drawer slides: side to side play normal?

[adrian]

I'm making a file cabinet and I installed the first drawer using Accuride 4043 drawer slides. These are a type with the rails that ride on top of other rails so the whole slide is about 3 inches wide. After installation, I found that it seems to work fine, but the drawer will shift from side to side by about 3/16". I'm concerned that this will be a problem because I'm doing inset drawers and have cut the drawer fronts 5/64" narrower than the opening. The user will be able to shift the drawer over far enough that the drawer front hits the frame. (The drawer front is not yet attached to the drawer.)

Is this amount of side to side play normal? The "light duty" sides I have around the house don't seem to do this.

 

[bodgermatic]

Doesn't that just mean you need to position the rails that the slides are attached to closer to the drawer so that any slack is already taken up?

 

[adrian]

I was wondering if it could mean that my drawers are undersized for the opening. I measured the side to side space at the front (between drawer and case) and found it to be 1/2" on the left and 7/16" on the right. (No clue why it's not even.) Allegedly these slides can tolerate 1/2"+1/32" space, so I should be within specs...but maybe the specs allow the drawer to move side to side a lot.

I can try shimming. What method would be recommended for shimming out the rails? Would I be better off shimming the ones on the cabinet vs. the ones on the drawer? If I really have to shim by the amount of the horizontal play (3/16") that's a fairly large amount, maybe I should shim everywhere.