First of all, the clearance required is not 1" to 1 and 1/16" as is standard for side mount's. The instructions say you must have EXACTLY 1 and 1/16" clearance. No tolerance. That doesn't really fly in woodworking, as wooden things expand and contract with the seasons. All wooden things must have a tolerance for expansion/shrinkage. So there is a fundamental design flaw.

I've had the same problem with the KV 8455 side mount soft close. The closing mechanism is no good. They will never work properly. Here's the test to prove how they don't work: Take one slide out and operate it freely in a vertical position. It's not even strong enough to close itself against the force of gravity, without being attached to the drawer or cabinet. The force required to pull a loaded drawer closed in the horizontal position is greater than the force required to lift the inner part of the slide. The inner part of the slide weighs less than 1 pound, and the closing mechanism can't even lift one pound. More than a pound of force is required to pull a loaded drawer closed, even on ball bearings.

Bottom line: these suck. I just went ahead and used regular side-mount glides. Accuride 3832 or Fulterer 5600

The self closing ones that work are undermount. Blum is the way to go. If you have to have that feature, the drawer must be built differently. Undermounts require an inch of clearance on the bottom, and only 1/4" total side clearance.

aidan_m,

Finally got one slide to work perfectly today. The sad thing is I cannot definitively say what I did right. I just played around with the mounting brackets (front and rear) since they are bendable.

Now I just have one more to go!

This was definitely what I signed onto when I bought these slides.

My main problem was that I had frameless cabinets. So the drawer glide mounts directly to the inside of the box.

I envisioned these things maybe working, if I had face frame cabinets and was utilizing front and rear mounting brackets, and then fiddled with them enough (like you did). The mounting brackets can compensate for natural wood expansion/shrinkage that occurrs with the seasons. Hope all works out. Glad to hear you got it to work.

aidan_m,

As with the first pair of slides, IâÂÂve been using a stick to make sure that the distance between the two front brackets was equal to the distance between the rear two brackets. After confirming this, I put the drawer box in. As usual, it felt tight as I slid it in and out. And it did not self-close.

I decided to get a little more aggressive. So I slid the box all the way in, then would pull it out a few inches and push it to the right and left, then pull out a few more inches and push it to the right and left. I repeated this pattern till it was fully extended outward. After repeating it for a while, I noticed that the box was getting looser each time. At some point I got a little more aggressive but had to be careful not to break the front brackets. After a certain point the box got loose enough that it began to self-close! I had employed the same method with the first box but forgot about it when I wrote my previous post.

Eventually, I got it to self-close as well. But it was not a very smooth close. Then I noticed something. I had removed the first drawer box that I fixed yesterday to compare its slides with those of the second. But when I put this first box back into the slides it was self-closing really well. I mean really well. I looked at its slides and noticed that I had accidentally placed one of its slides flush with the cabinet face.

Suddenly a light bulb went on in my head! I seemed to recall from the YouTube video, on the KV soft-closing side-mounted slides (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=149d_tBJTEQ), that the slides have to be flush with the cabinet face. I looked at the video again and sure enough I was right. I was placing the slides right where the face frame edge ended! I therefore adjusted the slides on the second drawer box and voila! It was now self-closing really well.

Basically, in my frustration with the slides, I had forgotten this detail.

I went to the other cabinet that I had completed a while ago and which had four drawer boxes. Sure enough, the slides were not flush with the cabinet face. They too were right behind the face frame edge. I adjusted them and they now self-close really well!

I mention all this in case there is an unfortunate soul out there making the same mistake.

Slides are now done. Next step is the drawer fronts.

What an adventure!

Below is the cabinet that really tested my patience with the slides.(As you will notice from the photo, my condo is still undergoing an electrical renovation. I have gotten all new wiring but the the outlets and light fixtures have yet to be installed. Then the walls have to be patched. IâÂÂm juggling a couple of things at the moment.)

Glad to hear you got them to work out. I had thought that they would work, in theory, for a cabinet like what you have made. I thought that in theory, the mounting brackets would allow the body of the glide to move slightly as the drawer travels, thus allowing a slight tolerance for wood expansion. It sounds like you have confirmed this theory. I revoke my earlier assertment that "these just suck" to be just "these will not work well with a frameless cabinet box"

So I'll keep an open mind for these as an option for retrofits of existing cabinets, and if I ever make face frame cabinets. I almost always make frameless cabinets for drawer stacks because I like to utilize every possible square inch of space.

Thanks for taking the time to share your trials and eventual success with this product.