How to assemble drawer slides. Installing ball guides for drawers

Equipment drawers ball (telescopic) guides provides significant advantages during their operation. They ensure smooth and silent sliding of drawers into kitchen cabinets, chests of drawers, wardrobes and other furniture.

The components of the guides move easily thanks to durable metal balls located inside the profile, which allows loaded drawers to be pulled out to their full length if necessary. Some models extend up to 90 cm and can withstand loads of up to 45 kg.

In addition to these advantages, we can note their affordable cost, wear resistance and, importantly, ball guides for drawers are not difficult to install yourself.

In order for the mechanism to work flawlessly, it is necessary to correctly mark the areas where the components are attached. There should be gaps between the wall of the drawer and the side of the cabinet on both sides, in which the guides will be placed. Usually it is 13 cm on each side.

Calculation diagram for drawer parts

The length of the guides ranges from 25 to 90 cm in increments of 5 cm; they should be shorter than the box itself by approximately 6-10 cm. Therefore, the mechanism is mounted in the middle of the side wall of the box, leaving small gaps in front and behind.

There should also be at least 10mm of free space between the back walls of the drawer and cabinet. The easiest way is to mark and attach the guides during the furniture assembly process - it is much more convenient and faster.

Marking and installation

First of all, draw the attachment lines. It is recommended to mount the guides in the center of the box, but installation in the lower part is also allowed. A similar line is marked on the inside side of the cabinet. The accuracy of the measurements will determine the smooth operation and duration of operation of the mechanism.

Before installation, the guides are divided into halves: pressing the black “antennae”, pull out inner part devices. The halves are attached to the marked lines, then they move the drawer into place, try to close it and pull it out.

If everything was done correctly, the latch will engage and a slight click will be heard. This is a signal for the final fastening of the guides. Otherwise, you will have to slightly loosen the fasteners and still adjust the mechanism.

There are oblong holes on both parts of the structure: the vertical ones are designed to move the bar up and down, and the horizontal ones are for horizontal adjustment. Having carefully adjusted the mechanism, you can finally secure the elements with self-tapping screws or self-tapping screws.

Telescopic guides are available right and left; they cannot be swapped.

The guides can provide partial or full extension of the drawers, be with or without closers, be equipped with a Push to open system when the drawer does not have a handle, and you only need to press on it to open it. The products can also be equipped with a reliable lock that holds the drawers in the closed position.

Video: Replacing telescopic guides

Gone are the days when drawers in desks and cabinets slid on wooden slats. They were replaced by better and more convenient metal guides equipped with rollers and balls. Full extension ball guides are in greatest demand among consumers. Another name for them is telescopic guides.

Ball guides are used when assembling furniture to carry out the operation of drawers.

They have some undeniable advantages, which include:

affordable price;
smooth ride;
high strength;
wear resistance;
ease of installation.

Full extension ball slides are used in both chests of drawers and cabinets kitchen furniture, as well as in other retractable structures.

Calculated box dimensions

For correct installation Full extension ball slides have some requirements to meet. This is especially true for those home craftsmen who make pieces of furniture with their own hands.

The furniture requirements are:

Retractable structures without taking into account the facade should have a width of 26 mm less than the width of the place where they will be inserted. There should be a gap of 13 mm on each side to install the guides.
The length of the drawer must match the length of the extension devices, which can range from 25 to 80 cm. Intermediate dimensions are in increments of 5 cm. The entire structure does not reach the back wall of the cabinet by 1 cm.
The height of the retractable containers depends on the wishes of the owners and is not regulated by anything. Usually it ranges from 80 to 250 mm, but the dimensions can vary significantly upward.

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Installation of guides

In order to install these devices, you need to pull out their inner part, pressing the black antennae. The resulting halves are attached to the outer side of the drawer and to the inner surface of the cabinet.

This is done like this:

First you need to decide on the mounting location. On outside The fastening line is marked on the side wall of the drawer. It can run through the center or be located in its lower part. Half of the ball structure is attached to this line using screws.
A similar line is marked on the inner surface of the cabinet wall. Its location depends on the height of the box. The remaining halves of the devices are screwed into place. The box is put into place, and its free movement in the direction of extension and closing is checked.

