Ball Bearing Drawers Slides Are Really Sucking

[CrealBilly]

I'm about ready to take a 3lb hammer to two pairs of BORG bought heavy duty ball bearing drawer slides. The cabinet is square, the drawers are square. With the drawers closed one end of the drawer sticks out about a 1/8" of an inch from the cabinet on the RIGHT hand side. The other drawer that's right above it acts the same way but sticks out about a 1/8" of an inch from the cabinet on the LEFT hand side. I mean what the ...

I'm so aggravated at this point, taking a hammer to them and beating them to a pulp, might just make me feel better. But before I do I would like to ask the group here for any advise on how to adjust these pieces of ... :kamahlitu

Thanks

 

[DIYGUY]

I'm about ready to take a 3lb hammer to two pairs of BORG bought heavy duty ball bearing drawer slides. The cabinet is square, the drawers are square. With the drawers closed one end of the drawer sticks out about a 1/8" of an inch from the cabinet on the RIGHT hand side. The other drawer that's right above it acts the same way but sticks out about a 1/8" of an inch from the cabinet on the LEFT hand side. I mean what the ...

I'm so aggravated at this point, taking a hammer to them and beating them to a pulp, might just make me feel better. But before I do I would like to ask the group here for any advise on how to adjust these pieces of ... :kamahlitu

Thanks

Are the ends of the frame-side glides the same distance from the FRONT of your cabinet? And the drawer-side from the REAR of your drawer? Usually the slides have a mounting screw hole that is oval shaped and gives you about a 1/8" or so of play front to back. You may need to fiddle with them to make the drawer face flush. Usually you move one of the other in or out, but sometimes you have to move both.

 

[FredP]

check your square. measure the drawers corner to corner both directions top and bottom. they should be exactly the same measurement. I think you will find they are not as square as you think. then make sure your square is square. you can ping it square but I aint going into all that right now. if the slides mount to the cabinet sides there is little you can do to adjust. I generally use a face frame and mounting blocks at the rear of the cabinet. this allows me to adjust the slides if other things are not perfect. both sides at the rear can then be moved right or left to get the drawer fronts right.

 

[CrealBilly]

Well thanks guys but I just figured it out over a cup of coffee. I got to looking close at the slides to see how they worked and saw stamped right there in plain view Made in China. Experience tells me to start looking for quality issues and I found the problem. On the back of the slide that sits on the cabinet side is a rubber covered steel stop. It's actually a piece of bent steel made into a tab. Yep you guessed it the tab was bent to far forward, so I bend it back till it was 90 degrees and like magic the drawer closed flush with the cabinet face. Did the something to the other drawer slide on the second drawer and poof that drawer also closed flush with cabinet face.

My guess is that these two pair of drawer slides were made on two different machines at least the tabs were bend on two machines. It's obvious one machine was setup correctly and the other was not. I just so happened to put the defective slides on opposite sides of the cabinet. There is a standing saying around here (Made in China Fixed by American). Personally I was about ready to beat these slides to a pulp with a hammer. I'm still upset - Is it too much to ask for a working product when you buy it and not have to monkey around fixing what should have been right in the first place... I really don't think that's too much to ask for is it? Don't ask me for my rating on this product because I can't use that kind of language here.


Thanks

 

[Ken Massingale]

Well thanks guys but I just figured it out over a cup of coffee. I got to looking close at the slides to see how they worked and saw stamped right there in plain view Made in China. Experience tells me to start looking for quality issues and I found the problem. On the back of the slide that sits on the cabinet side is a rubber covered steel stop. It's actually a piece of bent steel made into a tab. Yep you guessed it the tab was bent to far forward, so I bend it back till it was 90 degrees and like magic the drawer closed flush with the cabinet face. Did the something to the other drawer slide on the second drawer and poof that drawer also closed flush with cabinet face.

My guess is that these two pair of drawer slides were made on two different machines at least the tabs were bend on two machines. It's obvious one machine was setup correctly and the other was not. I just so happened to put the defective slides on opposite sides of the cabinet. There is a standing saying around here (Made in China Fixed by American). Personally I was about ready to beat these slides to a pulp with a hammer. I'm still upset - Is it too much to ask for a working product when you buy it and not have to monkey around fixing what should have been right in the first place... I really don't think that's too much to ask for is it? Don't ask me for my rating on this product because I can't use that kind of language here.


