full extension wood drawer slides

[treeslayer]

I'm just curious if anyone has attempted to make full extension wood drawer slides, i have a project coming up that will require a couple of drawers, i've used metal, wood, sliding dovetail and they all have their place but i saw a article in FWW (i think) that showed how to make these. at first glance i thought, too much trouble and then i thought what the heck i like to try new things. interested if anyone has made these and are they worth the trouble, thanks for the input.  dave

[..Kev]

I haven't..  Would be interested in the article if you can find it though!  I'm also interested in the responses!

[Chet]

Dave, I don't know if you still have the article, but if you don't and you still subscribe you can go to their website and do a search by subject of author if you remember his name.  You may have to go through a few pages to find the correct article but once you do, you can download the pdf file and print it out.

[pkinneb]

I see a FWW article in issue #143 July/Aug 2000 titled Full Extension Wooden Slides.

[Brendon_t]

Damn, not a subscriber, and those sound very interesting.

 

With no photo given and without Google,  it would be very interesting to see what so many wood workers would come up with if given our shop, tools, and the instruction, fabricate a wooden full extension drawer slide. 

I bet there would be some awesome ingenuity to be seen. @collinb for some reason, I think you would win.

[Tpt life]

Reminds me of extension table runners. 

[Isaac]

I can imagine two basic approaches, either pieces that are side by side, like a sliding dovetail with a second sliding dovetail inside it, which would allow greater total movement, or you could a more in-line approach, in which one segment runs within the outer slide. 

The side by side approach is fairly easy to imagine, but has the drawback of being pretty bulky, like these, which are sold from rockler:

Here is a video with an approach with a more in-line type, that keep reduces the width significantly. Just a mock up, but I think you can get some good ideas. To me his approach certainly seems in line for smaller, less demanding drawers. 

 

 

 

[Brendon_t]

53 minutes ago, Isaac said:

I can imagine two basic approaches, either pieces that are side by side, like a sliding dovetail with a second sliding dovetail inside it, which would allow greater total movement, or you could a more in-line approach, in which one segment runs within the outer slide. 

The side by side approach is fairly easy to imagine, but has the drawback of being pretty bulky, like these, which are sold from rockler:

Here is a video with an approach with a more in-line type, that keep reduces the width significantly. Just a mock up, but I think you can get some good ideas. To me his approach certainly seems in line for smaller, less demanding drawers. 

 

 

 

The stacked sliding DT was my first thought.

[Wimayo]

All of the drawers in my shop are made from this FWW plan:

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2000/08/01/full-extension-wooden-slides

Put a little wax or paraffin on them and they work great. 

[gee-dub]

I've done some like this.  They work well enough but, the fit is pretty critical.

[treeslayer]

Thanks to all for the input and ideas, the FWW articles are of particular interest but I don’t have a subscription, but a friend does  these sound very interesting and I think it would be good to add this to anyone’s skill set. I’ll have to give it a try when the time comes, thanks again for all the ideas/input, you folks are OK. 

[Chestnut]

I just have the drawers come out and go in easily and then set it on top of what ever the drawer is mounted in....

If you do make them document and journal it cause I'd be interested in the process.

[treeslayer]

2 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

I just the drawers come out and go in easily and then set it on top of what ever the drawer is mounted in....

If you do make them document and journal it cause I'd be interested in the process.

Will do, that way you folks can learn from my mistakes  

[Chestnut]

3 minutes ago, treeslayer said:

Will do, that way you folks can learn from my mistakes  

Is there a better way to learn?

[treeslayer]

13 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

Is there a better way to learn?

none that i've found, i may just may make a pair for the fun of it when i get caught up in the shop, after Christmas

[Wimayo]

56 minutes ago, treeslayer said:

... i may just may make a pair for the fun of it when i get caught up in the shop, after Christmas

For the slides I linked above:

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2000/08/01/full-extension-wooden-slides

You will likely find that making one pair is rather tedious. But, once you are set up, it is easier to make several pair.

[Isaac]

1 hour ago, treeslayer said:

Thanks to all for the input and ideas, the FWW articles are of particular interest but I don’t have a subscription, but a friend does  these sound very interesting and I think it would be good to add this to anyone’s skill set. I’ll have to give it a try when the time comes, thanks again for all the ideas/input, you folks are OK. 

At least for the Gee-Dub link, it provides a photograph that gives a pretty good idea of how it works. I'm sure there are some subtleties, but you can see if it is an idea you want to pursue before buying the article. 

[Wimayo]

11 hours ago, Isaac said:

At least for the Gee-Dub link, it provides a photograph that gives a pretty good idea of how it works. I'm sure there are some subtleties, but you can see if it is an idea you want to pursue before buying the article. 

Go to the site I linked above and you can get a free trial membership to FWW. Using this you can see the whole article including drawings. No need to purchase anything.