will not like using drawers with wood slides due to rougher movement no full extension and no soft close. Using wood slides will ensure a non return cusromer or angry wife that says why cant we have nice smooth full opening drawers that close nice and don't get sticky when the weather changes"  


          Seriously though. The best way with undermounts is to build a box then apply the front.
       You can do the front as part of the box but it requires the box to be deeper and you will have to move the front clip for the slides to the back of the box the thickness the drawer front protrudes. A spacer would be best on the bottom of the drawer as the front clips screw into the drawer front. However if the drawer bottoms are 1/2" you can use the other holes and screw right to the bottom.

           Not a big deal once you figure out how you need to change your box dimensions.