Thanks

Hey Jeff, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!

 

[CrealBilly]

Hey Jeff, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!

Nope - I just can't do it...

Anyways here's what was bent

Thanks

 

[flatheadfisher]

I used the same slides for my double dresser. I thought I was going mad until I did the same thing you did. It took me a few days to figure out the problem - it was my first real big WW project and I just figured I did something wrong...

 

[CrealBilly]

I used the same slides for my double dresser. I thought I was going mad until I did the same thing you did. It took me a few days to figure out the problem - it was my first real big WW project and I just figured I did something wrong...

Yeah tell me about it - I knew it was something with the slides because the ways the drawers was behaving... and I was 100% sure both the case and drawers were square. You know bending this little tab is not in the instructions. BTW, I needed a magnifying glass to read the instructions.

I don't know anymore dude, I'm starting to think more and more companies don't care much about their products. Make it as cheap as possible and sell it for as much as possible, so they can line their pockets. I mean who cares if the sucker (me) who bought it gets aggravated and wastes a bunch of time. Well I know one brand of drawer slide I will not be buying again. Despite my ranting... I hope someone learns from this thread that would be good.

For those who are southern - there's one word for this drawer slide (sorry) nuf said...

 

[Gofor]

Bad enough they are poor quality, but when I went to get some for my SIL's cabinet, I had to dig through the bin just to get all the parts to make a set. Every package was opened and just emptied back into the bin.

I'll be making my own hardwood slides from now on, me thinks

Go

 

[CrealBilly]

Bad enough they are poor quality, but when I went to get some for my SIL's cabinet, I had to dig through the bin just to get all the parts to make a set. Every package was opened and just emptied back into the bin.

I'll be making my own hardwood slides from now on, me thinks

Go

Yep me too - dovetail slides are easy enough to make and no jerking around with poor quality

 

[cptully]

My parent's kitchen cabinets are the original ones installed when their house was built in 1959. They recently looked into completely replacing them with modern cabinets, but found that to get a look they were happy with they would have to buy the top of the line premium cabinet, and those cabinets came with the same knotty pine doors that their existing cabinets had... Needless to say they just had the doors and faces stripped and refinished.

The meat of the story is that the drawer "slides" are simply ledges built into the bottom edge of the drawer space that the drawer sides slide on. There is some wear, but the still slide beautifully 50 years later. I'd like to see a metal drawer slide last that long...

 

[RobS.]

If you'd like I'll go fish my Craftsman router out of the trash so you can smash it with a hammer instead of your cabinet. It ruined a cutting board/Christmas present I was working on. I stripped off small parts grabbed it by the cord and let 'er fly across the backyard. Didn't help anything but I sure felt better. (I once beat a chainsaw to death with a 9 lb maul. Actually, it was pretty much dead anyway but it ended my frustration).
I have a similar problem with a bathroom cabinet I built a few years ago. Got my slides from a great big store too. I'm going to check them out later today.

 

[BobcatBob]

The sad thing is that you could probably buy the drawer slides somewhere else, even with a different name on them, and they would still be made in China. Who knows, it may even be on the same "bent tab" machine.

 

[Len]

Not to be the nay sayer, but...

Jeff said he got these at the BORG and I've watch some of those folks load things in the bins there. More often than not, if something not made of glass got dropped it just got picked up and tossed in the bin. No real check for damage. The folks at the checkout aren't all that gentle with how they put products made of metal in the bag either.

So it may well be "Made in China" is in play here, but to be fair the bent tabs could also be due to being "assimilated" by the BORG.

Len

 

[CrealBilly]

Not to be the nay sayer, but...

Jeff said he got these at the BORG and I've watch some of those folks load things in the bins there. More often than not, if something not made of glass got dropped it just got picked up and tossed in the bin. No real check for damage. The folks at the checkout aren't all that gentle with how they put products made of metal in the bag either.

So it may well be "Made in China" is in play here, but to be fair the bent tabs could also be due to being "assimilated" by the BORG.

Len

I would say anything can happen - those little tabs are not all that easy to bend...