There are quite a few holes on the halves of the structure. Each of them has its own purpose. The oblong horizontal holes serve to move the guides horizontally when adjusting them. Oblong vertical ones - for moving the bar up and down. After final adjustment, screws or self-tapping screws are screwed into round holes for securely fastening ball guide elements.

In practice, they usually do the following:

The lower guides are installed at a distance of 30 mm from the bottom of the cabinet.
The location of the remaining parts depends on the size of the drawer fronts. During operation they should not touch each other. To do this, the distance between the guides installed on the cabinet wall is made 2-3 mm greater than the height of the facade of the retractable structure.
The guide parts are screwed strictly along the intended line.
After temporarily securing the parts through the oblong holes, you need to try to insert the box into its place. If all previous operations were performed correctly, you will hear a slight click when the latch engages. This is an indication that the guides can be permanently secured through the round holes. If there is no click, then adjustment is needed by slightly moving the parts down and up and back and forth. Before making adjustments, slightly loosen the mounting screws.

DB4461 is modern model ball guides for drawers, equipped with a soft closing mechanism and a closer. The mechanism allows you to fully extend the drawer and gain access to all its contents. Smooth closing is carried out by an oil closer. The mechanism is guaranteed to withstand 50 thousand closings and openings. The device is designed for 25 kg weight. It works completely silently. There are other models of similar products.

Incorrect installation of the guides on the side walls of the drawer can lead to unpleasant consequences, which cause curvature of the entire structure. This will further lead to incorrect operation of the product, which will lead to its rapid breakdown.

To avoid such mistakes, you must immediately become familiar with the method of installing the drawer.

Roller guides

Currently, the most widely used types of guides are roller and ball designs. Roller-type guides have a low cost; thanks to this quality, they are very widely used in furniture structures, most often on the walls of drawers.

Roller guides have very simple design, which consists of 2 parts. The first part should be mounted on the side wall of the drawer, and the second part should be mounted on the inside wall of the cabinet, cabinet, etc. These guides can be made of steel or aluminum. The guides that are installed on the drawers have rollers that ensure their movement. To eliminate noise when the rollers move, their structure can be covered with a rubber sheath.

Since roller guides are not a structure designed to perform closed installation, then an enamel coating is applied to their surface, which is necessary to give a beautiful appearance the entire structure. The most commonly used paint is white, black or brown.

The design of these guides is similar to rails, which allow you to open and close various moving furniture elements without putting much effort into it. This is due to the created inertial moment, which occurs after a small push on the box.

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Installation of mechanisms

IN Lately the use of roller mechanisms has become widespread. This is due to the presence of computers in apartments and houses, which are installed on special computer tables. Such tables have a sliding shelf to allow installation of a keyboard on it. Also, similar mechanisms can be on various drawers, shelves and shelves. You can assemble such furniture elements on our own. The main thing is to approach this matter responsibly.

For installation you will need the following tools:

drill;
ruler;
pencil;
self-tapping screws

The installation diagram itself has a fairly simple sequence and is very easy to perform. To begin installation, you need to make markings on the walls of the box. This must be done accurately to prevent further distortions that may occur in moving parts.

Next, you need to drill holes using a drill, and they should not be through. Their depth should be 12-14 mm - this is caused by the length of the screws and the thickness of the chipboard sheet. Similar holes must be made on the body of the box (they must exactly match the previous ones).

Roller guides the simplest guides in terms of design and installation. The average price is 50-100 rubles. for a couple. The roller guides look like the photo below, you've probably seen them more than once.

The roller guides are covered with durable epoxy enamel; guides are available in different colors, the most common guides being cream. You can find roller guides for drawers with a depth of 250 to 800 mm, that is, for almost all cases.

Roller guides can withstand dynamic loads of up to 25 kg; you are unlikely to store anything heavier in a chest of drawers or in a drawer in a closet. The disadvantages of roller guides are the noise with which they extend and close; the extension is partial. But the low price eliminates these shortcomings.

