PSA: A cheap trick for lining up drawer slides perfectly every time

Last month I was installing a full set of kitchen drawers in a tight space and kept getting the slides a hair off. My boss in the shop showed me this trick: use a piece of 1/4 inch plywood as a spacer between the cabinet side and the slide when you screw it in. It sets the perfect gap automatically. I did all 12 drawers in under an hour after that. Anyone have other simple jigs they use for repetitive tasks like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_wendy1mo ago

That's the kind of shop secret they should teach on day one. My first cabinet job took three hours because I was measuring each slide with a story stick like a chump. The plywood spacer trick feels like cheating, but it's the good kind of cheating. I bet the boss just got tired of watching you squint at a tape measure.

andrew71mo ago

My old foreman would just toss a handful of 3/4 inch plywood scraps at your head if you pulled out a tape for drawer slides. Said it wasted good daylight. That plywood spacer trick is pure shop magic, the kind of thing you learn after you've messed up enough expensive cabinets to feel the shame. It's funny how the best tricks are never in the manual, they just get passed down when someone gets tired of watching the new guy struggle.