# How rigid is the 24" max drawer width listed limit on drawer slides?



## shelzmike (Jul 20, 2020)

Not a beginner woodworker, but complete novice at cabinetry and have recently just finished a fairly odd sized built in for an alcove area for our bathroom. The carcass turned out great and fits very well. The problem I am having is with the drawer slides. Oh man did they kick my tail the first time I tried. I was SURE I had everything installed correctly and then when I put the drawer in...well, let's just say it was probably the worst motion of a drawer I have ever seen! Oh well, I learned a bit that is for sure. 



The slides that I have are 12" (with rear extension brackets added) KV 3450FM. Carcass does have a face frame. Two door cabinet on bottom and a wide drawer on the top, separated by a stile. One unfixable mistake I made is that I actually added a spreader flush with the top of the stile that separates the cabinet and the drawer. It's not a huge deal, I don't think, but makes installation slightly a little more difficult.


A few other problems that I caused was that I wasn't mounting the front of the slide 1/16" back and I had the Bottom of the slide sitting directly on top of the spreader/top edge of stile instead of raised about a 1/4". Pretty sure this doesn't matter too awful much in the grand scheme of things. 



One thing that does matter that I thought I had measured for and it was within tolerances was the clearance between the drawer box and the frame. I thought the drawer was 1" exactly smaller than the frame, but after my frustration, I measured again, and the box is actually 1 1/8" less wide and I believe this was the cause of most of my problems as when I tried to close the door, it was super tight, especially the further I pushed it back. I can overcome this fairly easily by shimming 1/16" on each side. Or maybe even an additional 1/8" on one side as I can adjust the face of the drawer to still look centered. 



As I was reading the instructions again, very carefully, I noticed that it said that max drawer width is 24". :surprise2: Didn't even see this when buying the slides. My drawer is wide, but shallow and won't be holding more than probably 20 lbs max ever. They are 32" wide x 13" deep. 



I can't seem to find any side slides that have a max width of more than 24". I know bottom slides would work well, but I have already built my drawer box and there is only 1/4" reveal on the bottom instead of the 1/2" that seems to be required.


If I have researched correctly, this max width is there because the wider a drawer the more precise you have to be in installing to prevent racking. I have the ability to be super precise so I think I am up to it; however, was curious if there was something else I am missing. Can I make these work if installed well, or would just using the epoxy euro style slides instead be easier (e.g. Blum 430E4000V)? I am not married to the soft close bearing slides. This will be in a bathroom of our house that we are remodeling to sell, so I just need it to work in general, the rest is just icing at this point. Thanks!


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Usually posters do not provide enough information. This time I think you have provided too much. I cannot tell just what your primary problem is.


One specific question. You say "I can't seem to find any side slides that have a max width of more than 24." What kind of width are you writing about?


George


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## JIMMIEM (Oct 12, 2014)

I have used a lot of KV 8400 series slides. The literature mentions the 24 inch max width. I called KV and asked about the 24 inches. The response I got was that this was the max size they tested. I have wider drawers in my kitchen that are wider and deep and loaded with heavy can goods. The potential problem is racking. If your drawers are solid and well built you should be fine. KV stuff is pretty forgiving....I've used other slides that aren't so forgiving.


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## gmercer_48083 (Apr 9, 2016)

It sounds like it gets harder as it travels into the cabinet because the drawer slides are not traveling parallel as the drawer is pushed inward.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

JIMMIEM said:


> I have used a lot of KV 8400 series slides. The literature mentions the 24 inch max width. I called KV and asked about the 24 inches. The response I got was that this was the max size they tested. I have wider drawers in my kitchen that are wider and deep and loaded with heavy can goods. The potential problem is racking. If your drawers are solid and well built you should be fine. KV stuff is pretty forgiving....I've used other slides that aren't so forgiving.



Interesting. I had never heard of a slide mfg. make spec on drawer width.


George


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## JIMMIEM (Oct 12, 2014)

GeorgeC said:


> Interesting. I had never heard of a slide mfg. make spec on drawer width.
> 
> 
> George


The KV web site has the maximum width as a recommendation with the product info. It's also implied on the Tech sheet.


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## Frost (Sep 24, 2018)

I've gone up to 34" on drawer width as long as they're not overloaded weight wise. I wonder though, if you're using 12" slides then the usable space inside the drawer is 10.5 inches or so. A lot of work for not much space. Could you just do shelves instead? You'd have more storage. Without pictures, I'm just guessing and don't know the design so forgive me if I'm off base.


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## J.C. (Jan 20, 2012)

I've never found the 24" max width to be all that critical. However, the shorter the slide, the more important it is and would guess 24" wide is probably about the limit for a 12" slide. If you were using a 20" or 22" slides, I doubt you'd have any problems at all with your 32" width. I think the width to length ratio is more important and think 2:1 is about the limit. You can get lateral stabilizers for some of the undermount drawer slides to fix your problems but I don't know of any such thing for side mount slides.


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