Attaching Drawer Fronts to Blum Tandembox

Tips on drawer front assembly with Blum Tandembox. October 13, 2012

Question
What are your ideas on how to attach 5 piece drawer fronts to Tandembox? The backs of our raised panels are not flush with the backs of the stiles and rails. The rail's widths (height) are not uniform between shallow drawers and deep drawers. I was thinking that Tbox was going to make life simpler.

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor F:
Unless you enjoy doing some arithmetic, the easiest way to install the drawer front to the tandem box is to either 1) use the tandem box marking template along with the gallery rail template if you have rails (they're both sold separately and require a bit of lead time) or 2) take the brackets that screw on to the drawer front and then clip into the tandem box to your local hardware store, find some screws that'll fit in the holes, secure them with the appropriate nuts, and make sure they're just long enough that they'll allow you to rough fit the drawer front to the drawer opening so that when you whack on it slightly they'll leave slight indentations on the back of the drawer front, then use the Blum universal marking template and adjust it so that the holes center on the indentations, lock the adjustable fences and bore the holes with a drill (don't forget to set a stop collar so you don't bore through the front!). If you don't want to buy the universal marking template, you can repeat the process with every drawer, but it'll be pretty tedious. Here's a video on how the tandem box marking templates are used.




From contributor S:
I have a question about the thickness of the bottom and back for Tandembox. Their monster catalog shows only 16mm chipboard for the material option. Can we use 15mm or 18mm stock? We don't have 16mm stock available locally.

I am excited to do this kitchen run with Tandembox. I've shied away from them for years thinking the only way to go is dovetailed hardwood boxes, but the stainless steel version looks cool, and you find them on the $100k European kitchens - so definitely high end perception.



From contributor F:

I learned a trick from the boys over at True32 on this one: rabbet the edges of thicker stock to slide into the drawer slides if you don't have thinner stock available. 16mm works out perfectly. 15mm would work, but you'll see more of a gap. I've given up on my fixation for dovetail drawers on kitchen and bath cabinets since most of them are just machine routed anyway, and there are a few more extra steps to setting them up for tandem slides. I would definitely never go back to building drawers entirely out of plywood or melamine.