# extra extension drawer slides?



## mmwood_1 (Oct 24, 2007)

Hi everyone,
Been awhile since I've been here. I hope all is well. I am on a quest. Does anyone know of any drawer slides which would have an extended over travel? Specifically, I am designing a large desk/hutch piece for a woman and the kneehole will be 36" deep. The ideal place to store the printer would be on a slideout shelf in the back of the kneehole. This would require a 20" deep shelf, and at full extension it would still only bring the front couple of inches into an accessible range. I am wondering if there is a 20" long slide which would extend about 30". Anybody know of such a creature, or am I going to have to invent something here? Table slides have a double telescoping system, but they're too large. A similar system though, is what I'm looking for. Undermount or sidemount would work. Tried googling but no luck. Maybe I didn't use the right keywords.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Knape Vogt makes a 30" full extension drawer guide. I've never bought from this company so I don't know anything about them. http://www.cabinetparts.com/p/knape-and-vogt-side-mount-drawer-slides-glides-KV850530


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## mmwood_1 (Oct 24, 2007)

Thanks Steve, but full extensions are a dime a dozen and NOT what I want. I need 50% MORE than full extension.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

mmwood_1 said:


> Thanks Steve, but full extensions are a dime a dozen and NOT what I want. I need 50% MORE than full extension.


 At 30" you are getting pretty close to the limits of what is available. What you are describing you would have to jury rig something like putting two pair of drawer guides together. The drawer box would have to be 3" smaller in width than the opening and the first set of drawer guide in the cabinet would have to be extra heavy duty to support the leverage of the second set. There are 30" full extension drawer guides that are rated a 500lbs and then the second set could be just a standard set. You would just put a piece of wood 1/2"x 1 3/4 x the size of the second set between the two drawer guides. Not having don this I would guess in theory you could extend 60".


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## JohnnyTooBad (Dec 9, 2012)

How about a rolling table (printer shelf) that rolls back into the knee hole? Or build a shelf with full extension slides, then a shelf on top of that, with bottom mount full extension slides that the printer sits on.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Buy some 3/4" (or 1" or whatever size you want) rollers. Then route/dado a 3/4" groove in the inside of the desk opening. Mount the rollers to a shelf and you have a shelf that extends all the way to the front.

You can figure out how to cover the end of the groove and how to keep the shelf steady when it is in the front.

George


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## tseitz11 (Dec 19, 2012)

I would look at creating a shelf that is on rollers and has a 90 degree pivot point. When stored, the shelf is at the back of the knee hole length ways to the knee hole. Then depending upon which side you decided to attach it to, when you wanted to use it you would pull it out and it would pivot on the single pivot point.

I was trying to attach a very crude "paint" drawing to better explain what I mean but am unable to figure out how to get it resized to fit the limits.


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## mmwood_1 (Oct 24, 2007)

Thanks for the replies folks. It seems that some of you don't get what I need, though. However, Steve, you hit it. The double set of slides is the best idea I've come up with so far, and I don't think they would need to be nearly so strong as 500# slides. The printer weighs about 40#. I suspect a set of 20" long slides (100# or 150#) with the drawer side attached instead to a maple block, then another pair on the inside faces of the blocks, with a full width shelf on top of that. I may need to brace it. I believe it would function like table slides. But I will need to experiment with it to see.

The 2 reasons I do not want to use 30" or 36" long slides, which are available, are because, #1, the metal slides would be lining the sides of the kneehole where a person's feet are and I don't want to create a situation where bare ankles get scraped, and #2, the shelf would be mounted at the back 20" of the slides, so when you pull it out, you would have 16" of steel rails sticking out in front of the shelf when fully extended.

The printer just fits in the space, both width and height, so there's no room to go up at all, and the top of it needs to be accessible, so the whole thing pretty much needs to slide out BEYOND the front of the desk. Ah well, I will likely give that a try and see if it would do the job. Thanks for the feedback y'all.


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## Tom-G (Nov 11, 2012)

I realize you are looking for a mounted shelf solution, but you may want to consider just a free standing shelf with casters at each corner that sits on the floor. It could be rolled out further (depending on cord length) and allow easier access to the connectors in the back of the printer. Also on some printers, or multifunction units (MFPs) the top may swing open to access the scanner plate or to replace the ink cartridges or toner cartridge. Even if the current printer's top does not open, a future replacement may.


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## Jim Tank (Apr 28, 2009)

You probably have it figured out by now, but mount the first set of 20" slides on the case just like any drawer would be. Now install a 5/8x2x20 piece of hardwood the same way you would mount a drawer box but this time just a strip to the inside of the slide. now mount a second slide to that same strip of wood. This slide mounts to second strip mounted to the bottom of the full width shelf. now when one slide is fully extended, the second one will begin to pull forward. Happy sliding!


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Tom-G said:


> I realize you are looking for a mounted shelf solution, but you may want to consider just a free standing shelf with casters at each corner that sits on the floor. It could be rolled out further (depending on cord length) and allow easier access to the connectors in the back of the printer. Also on some printers, or multifunction units (MFPs) the top may swing open to access the scanner plate or to replace the ink cartridges or toner cartridge. Even if the current printer's top does not open, a future replacement may.


Good solution. This is my favorite.

George


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I don't know how much you can reduce the knee space area but you might consider lift-up hardware. That way the printer can be off the floor and swing up to the drawer level. Closed the printer would be much closer than 20" to the front though.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

mmwood_1 said:


> *The printer just fits in the space, both width and height, so there's no room to go up at all*, and the top of it needs to be accessible, so the whole thing pretty much needs to slide out BEYOND the front of the desk. Ah well, I will likely give that a try and see if it would do the job. Thanks for the feedback y'all.


The double slide assembly will take up some height. Basically, you can hang one set of slides on the opening walls. Then make a flat pullout out of ¾" material. Then on top of that ¾" have two front to back rails that carry the second set of slides. 

The second piece of ¾" would be approximately 2½" narrower than the piece below (2- ¾" rails less 1"+ for the spacing). For the height, the two pull outs would need a minimum of 2¾"-3".









 







.


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## mmwood_1 (Oct 24, 2007)

Jim Tank said:


> You probably have it figured out by now, but mount the first set of 20" slides on the case just like any drawer would be. Now install a 5/8x2x20 piece of hardwood the same way you would mount a drawer box but this time just a strip to the inside of the slide. now mount a second slide to that same strip of wood. This slide mounts to second strip mounted to the bottom of the full width shelf. now when one slide is fully extended, the second one will begin to pull forward. Happy sliding!


Jim, this is basically what I was just describing that I am going to experiment with. Except that I would go stouter than 5/8" thickness. 

Casters don't slide perfectly straight and so the whole contraption would be rubbing/bumping against the sides of the kneehole. Or it would require having to make some sort of side guides to keep it straight. It's a feasible idea, but if the double slide system is workable, it would be a lot easier and cleaner. The swing-up idea doesn't work for several reasons, but mainly, to clear the front of the desk, the whole mechanism would need to be mounted just inside the opening, thereby taking up the space for your feet. 

Well, if this works out, I'll borrow a camera and post pics. Thanks, everyone.


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