On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:02:33 -0800 (PST), the infamous Kevin
scrawled the following:

With regards to side-mount slides, I've noticed that many slides can
be used with a maximum drawer width of 24". (I understand that the
wider the drawer, the more prone it is to racking).

They are, Kevin. The house I moved into has a 43" wide wooden chest of
drawers without slides and they rack terribly. I have to rewax them 3
times a year or they stick badly when one drawer-side or the other
binds on the frame. That same racking tends to tear up slides.


I had originally
planned to build some drawers that were about 36" wide, 24" deep, and
10" high, and the fact that they are wider than they are deep seems to
put them in the category of "lateral file drawers". There are
"lateral file drawer" slides available (strong and expensive) but
these seem to be overkill since my drawers will not be carrying 100s

The weight rating on slides is the maximum they will carry and still
give you the rated number of openings/closings the mfgr states,
usually 50,000-75,000 cycles. With the exception of our favorite
drawers, most drawers won't be subject to that much use, so
overloading is tolerated much of the time.


of lbs of paper, and they also don't have the extreme aspect ratio
(very wide and very shallow) that a typical lateral file drawer has.
Has anyone built drawers of the size I am considering and used
standard side-mount drawer slides (such as the KV 8500 series)?

You might not use that much weight in them now, but later, it'll find
its way in there. (Murphy sez so.) Which means that sooner or later,
perhaps not until the next owner, the slides will fail and you'll have
to upgrade. Until then, though, it'll work just fine.

I haven't built any really wide drawers, but those I've seen have
always had a central stiffener, so build the bottom like a
raised-panel door, with stiffer bottom and smaller panels.


As always, thanks!

Kevin

P.S. Lew, your solution using Rubbermaid bins is the one I have been
using so far (GMTA!). The "attic" as I call it is a fairly nice
living space, so I'm hoping to improve the looks of my storage by
installing drawers.

5 nice thing about Rubbermaid bins:
1) everything stays dust-free in them.
2) they're lightweight for portability.
3) because they're portable, they go where the removed contents to, so
it's easier to put said contents back in them. Things don't get lost
nearly as easily.
4) it's quicker and cheaper to make storage this way.
5) contents are easily visible.

The only downside is that you might not find exact-size/shape
replacement "drawers" years later.

--
Don't forget the 7 P's:
Proper Prior Planning Prevents ****-Poor Performance