Sliding Breadboard Ideas

Cabinetmakers suggest options for building slide-out breadboards in limited space. September 20, 2005

Question
The 3/4" thick breadboard doesn't seem to work in euro style cabinets. The breadboards specifically designed for euro cabinets (like Haefle) seem to take up a lot of vertical space, essentially replacing a drawer. My customer wants a breadboard, but doesn't want to give up a drawer space. Does anyone have any ideas for slim breadboard in euro cabinets?

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor P:
I just did one of these. I mounted a standard breadboard just below the top stretcher, with a face the same width as the drawer stack. Projecting for a finger pull, I then lamelloed a filler piece over the stretcher (essentially a 1/2" ht strip to match the faces in width and depth and it came out nice.



From contributor C:
We used to put 3/4" tk bb's in euro cabinets. To do this we were using slides that required 1/2" on each side for our drawers. We would then attach a piece of plywood 3/8 tk on each side of the cabinet walls using screws and const adhesive approx 23" x 3". The drawer sides were made about 3" tall instead of 4". The drawer sides would clear the ply by 1/8" on each side. The bb would then ride on the top edge of the ply.

If you want the drawer front to appear normal, cut the top 1" of the drawer off and biscuit joint it to the bb front edge. We would then use a large touch latch flexa-touch drawer pusher by Bainbridge instead of a pull on the front of the bb. I hope that I have described this clearly enough. We used this method for years with no failures.



From contributor B:
Here is the simple solution:

Vogt Breadboard channel no. 80. I buy them from Macmurray Pacific in San Francisco. It is basically a pair of channels that hold the breadboard, mounted to the inside of a frameless box and it works on 32mm system holes.


From contributor J:
We do mostly face frame construction. I have a hard time giving up room for slide out cutting boards. To fix this I shortened the drawer box height, not the drawer front, and made a cutting board the width and length of the drawer. I then rabbeted all four sides for clearance and drilled a 1" hole centered to front. Then when the drawer is opened there is the cutting board. Remove the cutting board and there is the Henkel knife collection. I don’t see why this could not be done for euro.