Drawer Slides Breaking During Transport

A cabinetmaker reports drawer slides that malfunction after a 5-mile cabinet delivery trip. April 9, 2008

Question
We used the Accuride Eclipse drawer slides with our current project and everything functioned perfectly in the shop for a week. We moved cabinets to the job and now have problems with 4 out of 12 drawers. I believe it has to do with transporting the cabinets on their backs. The slides are obviously out of whack on those drawers which don't function properly. It seems as if the plastic bearing which is fit in between two of the metal slide sections has been jolted out of position. Our trip was a slow 5 mile ride down the road and it's not like it was a rough ride. I will be calling the reps, but am wondering if anyone else has encountered this. I've reread all the literature to check and see if I missed some warning about proper transport, but I see nothing. Thanks for any insight and be warned about how you handle these slides!

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor I:
That doesn't surprise me. I have found that transporting cabinets with Tandembox drawers with Blumotion can lead to the soft close breaking. We now only transport cabinets upright or we remove the drawers for transport. Personally we like the Eclipse slides better than the Tandem and use them for all of our wood drawers but have never had a problem with them before or after installation. What exactly are the slides not doing - is something broken or just out of alignment?



From the original questioner:
Thanks. The slides get stuck half way out, resist if they do come out, and have obvious metal to metal contact... in general. After an hour or so inspecting and comparing to proper functioning slide, there is no obvious misalignment or portion broken. If this type of transport poses a threat, I would think there would be some kind of warning. I too would have simply removed the slides.