According to the installation diagram, the gap between the outer part of the side wall of the box and the side wall of the product body should be 12.5 mm or 25 mm on both sides, usually 26 mm is taken in calculations. This means that the width of the box should be 25-26 mm less than the internal space of the cabinet.

Ball guides

Ball guides, or as they are called telescopic guides, are able to withstand heavy loads and have a smooth ride. The cost of guides is 300-400 rubles. for a couple. There are options with and without closers.

Ball guides, like roller guides, consist of two parts. One of them is attached to the box, the other to the side wall.

In order to separate them, you need to press the lock, as shown in the photo.

It is possible, of course, to install without disconnecting, but this torture is even worse, I had a chance to try it from my own experience. As a result, a negative idea may be formed about ball guides and the complexity of their installation. It's actually simple.

Installation of ball guides element by element is produced on the side walls of the cabinet and the side of the drawer.

The most commonly used are ball guides with a height of 45 mm, the size range of guides is from 250 to 700 mm, and can withstand loads of up to 36 kg, which is more than.

Calculation of a box on ball guides similar to the calculation of roller guides, the width dimensions of the box are determined as the size of the internal space minus 26 mm (12.7 mm + 12.7 mm).

Metaboxes

Metaboxes– extension system based on roller guides. The material of the metaboxes is 1.2 mm thick steel, coated with high-strength enamel. Price 300-400 rub. per pair, produced by "Blum" in the region of 600-700 rubles.

Tandems

Tandem hidden guide technology ensures smooth movement even for heavily loaded drawers. The drawer can be easily removed from the guides without tools.

Tandem- this is a smooth move and full or partial extension. Drawers can be either with or without a built-in closer. The tandem can be equipped with Tip-on (opening system by pressing the facade). The cost of guides is 1000 -1500 rubles. for a couple.

On drawer guides In tandem you can make a drawer for the sink. Since the sink has a convex part, which is located inside the body, the standard, that is, straight drawer design is not suitable here. The convex part or bottom of the sink will prevent the drawer from closing. In this case, the bottom of the box is made with a cutout, and the walls of the box made of chipboard are attached along the cutout. This entire structure is installed on Tandem guides.

Application Tandem guides assumes the use of 16 mm thick chipboard, although solutions with using chipboard 18 mm thick.

The most expensive segment of the drawer slide market. The sides of the box (drawer side) are made of thin-walled steel, unlike tandems, where the box body is made of chipboard.

The kit includes fastenings to the front and fastenings to the back wall of the drawer. Detailing includes a chipboard bottom and back wall, similar to a metabox. The guides are similar to tandems, have a smooth closing, with closers.

Tandemboxes can be equipped with an opening system that does not require installing a handle on the facade; it is enough to simply press the facade with your hand.

Tandemboxes of various heights and variety of assortment significantly exceed metaboxes. Let's look at an example tandemboxes Blum.

Height N, drawer drawer height 68 mm, lowest drawer

Height M, drawer drawer height 83 mm

Height C, drawer drawer height 115 mm

Used for high facades, the back wall is enlarged, and a railing is also added. Minimum height internal space for drawer 191 mm.

Height also D, drawer drawer height 83 mm

Used for high fronts, the back wall is also enlarged, but instead of two railings, the Railing with Boxside is an overlay on the drawer side. The minimum height of the internal space for a drawer is 224 mm. The solution is mainly for kitchen drawers, not for wardrobes.

Two triple tubular holders and railing tubes allow you to make a special box on tandembox guides in a sink cabinet. Thanks to the cutout in the bottom, the drawer allows you to bypass the sink protruding into the body of the cabinet.

Another interesting solution from Blum is the use of tandembox guides for corner cabinets, which is called Space Corner.

The fittings set includes a number of specific elements that are not found in other guides and, frankly speaking, this fittings are not cheap. Space corner allows you to effectively use the corner space in the kitchen, and the use of ORGA line dividers further structures the storage space.

