Shoutout to the guy who told me to stop over-tightening my drawer slides

I was at a little shop in Portland last month, this older cabinetmaker watched me struggle with a sticky drawer for like 10 minutes. He just said 'you're cranking those screws too tight, let the slide breathe.' I loosened them up a quarter turn and it worked perfect. Anyone else ever get stuck on something that simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie_fisher453d ago

Jump right in and try the same thing on cabinet doors. I had a set of European hinges that kept sagging no matter how hard I cranked them down. Finally backed them off a hair like that old timer said and they lined up perfect. It's wild how much we think tighter equals better when really you're just crushing the wood fibers and throwing everything out of whack. Same thing with those little adjustment screws on soft close mechanisms, give them a quarter turn loose and they actually work the way they're supposed to.

sam5303d ago

Nah I gotta push back on that a little bit. I've found that cheap European hinges actually need to be cranked down tight because the screws strip out if you leave them loose, and then you're stuck with a door that won't stay put no matter what. Maybe the quality hardware lets you back off but most of the stuff at the big box stores just can't hold that way.