How To Install Everbilt Full Extension Ball Bearing Slide Set

Learn all my tips and tricks for installing cabinet drawer slides.

Drawers are so useful! They are my favorite function of a kitchen, desk, console, and more. But they tin be intimidating to install.

So I partnered with Kreg Tools to share all my tips for how to install chiffonier drawers using their awesome drawer slide jig.

I utilise all of the Kreg Hardware jigs on a regular basis! If y'all programme to brand any cabinets in the new year's day, yous will definitely want to catch this kit to make your build easier.

Three drawer cabinet next to a stove with the drawers pulled out in steps.

Now let's get downwardly to installing some cabinet drawers! And for help edifice your own cabinets check out this post.

Tips for Building Drawers

The kickoff part of a successful drawer install is a successful drawer build. You lot need to know what the requirements for spacing are for your drawer slides. It's a good idea to double check the specs of your drawer slides before building your drawers.

Most ball bearing drawer slides I have used require 1/ii″ spacing on either side of the drawer. So I congenital my drawers 1″ smaller than the chiffonier opening.

White 3 drawer base cabinet with rubbed bronze bar pulls and maple wood countertop on top.

Also, when building your drawers, I always err on the side of too small over to big. The drawer slides can quickly exist shimmed out a 16th or 32nd of an inch to fit a smaller drawer.

Only to brand a ane/16″ as well wide drawer fit takes lots of time and is very aggravating.

Lastly, square drawers will fit and so nicely into your cabinets. So take the extra fourth dimension to set up your saw blades & fences to perfect 90 caste angles and square up the ends of your boards before assembly.

Having a blade or fence off by a couple degrees will quickly make a wonky drawer box that you volition be fighting when information technology's time to install.

Looking down on drawers in a kitchen cabinet pulled out slightly to show their functionality.

Picking the Correct Drawer Slides

In that location are and so many unlike options for drawer slides. I typically use ball-bearing drawer slides for a few reasons:

they come up in total extension (yay for finding things in the dorsum of your drawers),
they come up in soft close,
they slide smoothly,
they can concord a lot of weight,
they are commonly in stock at habitation improvement or woodworking stores,
they are a good mid-priced choice.

Full Extension

Full extension means that the drawer back is brought to front of the cabinet box when fully opened. This allows total admission to the contents of the drawer.

Of course, if you lot accept an overhang on your countertops (well-nigh ordinarily practise) the back top drawers will be slightly hidden backside the overhang. But it'south barely noticeable considering that is just an inch or and then.

Top drawer in a cabinet base pulled out all the way showing the full extension function of the ball bearing drawer slides.

If you want even more admission to the items in your drawer, yous tin can use over-travel drawer slides that extend the dorsum of the chiffonier an inch or and so by the cabinet box.

Nosotros used an over-travel drawer slide for our pull out trash tin cabinet. This allows us to elevator the trash tin out of the trash tin can drawer if needed because it brings the drawer out by the countertop.

And don't be tempted past the low price of 3/4 extension drawer slides. If you have ever been frustrated by older drawers that felt like they stopped style too soon, that is a iii/4 extension.

Just think, if your drawer is 20″ deep, 5″ of that will still be hidden in the cabinet. This makes a large drawer feel and then small.

Side view of the white kitchen cabinet with 3 drawers, a shallow one on top and two large deep drawers on the bottom.

Soft Close

Soft close is a feature that stops the drawer from slamming close. Fifty-fifty better, after it stops the drawer, it slowly pulls the drawer to the fully airtight position.

If you lot have kids, the soft close tin come in very handy. No more slamming drawers and no more almost-closed drawers.

But if you are on a budget, y'all tin save yourself around $v per pair of slides by not choosing the soft shut option. And y'all can e'er upgrade slides afterwards when you have more money in your upkeep (and salve the not-soft close slides for more than projects!).

Three white kitchen cabinet drawers with black pulls pulled out partially showing the ball bearing drawer slides on the sides of the drawers.

Weight Limit

Brand certain to pay attention to the weight limit on your drawer slides when purchasing them. Large drawers tin concur lots of items so you desire to make sure the slides can handle information technology.

Also, take into account the weight of your drawer when figuring how much weight you need your drawer slides to hold.

Sentinel the Full YouTube Video

Video thumbnail with play button on top.

How to Install Ball Bearing Drawer Slides

Tools Needed:

Kreg Drawer Slide Jig
- Get the jig in the Hardware Installation Kit and save over 10% vs. buying them all separately. On sale through Dec 31, 2022 (or while supplies last).
Drill and affect driver
Clamps (2 are included in the kit)
Kreg multi-marking tool
Pencil

Supplies:

Ball bearing drawer slides
Drawer box
Coverstock or cardstock paper
Scraps of wood

Tools needed to install cabinet drawers with ball bearing drawer slides on a marble vinyl floor.

Prepping the cabinet for drawers

To install drawer slide, the side of cabinet needs to be flush with the side side of the opening. If you are installing drawers in frameless cabinets, this is already the instance.

