Garage and Workshop Drawer Hardware | GTAMotorcycle.com

Garage and Workshop Drawer Hardware

R

ReSTored

Well-known member
Planning winter project for garage and workshop drawers and cabinets. Intend to use full extension slides on drawers and see PA has these on sale, 22" example for $17, sale price $8.50.

www.princessauto.com

22 in. Full-Extension Ball Bearing Drawer Slides | Princess Auto

22 in. Full-Extension Ball Bearing Drawer Slides
www.princessauto.com www.princessauto.com

Home Depot has Richelieu brand, $28.


Obviously huge difference in cost as PA sale price is a third of HD's. Question I have is if anyone has used the PA brand and how do they hold up over time. Up front savings great, but not if the slides self destruct in a couple of years.
 
ReSTored said:
Planning winter project for garage and workshop drawers and cabinets. Intend to use full extension slides on drawers and see PA has these on sale, 22" example for $17, sale price $8.50.

www.princessauto.com

22 in. Full-Extension Ball Bearing Drawer Slides | Princess Auto

22 in. Full-Extension Ball Bearing Drawer Slides
www.princessauto.com www.princessauto.com

Home Depot has Richelieu brand, $28.


Obviously huge difference in cost as PA sale price is a third of HD's. Question I have is if anyone has used the PA brand and how do they hold up over time. Up front savings great, but not if the slides self destruct in a couple of years.
Click to expand...
I expect commodity products like this pour out of asia factories and then get branded/priced to meet various targets. If they are both full extension, ball bearing slides, I would probably go with PA and save a fortune. If you want to run a test, put Richelieu on the drawer you expect to use the most and PA on the infrequently used drawers to see if you can feel the difference.

On a previous project, I doubled up the slides to gain capacity (four slides, one drawer). I do not recommend doing that. It was murder to get alignment happy. That was a 4' wide, 18" deep drawer with a glass front to hold liquour bottles so it was going to be very heavy and very very expensive if it broke.

EDIT:
FWIW, PA says their slides are 3.5 lbs per pair and HD says 3.38. Who knows if either is accurate but presumably they are similar weight. I would be concerned if PA was substantially lighter.

As an alternative, I have a lateral file cabinet in the garage that I picked up for much much less than I could build something similar (4 drawer I bought for $50). It holds a bunch of power tools, boxes of nails/bolts, and other stuff that is too big for a toolbox and/or heavy.
 
Last edited:
GreyGhost said:
.....................If you want to run a test, put Richelieu on the drawer you expect to use the most and PA on the infrequently used drawers to see if you can feel the difference.

....................On a previous project, I doubled up the slides to gain capacity (four slides, one drawer).

.................... As an alternative, I have a lateral file cabinet in the garage that I picked up for much much less than I could build something similar (4 drawer I bought for $50). It holds a bunch of power tools, boxes of nails/bolts, and other stuff that is too big for a toolbox and/or heavy.
Click to expand...

I really don't want to run a test, would prefer to know up front.

I did a full slide out 24"tray for a 120 lbs TV. Purchased slides fromLee Vally and they were about $150/pr at that time.

That's not a bad idea. Lateral filing cabinets are usually 18 - 20 inches deep max so that might work for part of the project. Will still need the full ex. slide outs for balance of drawers.
 
We tried some knock off cabinet hardware sometime ago. Our normal brands are Blum, Hafele, Accuride etc.

Knock offs were junk. Didn't stand up. We had to replace it all in just a few years. It's cheaper for a reason.
Oh, and Lee Vally does sell some knock off stuff. I'd guess if they don't specify a brand then inquire.
 
Last edited:
Allistonfjr said:
We tried some knock off cabinet hardware sometime ago. Our normal brands are Blum, Hafele, Accuride etc.

Knock offs were junk. Didn't stand up. We had to replace it all in just a few years. It's cheaper for a reason.
Oh, and Lee Vally does sell some knock off stuff. I'd guess if they don't specify a brand then inquire.
Click to expand...
I would put the hardware you use well above either of the choices presented by the OP. In my mind, he was comparing china to china, if he has budget for german he should expect a better outcome (and a much larger bill).
 
GreyGhost said:
I expect commodity products like this pour out of asia factories and then get branded/priced to meet various targets. If they are both full extension, ball bearing slides, I would probably go with PA and save a fortune. If you want to run a test, put Richelieu on the drawer you expect to use the most and PA on the infrequently used drawers to see if you can feel the difference.

