On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 18:43:40 -0500, "Glenn Ashmore"
wrote:

Just put the finishing touches on the forward stateroom. The last thing was
a 6 drawer stack. Stainless full extention slides with push-pull latches.
Perfectly aligned with an even 1/32" clearance around all the drawer faces.
As I was admiring my work I suddenly remembered that this is a boat! Things
move!

Now I am worried that once Rutu is in the water and has tension on the
rigging if the frame racks even a little I will never get the drawers open
again. I am thinking I should plane the drawer faces down a little but how
much allowance should I give for movement?

Even on dry land 1/32 is a bit tight for drawers, everything moves and
settles a little even with drawer slides. Depending on the boat cradle
you may find the boat flexing and relaxing even without rig tension
when the hull is launched and the hull is fully supported. It depends
on how much of the cabinet supporting the drawers relies upon the
hull for stability. Normally you can taper the sides of the drawer
front a little but be prepared to refix the drawer slides later on
because if the whole cabinet flexes out of line, then no matter how
expensive the slides are they will bind enough to cause wear.
and tear to themselves.
In fact I hate the blasted things, a loose fitting drawer on runners
with a bit of parrafin wax suits me better but then I just hate
progress!

I think the mass production boys leave a gap of around 3mm in cabinet
work. Seems ok to me and I'm a furniture maker. A boat is not a
chateau, but then that's just my opinion.