If you are installing drawers in a face frame chiffonier, you will accept to do some additional work before you lot can install drawer slides since the face frame (ordinarily) will have an overhang into the cabinet box.

You accept ii choices to fix this, one is to utilize the plastic clips made to work with face up frame cabinets. The front end of the drawer slide is attached to the within of the face frame and the dorsum to the clip.

The other option is to add together a strip of flake wood inside your cabinet where you lot are installing the drawer slides to bring it affluent with the sides of the face frame.

Inside a cabinet showing wood blocking attached to make the drawer slides sit flush with the side of the face frame.

If you desire to install overlay chiffonier doors (where they sit down on top of the face frame) yous tin use either method. If y'all want to install inlay cabinet doors (where they sit inside the face frame) you can just use the second option.

I prefer using the second pick all the time. I ever accept scraps of wood laying around that I can use for drawer slide blocking.

And since I like to use fill my drawers full and use them frequently, I am worried those plastic clips will not hold up to lots of heavy use and abuse. The forest blocking definitely does!

Cabinet with wood blocking installed, now with the Kreg drawer slide jig clamped under the blocking and a drawer slide installed over it.

The cabinets I built for our new kitchen are a mix of frameless and face up-frame cabinets. I am installing inlay chiffonier doors, but however wanted the classic look of the face up frame cabinet.

So I fabricated my face frames but ane″ wide. That way the inside of the face frame is flush with the within of the chiffonier and the extra 1/4″ (since my cabinets are built with iii/4″ plywood) give me some jerk room when it comes to installing them.

And bonus, it makes it easy to install drawer slides without any additional blocking or clips. But even if you have confront frame or frameless cabinets, installing the slides is the aforementioned!

Square photo showing the kitchen drawer cabinet in a kitchen.

Taking the slide apart

Earlier y'all can install the drawer slides, y'all need to accept them apart. To practise this, pull the ii pieces autonomously until they finish.

And so look for the blackness plastic tab on the inside of the drawer slide. Pinch this tab toward the side of the drawer slide to release the two pieces.

I observe yous need to compression the tab and press them slightly together again, so pull apart to get the slides to release.

Person holding a drawer slide in front of the cabinet carcass with red arrow pointing to the tab that will release the two pieces.

Set aside the inside pieces. They will exist installed on the drawer box afterwards.

Installing the bottom drawer slide

If y'all are installing drawers in a drawer base without a cabinet on bottom, the install of the bottom drawer is a lilliputian different.

You cannot use the Kreg drawer slide jig for the install since you demand the drawer slide closer to the bottom of the cabinet. Instead, use a couple pieces of fleck wood to hold the slides off the bottom of the cabinet.

I use 1/2″ baltic birch plywood to build my drawer boxes out of, so I e'er have a few fleck pieces of information technology laying effectually. This works perfectly for a spacer when installing the bottom drawer slide.

Lay the outside part of the drawer slide on pinnacle of the scrap wood.

If installing overlay doors, the front end of the drawer slide should be flush with the front of the confront frame.
If installing inlay doors, set the forepart of the drawer slide back the thickness of your drawer forepart (mine are three/4″).

The outside part of the ball bearing drawer slide sitting on a 1/2" piece of plywood inside the drawer base cabinet. Being measured from the front with a multi-mark tool.

When installing the drawer slides, I similar to utilise the holes in the tabs sections of the drawer slide. These will allow a little flex as the drawers are installed.

Photos with red arrows pointing to the back side of the ball bearing drawer slide where there are 5 tab sections with screw holes in them

Drill a pilot hole in the hole in the front tab of the drawer slide. Make certain it is centered in the pigsty.

And then secure it with 1 of the screws that came with your drawer slides.

Drawer slide sitting on a piece of 1/2" plywood on the bottom of and empty cabinet carcass and drilling a pilot hole in the front screw hole.

Now repeat with 2 more screws (one in the middle of the slide and one toward the back). Make sure to use the screw openings on the tabs again.

You might have to move the slide in or out to reveal these holes in the slide.

Red arrow showing where the holes in the drawer slides are so you can move them around to access the screw holes.

Be careful not to bump or move your slide as you install the screws. Double check the slide is flush against the plywood flake and properly spaced on the front every bit you become.

Repeat for the slide on the other side of the cabinet.

Installing the bottom drawer slide in the white cabinet on the left side.

Installing the upper drawer slides

Any drawers non on the bottom will be installed the same style using the handy Kreg drawer slide jig.

For face frame cabinets: pull out the gray tab on the elevation of the drawer slide jig forward. Also, pull out the side tab out likewise.

Place drawer slide jig A on the right side of cabinet and B on the left. The tab on the superlative should rest on pinnacle of the face frame rail and the tab on the side should sit down up against the wall.

Clench it to the face frame.

Kreg drawer slide jig clamped to the face frame of the cabinet carcass.

For frameless cabinets: exercise non pull out the tabs. Identify drawer slide jig B on the right side of chiffonier and A on the left. Clamp them to the side of the chiffonier to secure.

