Drawer slide mounting location

[Russ Haynes]

Ok, let's see if the "there's no such thing as a stupid question" rule applies:

When installing side-mount, ball-bearing drawer slides, where do you position them vertically on the drawer boxes - the bottom, the middle, or the top?  I've seen them in all three locations.  Since the force of the drawer weight is always going to be downward, perpendicular to the mounted slide position, it shouldn't really matter where on the drawer boxes the slides get mounted, right? 

 

I'm building a desk with two drawers (picture and diagram attached).  There is no face frame.  The drawer fronts will be overlapping fronts, wide enough to cover the outside apron and leg  when the drawer is closed.  The drawer slides nearest the center of the desk, will be installed on apron pieces (shown on the diagram but not yet installed on the picture).  But the slides on the outside of the drawers, nearest the legs, will have to get installed on strips attached to the underside of the desk -- I want to be able to take the legs on and off without removing the drawer assemblies.  If I put the slide members at the top of the drawer boxes (diagram position A), I can install relatively thin strips to mount the slides to, which will leave enough room to reach the nuts that will secure the leg bolts in position. If I mount the members at the bottoms of the drawer boxes (diagram position C), the strip will be nearly as tall as the apon pieces and will make it harder to install and uninstall the legs.

 

So my question is, will it affect the operation or capacity of the drawers to mount the slides near the top of the drawer boxes (position A) rather than in the middle (B) or bottom (C)?

[Tom Moores]

I think it probably doesn't matter, it does seem that optimum location would be at the center of gravity of the drawer with it fully loaded, i usually set them at the bottom of the drawer and at the bottom of the drawer opening which automatically gives clearance and the bottom of the drawer, i have also set them at the center of the drawer when doing several one above the other, it just seemed simpler to layout

[Jay Boutwell]

A deep loaded drawer is more stable from the side to side movement with the slides set in the middle of the drawers.  As tom Moores says, there is really no set reccommended location of the slides. I have after many years determined that the best location of a large heavy weighted drawer benifits better is set near the middle. The drawer is more stable and even opens and closes easier.   

[Russ Haynes]

Thanks for the replies. I'm set to mount the drawers this weekend. Sounds like the middle of the drawers will be the way to go. I'll post pics when they're in. Thanks again!