At the beginning Legrabox boxes positioned as elite products that were inaccessible to mere mortal furniture makers. The point here was not at all in the price, and the price, by the way, is the highest in comparison with other extension systems, but in the complexity and accuracy of manufacturing the remaining parts from chipboard, the accuracy of milling the bottom of the drawer, the accuracy of drilling the side walls of the case and facades. Therefore, Legrabox boxes were offered furniture companies who produce high-end furniture.

Installation, calculation and installation of guides for drawers

It’s not enough to know what drawer guides there are, but the question arises: how to calculate and install guides.

On the Internet there are a large number of methods and approaches in the calculation and installation of guides. I use a simple program from Blum called DYNALOG with a clear interface; for design we use the DYNAPLAN module.

The program allows calculate both roller guides and metaboxes, Tandemboxes and tandems. As a result, we will receive a list of parts with dimensions, necessary fittings, drilling drawings for the side wall and facades. Special furniture programs are expensive, there is no point in mastering them, much less buying them, if you want to make products for your home yourself.

As an example of a basic product, I will give a cabinet 616 mm high, 600 mm wide, 500 mm deep with overhead facades 200 mm high, chipboard drawers 150 mm high, gaps between the facades 4 mm.

If we want to calculate installing drawers in a closet, then please note that with a cabinet depth of 600 mm and internal partition 500 mm, the calculation is carried out for inset facades, the facades will be inside between the side wall and the partition, as well as between the horizontal walls. It is better to make side gaps of 4 mm in the version of inset facades.

Hello dear friends.

Today we will talk about how the guides are mounted on the side parts of the boxes.

Despite the apparent simplicity of this point, there are small nuances here that we will consider.

It would seem that what could be difficult about this?

I screwed one part of this fitting onto the side of the box (according to a pre-calculated additive map), and the other part onto the drawer. The main thing is not to confuse what to screw where.

But with this approach, it often turns out that assembled box, for example, from somewhere quite noticeable gaps appear between the box itself and the facades. On this occasion, a nervous correction of the situation begins...

The facades are removed, then fixed in a new way, and... the gaps “pop out” in another place.

I am writing this because the developers have provided the ability to adjust these guides in two planes. In fact, they are quite universal in terms of their adjustment.

After all, no matter how correctly you calculate a box with drawers, no matter how carefully you assemble it, in the end you will never get an ideal design. Something somewhere is “cosonet”. And this needs to be understood.

This is why, in addition to all our efforts to control the box itself and the drawers for their geometry, sometimes we also have to do the guides themselves.

So, how to install them correctly, and, if necessary, adjust them?

When the axis on the drawer is determined, you need to fix the guide runner so that its front edge is almost “flush” with the front part of the drawer (but does not protrude forward, since in this case a gap is formed between the front and the drawer).

For these purposes (upward or forward adjustments), there are oblong holes on the runner itself.

So, let's align it along the axis (make sure that the line drawn with a pencil runs through the center of all the holes of the runner itself).

Then, we put an awl in the hole, stretched along the length of the runner from its front part.

By screwing a self-tapping screw into this place, we are able to adjust it back and forth.

Thus, we select the position we need (as mentioned above - flush with the front edge of the box).

We attach its back part to the hole, which is extended up and down. This is done so that if there is a need to adjust the box itself in height, we will do the following:

Unscrew the screw from the front adjustment hole (back and forth), from where we screwed it in first
Screw this self-tapping screw into the hole (up and down), also located in the front part of the runner.

Thus, it turns out that the runner will be attached to the box through two adjustment holes (up and down) in front and behind.

It’s the same story with the installation and adjustment of the part of the guide that is attached to the side of the box itself.

When the box with the drawers and fronts installed in it is finally aligned and adjusted, then we pull out all the drawers and screw the screws into the mounting holes (regular, round) of all the guides on the drawers, and all the guides inside the box.

The rear part contains, in addition to adjustable holes (back and forth), special horizontal and vertical grooves into which self-tapping screws are screwed to adjust it.

Only at this stage is the box with drawers finally assembled.

So, install correctly, using all possibilities to adjust them.