On 12/30/2014 12:35 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
As I think about what we have in the drawers now, I don't know that I want to lose any height. The idea of undermount slides was more for appearance, but in the end if I'm going to lose height and have to be extremely exacting in the construction, I may forgo the use of undermounts. The rest of the kitchen is, in general, not really worthy of the use of undermounts. Should I some day decide to gut the entire room, that's when I can think about getting fancy.

Yep, although it can be done to good effect, installing "Tier 1"
drawers, in "Tier 3" or "Tier 4" cabinets, is generally not worth the
time and expense.

I'd love to hear your suggestions on converting my existing runners into whatever it takes to use slides, and most probably side mounts.

~ If you're going with modern, side mounted, ball bearing drawer slides,
simply purchase the "back mounting brackets" made for the particular slide.

If the back of the built-in cabinet is the actual wall of the room, and
covered with drywall or other soft wall covering, you will want to
simply attach a wood/plywood strip along the back (screwed to stud) to
screw the bacl brackets to.

With many drawer slides you can also purchase face frame brackets.

If the existing FF is plywood, you may want to consider the use of a
these FF brackets.

While most modern drawer slides have a single hole positioned to screw
the front of the slide to the face frame, you may find that with older
plywood face frames, the installation will be more secure using the two
screw holes available on the FF brackets.

~ An alternate method that, while it takes a tiny bit of shop time in
making these, the time spent is made up tenfold when installing new
drawers in old face frame cabinets, particularly in built-in cabinets
and when the counter top is still on:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1113554...4 08138140050

No need to get fancy, use scraps and finish nails/staple - just make
sure the three sided contraption is square by using 45 degree angle
brackets made with 1/4" plywood.

The sides can be made a bit shorter than the cabinet depth and shimmed
to the back wall if necessary, or made short enough to attach to a
plywood board nailed to the studs on a drywall wall.

Key is the back board dimension.

If you make it the EXACT width of your _cabinet drawer opening_ , and
make sure both sides are perpendicular by using the simple corner
brackets, it is pretty much guaranteed to give you a perfect
installation without a lot of hassle.

Basically, if the drawer works smoothly during a test mount in the shop,
they will work smoothly after installation onsite.

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