A customer told me my drawer slides sounded like a dying cat

So last month I'm installing a set of dovetailed drawers for a kitchen in Austin and the client walks in while I'm test fitting them. She goes "are those supposed to sound like that?" and I realized my soft-close slides were grinding because I hadn't cleaned the sawdust out of the tracks. Now I blow out every slide cavity with compressed air before mounting and it's dead silent. Anyone else ever get called out for something silly that fixed a bad habit?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena_miller311mo agoMost Upvoted

Yall ever have a customer just stand there and stare while you're working? That dying cat sound is rough, I feel your pain. Taking a page out of @jason112's book with the shop vac trick honestly saved me from a few awkward silences on my last custom build. It's one of those little fixes that makes a world of difference for the next time you're in that spot.

jason1121mo ago

Saw a tip on a woodworking channel where the guy runs a shop vac along the slide while he's drilling the pilot holes. Catches the dust before it even settles. Been doing that on my last few jobs and haven't had the grinding issue since. That dying cat sound is brutal though, especially when the homeowner is right there listening to it.

james921mo ago

Shove that shop vac right up against the slide as you're drilling. I tried it on a cabinet install last week and it's a game changer honestly. The dust barely has a chance to puff out before it gets sucked away. That grinding noise still happens but it's way less intense. Homeowners still flinch when they hear it though lol.