"LdB" wrote in message
...
The foundation was poured by a contractor in the summer of 02. I've done
almost all the rest of the building myself with help from my son and
friends.

Below is a link to some photos of the place.

http://www.granite.mb.ca/~lorence/
Snip



I am considering ordering drawer slides from Lee Valley. They have several
choices with a significant price difference.

Having been a Lee Vally customer for many years I believe their products
are of good or better than average quality. I have no doubt that their
cheapest drawer slides will be adequate for the job I'm doing or they
wouldn't sell them.

You can normally trust products from Lee Valley however you can also trust
products from other manufacturers also. If you can find Blum, KV, or
Accuride you should be sattisfied. Ther are other fine brands however these
typically are in the affordable range and easily found.


What makes the top end slides worth the extra money?

Smother action, other features like self closing, soft closing, extra weight
capacity, positive tracking.


Are the Tandem plus slides

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...614,43616&ap=1

that much better than these?

http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/pa...614,43616&ap=1


Better? "Maybe" they are under mount IIRC so your drawer can be built
wider and they are probably self closing and soft close. None of these make
the slide better however they are very nice features.


Are the Blumotion dampers on Tandem slides worth the additional ten
dollars a pair.

Regardless of brand the soft close features are kind of a cool feature and
pretty much guarantee that you will never hear a drawer slam shut regaudless
of how much effort you use to close it.



I could drive into town and get slides at Home Depot for a lot less but I
doubt they will give me a lifetime guarantee.

I have not installed as many slides as some people however I have probably
installed a couple hundred over the past 20 years. I have never had a "full
extension" drawer slide fail regardless of features.




I really don't know what to expect with these products. I have limited
experience with them other than to say I have opened and closed drawers
with sliders. I have also opened and closed drawers without sliders.

Any advice would be appreciated.

For kitchen cabinets I would advise slides. Because they are easy to
install, I prefer "full extension" side mount slides. Because they hold the
drawer closed, self closing full extension side mount slides are nice.
Because they keep the drawer from slamming, self closing with soft close,
full extension side mount slides are even nicer.
If you don't want to see the slides, the under mount disappear and they
allow you to have a drawer that is approximately 1" wider than the side
mount style slide. Typically however with Full Extension side mount slides
you cam make the drawer deeper, front to back than normal because you can
open the whole drawer as opposed to 2/3's extension slides. With that in
consideration the loss of 1" in width for the side mount slide is recovered
and then some in the form of a deeper drawer.

One thing to certainly watch out for would be the ball bearings. I have
seen plastic or nylon ball bearing on the cheaper slides. Try to stay with
steel ball bearings.