In article ,
toller wrote:
I am going to put sliding doors on a cabinet. Is there any reason not to
simply rout the tracks into the cabinet, rather than putting tracks in?
I don't think I have ever seen it done that way, but it should be rather
nices.
Thanks.

Before the existence of the plastic track, a bare "slot in the wood" was
the _standard_ method. Sears sold kitchen cabinets with that kind of doors
in the early 50's. They were also common on record (you know, "LP's")
cabinets in the 50's,,60's.

Particularly for overhead kitchen cabinets, the sliding doors have a *BIG*
advantage -- you can't bang your head on the door if you leave it open.
(Note: the house I grew up in had those sliding door cabinets; when I moved
into 'a place of my own', it took me *years* to learn to _always_ close
the cabinet doors. When you grow up 'knowing better', hinged doors are an
abomination!

For home construction, the slot is usually cut with a table-saw, rather
than a router.

The doors need to be relatively thin, and light-weight. e.g., 1/4" Baltic
Birch.

As somebody else pointed out, there _are_ some design subtilities -- because
the doors _are_ removable/replaceable after construction. The 'upper' track
needs to be more than twice as deep as the lower one, *and* a bit wider.
The _rear_ upper track needs to be 'a bit' wider than the front one.
(the doors have wedge in at an angle in the upper track, before you can
swing them to alignment with the lower one, thus the excess width. And
they have to go 'up' in the upper track, far enough to let the bottom of
the door clear the lower face, _before_ dropping into the lower track.
And, obviously, _after_ they drop in the lower track, you still have to
have =some= of the door still in the upper track.)

Yeah, *obvious* once mentioned. *NOT* so obvious if you haven't thought it
all the way through. DAMHIKT.