How to Figure Out Your Drawer Box Size for Undermount Drawer Slides

#woodworking
Hello there! And, welcome back to Woodworker Express. Today, I will teach you how to figure out what size to make your drawer box for undermount drawer slides.

Now, depending on the undermount drawer slide manufacturer, there are generally 2 options for undermount drawer slides depending on drawer material thickness.

You can purchase either drawer slides designed for material up to 5/8" thick
Or, you can purchase slides for 3/4" thick drawer material.

The most commonly used drawer box material is generally 1/2"-5/8" thick.
For this type of drawer, you will use the drawer slides designed for up to 5/8" thick drawer box material.
So, with these slides and a drawer box thickness of 5/8", your final overall outside drawer box width will be 3/8" narrower than the opening of your cabinet.

Now, with these same slides and a drawer box material thickness of 1/2", your final drawer box width will be 5/8" narrower than your cabinet opening. Simple as that! I highly recommend making a little cheat sheet with these measurements on it so you can always quickly go back and double check, especially if you are somewhat new to using undermount drawer slides.

As for how long the sides of the drawer box material will be, it will depend on what length slides you purchased.
Let's say you have 21" long undermount slides, your outside drawer box length will be 21", easy as that.
Now, for the height of your drawer box, you generally want to deduct about 1" or more from the height of your cabinet opening to allow the undermount slide to have plenty of room for adjustability. I always subtract about 1-1/4" just to make sure that I never run into any issues.

Let's talk about the second option of undermount drawer slides that are designed for drawer material that is 3/4" thick. For these slides and a drawer material thickness of 3/4", you deduct 7/16" from your opening to get your final overall drawer box width.
The same rules go with the slides as the others for the height and lengths, so you should now be ready to build or order the drawer boxes you need for your cabinets.

Well, I hope this video was helpful and as always don't forget to subscribe to Woodworker Express' YouTube channel for more videos and be sure to let us know if you have any questions in the comment section down below. We will see you next time!

[georgeoday]

This is a visual medium. It would be very helpful if you could show illustrations of the measurements you are talking about. Thanks for posting your video.

[mattski]

Dude, that's a pretty sweet video. Thank you. Goofy question, and I do apologize by saying, "I'm sorry.". you said it needs to be of 3/4" material for undermount drawer slides. You meant all sides of the drawer or just the bottom? Thank you in advance for answering my question. I appreciate it.

[shawnjones]

Can I use an 18” undermount slide on a 17” drawer?

[barryfowler]

How much room do these protrude outdside underside of box dimension... relative to next drawer up etc. & spacing for laying out drawers in box?

[Kelly-locz]

I need this for regular, side slides.. not undermount.. do you have this?

[MANUELMANNY]

You talked about those slides, but you never mentioned what brand or model.

[subordinary]

Numbers and measurements need visuals.

[Mlowe]

You never talked about the width, the most important measurement..

[linhinh]

CovidImages need to be invested more than half19