Blum drawer slide layout question

[Neocleous]

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions on laying out and marking for Blum drawer runners.

I have a cabinet that I am going to fit three sets of slides to starting at the bottom and they are to be spaced evenly. I’ve worked out the distance between each pair of runners at 238mm. So far so good but this is where I’m a bit confused, I have the Blum drill guide for the runners but there is no point of reference for the vertical alignment of the jig unless I’ve missed something....?

How does everyone else vertically align their runners? Have I missed a trick?

 

[Horsee1]

I've never used one of these jigs so probably not following the question but; if the bottom drawer runners are drilled with the jig flat on the base of the cabinet maybe you could cut up some strips at 238 and register the jig off these as you work your way up?

I've always used a series of packers, first resting on the cabinet base and then the drawer boxes as I've worked my way up the cabinet. It's not always 100% accurate but if you're using false fronts any slight discrepancy in height is lost behind these.

 

[Neocleous]

I thought about spacers it's just a bit of a hassle. The jig just sets the correct distance from the face and has the correct hole pattern, the issue I have with it is the holes aren't in the middle of the runner and the jig isn't the same height as the draw runner that attaches to the carcass so it is difficult to reference the bottom of the runner.

 

[peter-harrison]

I had one of those jigs, it was expensive and hard to use. I ended up making one- as in the picture.

The ply piece is exactly twice as wide as the distance from the centre of the screw holes to the bottom of the runner, and the holes are in the middle and spaced accordingly. The bit of solid is dead square to the ply. The bits of thin ply and mdf tune the distance from the front of the cabinet. The holes are the right size for a push bit. To use it, you fix the bottom set of runners, usually by just resting the jig on the bottom of the cabinet, put the drawer in and attach its front (if it has a separate front) Make sure the drawer is level and the right height.
Then rest the jig on top of the drawer front and drill the next set of holes, and when you fix the front, rest it on the lower front with a couple of spacers to get the gap right. You can cramp it for security while drilling.
When you get to fix the the top drawer front you will have to pull out the drawer below and rest the top drawer front on it so as to be able to access the inside to fix it.