Another entry on the (Christmas) wish list

[Kerry Fullington]

When presenting a job, the price of the kitchen is always too high or over budget. The first thing generally sacrificed to lower cost is the maple dovetail drawer boxes and then the soft close under-mount slides. In eCabinets we can globally change the drawer box which makes that part easy. Because changing the slide means a different box size this is not so easy. We must take the cabinets into the cabinet editor to make the change. Way too time consuming. We need the ability to change drawer slides globally as well as boxes.

I know this can't be done by Christmas but any time in January 2011 will be OK.

[Forrest Chapman]

Kerry,

This is something I have discussed at length with Scott Vaal. I was hoping that when you change drawer boxes globally an entry box would allow you to set all the parameters as well as new hardware with holes. For me this is more about machining the job than pricing it but the end result is the same.

Forrest

[Kerry Fullington]

Forrest,

After the first of the year I am going to offer a 5/8" plywood blind dado drawer as my standard drawer instead of the dovetail maple so machining is what I am most interested in also.

Kerry

[Michael S Murray]

my 2 cents...
I only offer the undermount soft close-the new grass dynapro to be exact. I get less than 17 bucks in it.The blum is about the same now.
A cheap ball bearing is 6 bucks. Thats $11 bucks a drawer difference, lets say 15 drwaers in a decent kitchen.Thats $165 dollars difference.
In my opinion its not even worth the time it takes to discuss with a client, let alone the trouble of changing the cabs, different assembly, etc.
Kerry, I think the 5/8 blind dado is a good starting point, then a 5/8 Dovetail as a upgrade, same slide, same dim. nothing to change on the cabinet....
Once again, only my 2 cents and at auction only worth .2 cents

[Kerry Fullington]

Mike,

I may only offer the under mount but my slide of choice is the Accuride Eclipse and it is running me about $26 a set from Hafele. For a Full extension side mount I have always used the Accuride 3832 which costs me about $9 from Hafele so I would have over $250 difference on the 15 drawers which still might not be worth the trouble. I tried the Blum tandem soft close $17 but it just isn't as nice a slide but I may have to go that way.
The only drawer upgrade will be to the 5/8 Maple dovetail and they will be outsourced now instead of building them in house. All doors will be outsourced also. I have always made my own moldings and will probably quit that except on furniture pieces.

I am planning a 3/4" barb dado cabinet box with 5/8" back and hope to use up the back off-fall in the drawer boxes. I want to use dadoes to align the face frame also but may have to play with that a bit. I have created a hole pattern to cut pockets for screws where I need them but am not sure this will work well without the screw pilot hole. This still might be better on the pocket hole cutter but I really don't want to handle the parts the extra time.

I have always put metal grommets in all my shelf pin holes but will probably drop this too.

Welcome to Home Depot.

[Nat Wheatley]

Kerry,

Why the 5/8" backs instead of sticking with 3/4" material all around?

Nat

[Kerry Fullington]

Nat,

My excuse was weight (which is negligible) because I install by myself but the real reason is that I don't want to build a 3/4" drawer box. I have always used 1/2" bottoms in my drawers so I think I can live with the 5/8" but not the 3/4. Actually I am having a big problem with all the trade offs to speed things up.

Kerry

[Nat Wheatley]

Got it. Knew there had to be a reason.

These are different times, for sure.

[Kerry Fullington]

Nat,

the 5/8" might be OK also when I get into jobs where I need a second material. Not too long ago I built a kitchen from quartersawn white oak. The 3/4" ply was $110 a sheet. I wouldn't want to use that for backs or drawers.

I will like some of this better when I can build prototypes to see how it is all going to work. The boxes in theory should be a great deal better than what I am building now.

[Forrest Chapman]

Kerry,,

One thing I do is offer 2 different slides that use the same hole patterns and spacing. I use the Hettich Quadro for for full ext. with softclose and Blum solos for cheap undermount slides. For a 5/8" box the settings are the same and I have created a 6 hole pattern that works for both slides at any size. I can use a dovetail or barbed dado box depending on price sensitivity. The only area I've had a problem with this setup is on a line of contractor grade faceframe cabinets that utilizes 1/2" plywood for the entire box including the drawer box. If my dealer needs to upgrade the drawer box to dovetail the material jumps up to 5/8" and my side clearance has to change. This rarely happens after the batch is filled but has happened and is a pain in the butt.

Forrest