In order to install the slides, I need to separate the slide itself from the drawer bracket first. With my three inch and quarter inch spacers in place, I drop the drawer slide on top and keep the front of the slide about a 16th of an inch away from the front of the case. I then use a self centering draw bit to draw a pilot ball and attach the slide with one screw.
After securing the first screw, I use an adjustable square to confirm that the slide is actually setting perfectly perpendicular with the front face. And, because I have this piece sitting on concrete, there is always a possibility that it might not be dead flat and it could actually be raising or lowering the back of the slide so I will confirm that it is square. Use that for reference and then attach my other two screws. Once I attach both of my slides to the case, it is time to attach the adjoining piece towards your sides. Fortunately, this is a piece of cake too.
I scribe a line seven eight, seven inch up from the bottom of the drawer. Seven eight, seven inch is the distance from the bottom of the slide to the center of the drawer bracket and be sure to measure to measure your slides because there could be differences from one manufacturer to another. I make sure the bracket is flash with the front of the drawer then I line up my holes and attach with screws.
So now it is the moment of truth, let us see how this guide fits. Just push the slides into the low plastic guides and as you push these guide through, the first time you push it in, it is actually pretty tough to push in so get nervous, just push it all the way until it contacts and registers very nice.
Now let us way test it. Yes! That is 175 pounds of pure Italian man. Now, for the remaining drawers, it is very simply. We just have our quarter and spacer and put in our slide. Now, if you like the way your joints look here, you can just through some handles on there and call it a day. It is just shop furniture it does not need to look really a lie board but I personally would like to close up some of these gaps, prevent a little bit of dust from getting in there and the way to do that is to put on drawer fronts on top of these drawer faces. The way I am going to do that is using a single shave material. I am going to cut all of my drawer faces from the same piece. In this way, I am going to have grain count annuity from top to bottom and it is going to look awesome. It is a technique you want to use in any type of furniture that you make. Not just shop furniture and it really makes the piece look that much better, it gives an amazing visual effect. So let us get started with that.
To measure for the first drawer face, I attach a piece of ply to the bottom of the case. This gives me a stable reference point to measure from. I measure to the top of the drawer and add a sixteenth on an inch. Before I cut my first drawer face, I mark the board with a large triangle. That helps me keep the boards in order. With my first board in place, I add a 1/8” shim to the top edge of the drawer face. Now, I can measure for my second drawer face.
With the second drawer face cut, I can use the same method as before to measure the next drawer. I repeat this measurement method all the way to the top. The result is a bank of drawers with exactly 1/8 of an inch between them.
Now, attaching the drawer fronts is relatively simple. You just need to keep everything aligned. I am going to start with my first drawer at the bottom. I am going to keep my support board in place because we are going to use that again. And I do not really and not too careful with the glue here. Okay, with that in place, center it as best as you can. Okay, and once you feel you are pretty close to the center. I am going to shoot a few brad nails from the inside.
Okay, now, you can add more brad nails if you need to, I am going to use a few clamps to hold this is place and give it about 30 minutes for the glue to dry. Now, drawer number two is done in exactly the same way. Only difference, we will put our spacer here just like before. Put the glue on the back of the drawer here. Line everything up. Now, I just line it up with the bottom, the bottom that is already installed. It looks pretty good and then once again with the brad nails.
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