Y'all can clamp both jigs on at the aforementioned time, just I find myself bumping upwards against the 1 I am non using as I endeavour to maneuver inside the cabinet. So feel free to do one at a time!

For my confront frame/frameless cabinet hybrid: I used drawer slide jig B on the right side and A on the left (like frameless cabinets). Then I used the top tab over the face up frame and clamped them to the confront from (like face up frame cabinets).

I did have a small-scale challenge with the weight of the drawer slide causing the back of the drawer slide jig to occasionally drop downward because there was not a face up frame for it to merely upward against. Simply I just always double-checked that the lesser was affluent with the face frame before securing the back screws.

Drawer slide sitting on top of a Kreg drawer slide jig inside the cabinet carcass.

Drill airplane pilot holes in the screw positions on the tabs (just like you did with the bottom shelf).

Drilling a pilot hole in the tab section toward the back of the drawer slide.

Add screws in the front end, middle and back to secure. And then repeat for the other side and any other drawer slides you need in your drawer base.

Adding the screw to the pilot hole toward the back of the drawer slide.

This is also how you would adhere drawer slides to any base cabinet that has just a single drawer above the cabinet.

Installing the drawer box

If you look at the educational activity manual for the drawer slide jig, information technology will show you lot how you can clamp the jigs so they protrude in front end of the cabinet. Then yous tin balance the drawer box on them and attach the other part of the slide to it.

I find this a little challenging with big kitchen drawers (which are the only kind of kitchen drawers I like!). So instead I hands adhere the slide to the drawer box earlier I insert information technology into the cabinet.

Using my Kreg multi-marker tool, I place the 2nd piece of the drawer slide on the side of the drawer box. I figured for my drawer slides, I needed to space the bottom of the slide 3/8″ to a higher place the lesser of the box.

Using a Kreg multi-mark tool to measure the distance from the bottom of the drawer box to the inside of the drawer slide.

The forepart of the drawer slide needs to be flush with the front of the drawer box.

Once it was all placed properly, I used a pencil to marker where to drill my pilot holes.

Marking where to drill pilot holes for the drawer slide piece attached to the drawer box with a pencil.

The I drilled correct in the center of my marks.

Drilling pilot holes in the drawer box that is propped on the floor next to the cabinet.

And finished with adding the screws to secure information technology.

Attaching the inside piece of the drawer slide to the drawer box with screws.

Then flip the box over, utilize the scraps of plywood to residual the drawer box without having it teeter on the slide.

Secure the other slide in the same manner, make sure the slide is mirrored so the front is on the front of the box.

Then slide it into the drawer sides in the cabinet. You desire the slides on the box to slip into the notches on the slides in the cabinet.

Close up of the two pieces of the drawer slide being pushed back together to install the drawer in the cabinet.

The slide will be tough to push in the first time re-connecting the slides. But push information technology in all the fashion.

And so check your drawer slide installation by opening and endmost the drawer a few times. It should slide nicely!

Pushing the drawer box fully closed to fully engage the ball bearing drawer slides for the first time.

Adjusting as needed

If your drawers practice not slide hands, information technology is time to conform.

If you are having trouble connecting the two pieces of the slides because the drawer box is slightly besides small, cut a piece of cardstock virtually 1″ x 4-5″.

Depending on how much you demand to shim the slide out, fold the slice of paper in half, thirds or fourths. Loosen upward the screws on your slides and tuck the slice of paper next to the tabs that the screws are in.

Rescrew in the screws and retest your drawer. It should be easier to connect the two pieces and things should slide smoother. Continue to tweak every bit needed.

Shimming out the drawer slide on one side of the kitchen cabinet with a folded piece of coverstock paper.

If the front of your drawer is not flush with the front of your cabinet, yous may need to move the drawer slides slightly higher or lower on the box (or cabinet) to tilt information technology properly.

Loosen the screws and adjust as needed. You lot tin also add together new airplane pilot holes to unlike screw holes if needed.

Reinstall your drawers and bank check again.

Large drawer in the drawer base cabinet pulled out showing the installed ball bearing drawer slides on the side.

Once y'all become the hang of it, you will have less and less adjusting that needs to be washed. But even after installing and then many drawers in iii DIY kitchens and many projects, I withal have some days that I struggle with them. So don't get discouraged.

Sometimes you just need to take a intermission and come up back at information technology later with fresh optics (this is truthful for and then many parts of woodworking and DIY!).

Cabinet drawer base with the top drawer open showing the ball bearing drawer slides installed on the side.

Only now I am loving all the useful storage that the drawers gave us in our kitchen. I have many more drawer fronts to install and even so demand to make all my chiffonier doors… but someday I will exist able to call this projection done!

And don't forget to catch your own drawer slide jigs in the Hardware installation kit. Or take hold of them for someone you love for the perfect present for a DIYer 😉

Thanks to Kreg Tools for sponsoring this post. I only recommend products that I use and beloved and all opinions are 100% my own. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.