On a previous project, I doubled up the slides to gain capacity (four slides, one drawer). I do not recommend doing that. It was murder to get alignment happy. That was a 4' wide, 18" deep drawer with a glass front to hold liquour bottles so it was going to be very heavy and very very expensive if it broke.

EDIT:
FWIW, PA says their slides are 3.5 lbs per pair and HD says 3.38. Who knows if either is accurate but presumably they are similar weight. I would be concerned if PA was substantially lighter.

As an alternative, I have a lateral file cabinet in the garage that I picked up for much much less than I could build something similar (4 drawer I bought for $50). It holds a bunch of power tools, boxes of nails/bolts, and other stuff that is too big for a toolbox and/or heavy.
Click to expand...
WOW! I just built three drawers where our never used dishwasher used to sit. My wife filled the bottom drawer with her glass casserole dishes and such. I weighed them all and found they weighed 30lbs. I may be overloading these but their not full extention units so I feel they're ok.
 
timtune said:
WOW! I just built three drawers where our never used dishwasher used to sit. My wife filled the bottom drawer with her glass casserole dishes and such. I weighed them all and found they weighed 30lbs. I may be overloading these but their not full extention units so I feel they're ok.
Click to expand...
Most slides are rated at 100 lb/pair. You can get 200 lb/pair slides but for various reasons, I didn't want to to that on that project. Loaded, it was probably ~100-150 lbs with full extension slides.
 
GreyGhost said:
earingI would put the hardware you use well above either of the choices presented by the OP. In my mind, he was comparing china to china, if he has budget for german he should expect a better outcome (and a much larger bill).
Click to expand...
True enough.
The OP was also asking how the PA slides would hold up over time which is what my post was directed at. When the ball bearings fall out of the slides, those cheap slides weren't so cheap.
 
Allistonfjr said:
True enough.
The OP was also asking how the PA slides would hold up over time which is what my post was directed at. When the ball bearings fall out of the slides, those cheap slides weren't so cheap.
Click to expand...
For workshop storage we are probably looking at more weight but an order of magnitude less cycles that a kitchen drawer. My garage filing cabinets are of unknown age (based on the weight, old), have china slides and nothing has failed yet.

It is probably a luck of the draw and commercial vs personal-use decision. You probably build amazing things that cost your customers a lot of money and they both expect top quality hardware and would lose their mind if they found out you used $8 slides from PA. Similar to Barrina LED lights I put in my garage but if someone was paying me, I would be putting in CSA rated lights that cost an order of magnitude more. The end result may be similar but nobody has ever been fired for equipping with the best available products.
 
GreyGhost said:
For workshop storage we are probably looking at more weight but an order of magnitude less cycles that a kitchen drawer. My garage filing cabinets are of unknown age (based on the weight, old), have china slides and nothing has failed yet.

It is probably a luck of the draw and commercial vs personal-use decision. You probably build amazing things that cost your customers a lot of money and they both expect top quality hardware and would lose their mind if they found out you used $8 slides from PA. Similar to Barrina LED lights I put in my garage but if someone was paying me, I would be putting in CSA rated lights that cost an order of magnitude more. The end result may be similar but nobody has ever been fired for equipping with the best available products.
Click to expand...

A buddy runs a garage and pulls open his tool drawers countless times a day. I pull mine out a couple of times a week. He can't afford to waste the time yanking on stuff. I can't justify the extra cost.

Another friend made some roll about carts for a door company and used PA rollers. The client wasn't happy as they were hard to push and wandered. He replaced them with brand name at 3 X the cost and the problem went away.

I was given some PA cast iron wheels. They weren't even concentric around the axle and I'm not talking about a few thou.

That said I bought a Coleman butane hotplate at Walmart for $30. CTC had an identical off brand for $35. Probably from the same factory.

Having to yank or jerk a drawer open dislodges everything inside. Then you re-arrange.
 
Blum also has a factory in China, but the quality control is pretty decent. On a level playing field the PA and Richelieu are probably similar. On a garage project I'd use the PA @ $8 a set.

For any project inside the house lately I've started using the Blum undermount slides, so slick and almost invisible on the finished product. Bit of arithimatic in the install but worth it
 
crankcall said:
For any project inside the house lately I've started using the Blum undermount slides, so slick and almost invisible on the finished product. Bit of arithimatic in the install but worth it
Click to expand...
Blum Tandem is pretty much all we use. We use hundreds of sets a year and have never had one fail.
 
crankcall said:
............. On a garage project I'd use the PA @ $8 a set.
Click to expand...

OK, thanks for the feedback, This is a garage type project, not for my kitchen, so I think I'll give the PA slides a try.
 
