Sliding hardware for cabinets (NOT drawer runners)

[siggy_7]

Seems a bit of a theme at the moment, but I'm embarking on building my own kitchen. In one corner, we're planning a "pull and swing" type corner unit. Having looked around at what is commercially available, I'm not impressed (variously they seem flimsy, space inefficient and not rated to a very high load). I saw a picture of something I liked the look of a lot more which doesn't appear to be commercially available in the UK, so I've decided I'm going to have a crack at making one. Something like this - basically a two-tier wooden shelf unit that slides out of the base unit and then pivots through 90° on some hinges. Then I'll make a couple of drawers to fit in the recessed corner that can pull out to the space vacated by the pull-out unit.

This brings about the question of what hardware do I use for the sliding aspects. Most of these types of units I have seen use either:
1) A highly specialised mechanism, or
2) Something that looks an awful lot like a drawer slide

I don't want to go to the trouble of fabricating some overly elaborate mechanism, so the first one is out for me. I think that most drawer slides would not cope at all well with a high moment (it's not what they are designed for after all), and additionally the drawer slide would then have to pivot with the unit which takes up a large amount of space on the commercial units that use this type of slider.

What I'm after is a sliding mechanism that doesn't extend, but rather has the sliding element moving between two ends of a fixed length track. I thought about CNC slides, and currently I'm thinking of using these:

https://www.igus.co.uk/drylin/linear-guide

I'm sure that they will work well and be plenty strong enough, but being engineered for precision machine applications they aren't cheap (I reckon about £200 all-in). For a kitchen cabinet, what I need is a decent load capacity with a nice-feeling mechanism. Can someone point me in the direction of something more suitable, or is this application so niche that I've already identified my best option?

 

[woodywoodwood]

Very nice. We use hafele for our fittings, but I don't know as I've seen those before.
Sorry, but thanks for showing the driline runners. 8)
PS - pretty sure hafele do sell a sturdy corner mechanism. Also wixroyd? Will ask the gaffer.

 

[lurker]

Interesting post!
You have given me ideas for amassing brownie points :wink:

 

[siggy_7]

woodywoodwood - thanks, look forward to hearing from you. I had a look at some Hafele stuff (I think their kit was installed in some B&Q kitchens I looked at amongst others) - it looked ok, but wasn't really what I was after. We've gone for a Kessenbohmer Le Mans unit in one corner, these look quite efficient, but due to layout this other corner will have a relatively deep buried bit (about 600mm) and a relatively narrow door (450mm). Most of the units I've seen specify a door and blind part of the cabinet to be equal depth, and the ones designed for bigger cabinets are proportionally less space efficient (as with the Le Mans, for example, where the trays don't get that much bigger in the larger units). On Hafele's website, I found two different types, branded as Vauth-Sagel:

1) VS COR Fold - this is the type of pull and swing unit I was ideally after. However, the front baskets are limited to 8kg each, the rear baskets to 9.5kg each, and the drawer slide type slider below the bottom front basket takes up a large amount of depth in the cabinet.
2) VS COR Flex - the mechanism on these is different (everything slides in stages like a puzzle). Each of the four baskets is only rated to 8kg. In some ways it's more space efficient as it doesn't lose all that depth to the swing mechanism, but the rear baskets are sized to be the same as the front so with my uneven size of door/blind cabinet section you lose a lot of space.

Why the obsession with load capacity you may ask, just use the storage for cereals, Tupperware etc? Well no matter how many times I might stress the limits of anything to other household members, I bet 5 minutes after I've finished building each basket will be overflowing with tins and cast iron pans. If I over-engineer the load capacity on the other hand, I can sleep easy knowing it won't break!

lurker - glad to provide some inspiration. Look forward to hearing about the project.

 

[Brandlin]

Interesting post!
You have given me ideas for amassing brownie points :wink:

do not be seduced by brownie points!

they are like bitcoin... of indeterminate value and scarcity, cannot be redeemed without significant negotiation and can be devalued at any time without notification.

 

[thegsey]

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[ScaredyCat]

I've looks at http://gsf-slides.co.uk/en/index.asp for some potential future projects. I'm pretty sure they'd carry the weight unless you're going to stand on the cabinet and weigh quite a lot. I'd perhaps look as replicating a top slide with t-track or something similar and just have the bottom on the slider. I presume that you'll have a pivoting cabinet box that'll also have a post that it'll pivot from. So a pin in that, at the top sliding into the track and the bottom fixed to the slider. Then the box hanging off the post.

This is all off the top of my head so don't hold me to an engineering degree that I don't have :lol:

 

[Yojevol]

Corner units are always a problem but the B&Q units we chose about 10 years ago are simple and effective. Little used items naturally migrate to the far corner in time.

 

[siggy_7]

thegsey - That's an interesting alternative that I haven't thought of. I'm thinking if going that route then I'd have some form of guide track to keep the green cabinet in your illustrations reasonably square as it comes out. Alternatively, by using an extension slide type mechanism such as a beefy drawer slide, you could mount the slides to the purple drawers - they wouldn't get in the way of the mechanism working that way. The downside as I see it is you would be adding a significant weight to the end of the purple drawers for those slides to accommodate - I think that's not a very difficult problem to solve, would just need some really beefy hardware.

ScaredyCat - Thank you for that link, those sorts of linear guides are just what I had in mind before I found the Igus slides. I'll need to go back to my design notes later, but I'm thinking either the R52 radial rail or the ALRS aluminium rail system would work, although the moment capacities of those products aren't given. They look like they should be able to take a substantial moment load though - worth an enquiry.

Yojevol - those corner units work ok if you don't have a blind cabinet. Unfortunately, our kitchen is galley-like, with the sink (butler sink style) taking up one side of the corner. The cabinets on each side of the corner are therefore unequal heights, and this type of cabinet won't work.

 

[MattRoberts]

You could always look to use casters to support the past that moves and rotates out - these could be hidden behind a detachable kick board, taking the vast majority of the load. You could then use a combination of drawer runners and a hinge to facilitate the pull out & rotate action