self closing drawers - not smooth closing

[rafezetter]

I have a minor issue with some ball race, self closing, full extension drawer runners, basically they close, but not smoothly. They close to halfway or so no problem, but the next bit needs a bit of a shove, and the self close, doesn't; at least not when fitted - it was fine before fitting so the mechanism itself is good.

I made sure there was exactly enough room for them to be added to the drawer sides, and they way they are made the outer runner frame prevents them being "squeezed" by a too wide drawer in the opening. I'm wondering if maybe the drawer is 1mm too narrow and the runners are being stretched ever so slightly, or something less obvious. There's plenty of clearance for the drawer bottom and top so that's not the reason.

The drawer itself isn't very important as it's just a basic samples drawer behind the counter where I work and it can stay as it is, but as I've never used these before but plan to again I'm interested in any advice you may be able to give, as I have no idea of what pitfalls may (and has) ocurr.

 

[Mar_mite]

If you feel the drawer is slightly small, there are mounting holes in the bit you screw to the carcass that will give a bit and take up any slack if the drawer is small. Look for a 'tab' shape and only put screws there. Also make sure that the runners are mounted horizontal, if one side is sloping up or down it will give you problems.

Hope this helps you.

 

[custard]

If the runners worked okay before being fitted, but don't work okay when the (unloaded) drawer is in place, then something's not square, level, parallel, or accurate. And it's just a case of devising tests to find out exactly where the problem actually is. Cutting a dead flat, dead square MDF template and fitting that in place of the drawer, and rigorously checking the drawer and carcass dimensions, should start to throw up some clues.

I don't mind making mistakes, but I hate repeating a flawed job before I've tracked down the causes and identified solutions to those mistakes.

 

[rafezetter]

If you feel the drawer is slightly small, there are mounting holes in the bit you screw to the carcass that will give a bit and take up any slack if the drawer is small. Look for a 'tab' shape and only put screws there. Also make sure that the runners are mounted horizontal, if one side is sloping up or down it will give you problems.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks for the advice I'll look into all that. I used what I thought was a known straightedge, and balanced the runner on top to mark the mounting holes for the carcass but I'll check that again when I get back to work.

It's not terribly out of true, and no-ones commented on it; but it bothers me, which is enough.

 

[mahomo59]

Welcome to have a lend of my Kreg drawer mounting guides. Brilliant for this.

James

 

[rafezetter]

It's a nice offer Mahomo59 ty, but I looked at them today and they were plumb true to the carcass..but the carcass was tilting forwards by almost 7mm! Unfortunately as I made the drawer to fit pretty much the gap there was no wiggle room to correct this. I did manage to fettle them a little bit as the runners weren't fully parallel with each other, so that's made them easier to slide and don't need to be shoved now; and as they are essentially going uphill, explains why the self closing isn't working properly.

 

[MMUK]

Can you not drop the back of the runners on the carcass a couple of mm to compensate?