Lol Am I the only one confused by the ”it’s only a garage project“
I put the good stuff in the garage. Or in my clients homes.
go Blum and do it once.
garage may not see the frequency but definitely gets its share of weight and general abuse. Imo
 
Clutt-225 said:
Lol Am I the only one confused by the ”it’s only a garage project“
I put the good stuff in the garage. Or in my clients homes.
go Blum and do it once.
garage may not see the frequency but definitely gets its share of weight and general abuse. Imo
Click to expand...
For general purpose drawers in the garage, I can tolerate having to give them a little jiggle as long as they are strong enough. Tool box drawers get used more often amd meed to be better (but are still not blum, I have no idea how far up the tool box ladder you have to go to get those but it's way higher than I will pay for).

Most of us are operating with some budget constraints. If PA vs Blum lets you build another whole storage unit, I think most people will be ahead with more space.
 
Good point but I’ve installed the HD slides in a very nice built in dresser for my dad because he didn’t want to spend the money on good hardware. Now he complains constantly about you can’t buy decent stuff anymore. ?‍♂️

I actually cheaped out myself and just have Husky tool boxes and some cabinet with doors.
 
Last edited:
I'll spend the money where it needs to go, the maple dovetailed drawers in the kitchen with Blum Tandem will sell the kitchen , the plywood boxes in the garage keeping the wrenches off the floor? they need to work but I'm ok with PA at $8 a set.

Everybody is different, one of my cabinet makers customers is making a huge tool chest to keep his planes and chisels off the floor, its cherry (left over from customers jobs) , dovetailed carcass , inlaid veneer to showcase his talent. It will get rolled into a dark corner and never be seen by a client LOL
His 24" Wadkin planer and the CNC panel machine pretty much made 75% of the hand tools in the box redundant.
 
Just a brief update........... I did purchase the 100 lb rated 24" PA full extension slides and I also got a 100 lb rated 20" Richelieu one from HD for comparison purposes. HD did not have a 22" or 24" in stock unfortunately.

In looking at the slides it appears that all of the hardware (ball bearing carriers, plastic slide parts, end bumpers, the lever thing to separate the pieces etc.... ) look virtually identical. Both slides feel exactly the same when moving from full extension to fully closed. At full extension there is no deflection on either when putting a load on the extended end. When looking at them end on no doubt the Richelieu slide is made from heavier gauge metal. The PA slide weighs 730 gm or 30.5 gm/inch and the Richelieu weighs 701 gm or 35 gm/inch, implying a 24" Richelieu slide would be about 840 gm. Richelieu came with screws and installation instruction, PA nothing.

So, for me the PA slide was $9, roughly 1/3 the cost of the Richelieu at $28. Based on what I plan to store in my drawers they will weigh nowhere near 100 lb so I'm comfortable going forward with the PA hardware at this time. I appreciate that a visual inspection is not the same as a real trial of a couple of years of use, but this is just a garage and workshop project, I'm not installing these in my kitchen.
 
ReSTored said:
Just a brief update........... I did purchase the 100 lb rated 24" PA full extension slides and I also got a 100 lb rated 20" Richelieu one from HD for comparison purposes. HD did not have a 22" or 24" in stock unfortunately.

In looking at the slides it appears that all of the hardware (ball bearing carriers, plastic slide parts, end bumpers, the lever thing to separate the pieces etc.... ) look virtually identical. Both slides feel exactly the same when moving from full extension to fully closed. At full extension there is no deflection on either when putting a load on the extended end. When looking at them end on no doubt the Richelieu slide is made from heavier gauge metal. The PA slide weighs 730 gm or 30.5 gm/inch and the Richelieu weighs 701 gm or 35 gm/inch, implying a 24" Richelieu slide would be about 840 gm. Richelieu came with screws and installation instruction, PA nothing.

So, for me the PA slide was $9, roughly 1/3 the cost of the Richelieu at $28. Based on what I plan to store in my drawers they will weigh nowhere near 100 lb so I'm comfortable going forward with the PA hardware at this time. I appreciate that a visual inspection is not the same as a real trial of a couple of years of use, but this is just a garage and workshop project, I'm not installing these in my kitchen.
Click to expand...
I checked some of the old garage filing cabinet slides because of this thread. Cabinets are old enough that the slides were made in Canada.
 
Allistonfjr said:
True enough.
The OP was also asking how the PA slides would hold up over time which is what my post was directed at. When the ball bearings fall out of the slides, those cheap slides weren't so cheap.
Click to expand...

The old boy use to drill into my head "Good tools are cheap. You only buy them once". That advice has served me well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom