8 Tips for Perfect Sliding Doors without Hardware

Does this kind of sliding doors also would work in case of doors that are much higher than large? For example wardrobe cabinets? Wouldn't it tilt and get stuck?

Thanks!

you are such a good explainer. thx a lot !

I love your videos. Your a great teacher and make it so easy for a beginner like me to follow along. I would love to be able to do a build with you and you teach me

Excellent video!!! Thank you so much for all the valuable information.

Hello, I am from Cambodia, I really love your work and your video.🇰🇭❤

You're awesome I understood perfectly 😊🦋

Love the details and instructions. Thank you so much for the video!

It looks great. Can this way be applied on tall cabinet doors like closet?

This is great! But ,what can you do if you want to add sliding doors to a cabinet you've already made that you can't disassemble?

I’ve never built a cabinet with a sliding door before and just a weekend warrior in the shop. But with this video, I built a sliding door on my cabinet in just a few short hours. My wife is very pleased with the results!

This video is awesome!!! Keep up the great work.

Thanks for the clear explanation! Very helpful 😊
Not sure if you'll see this, but I was wondering:
1) what's the ideal size for the tabs? 1/3 of the door's thickness? Half?
2) how much space would you leave minimum between the doors?
3) approx. how heavy could you make the doors without having to use hardware?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 🙏

Hi! This is incredibly helpful. Do these techniques of no hardware sliding doors still work if the cabinets are made of plywood? Or is this only for something sturdy like solid wood? Thank you!

So glad I grew up in a country with the metric system.

That was great. Thanks!

Cabinets can display anything. Nobody but nobody addresses the issue of shop dust covering the French cleat items. Cabinets with sliding doors will solve the problem. No back to cabinet. Hang French cleat items in cabinet frame. Use lexan panel for visibility. Your thoughts. Better yet build one and make the video!!!! Thx Bruce. Cleats and Cabinets ( sort of like root beer and ice !)

This was incredibly helpful. I just did sliding doors and your tutorial was all I needed. Thank you!

Would sliding doors on a cabinet made of (painted) mdf work? I can imagine mdf wears fast but the doors probably wont be used alot anyway (attick cabinets)

Perfect for what I'm looking for. Do you think that with 1/2" ply, I have enough material to do this rabbet?

What would happen if you flipped the grooves with the deeper one on the bottom? Would that make a difference in where the "sliding point" would be? I'm wondering because I've done this with taller doors and noticed they slide much better when pulled lower down, otherwise the top has too much play, resulting in the door getting jammed.

Great video.

What would you say the maximum size would be for sliding doors to actually slide well without hardware?

Thank you for providing the video and the millimeter version; they are incredibly helpful for those of us imperially impaired.

Thank you very much for this video. It is very helpful for me.. You make absolutely stunning furniture, so beautiful and sophisticated it is a pleasure to watch.

I’m considering using this classic simple method for a custom inbuilt wardrobe / dresser, I wonder how large doors could be without compromising their function? Thank you in advance.

Thanks 👍🏿

what method would u use to lock the sliding door

Thank you so much for this video. Built my first cabinet today and used your sliding door method to get results that were a lot better than I expected.

my metric brain hurts from all 1/16, 3/8... and at one point you have used millimeters and it's like 9 and 3 mm and I'm like why are you guys love to make your life harder

Great video ! Much appreciated.

1/2 inch doors take up quite a lot of pace. If you take 3/8 edge space + 1/2 + 1/16 + 3/8 gap + 1/2 + 1/16, you eat up almost 2 inches of interior space. Seems excessive. Have you tried using a plastic or metal track to tighten this up? I'm also thinking may be 1/4 glass panel instead. I'm making an entryway unit for shoes and it needs to be compact. The unit is meant to be just barely deep to fit a shoe.

really good what you present! What kind of software you use here/? is it only sketchup?

Great way of explaining this. Thanks. Subscribed!

I am only sorry I can thumbs-up this video only once. The whole video is filled with some really informative stuff and I particularly appreciate the animations. Imagine the time that goes into making them. Enough said.

Great explanation! Thanks for taking the time to make this.

A question – do the tongs HAVE to be centered in the width of the door panel?
Because I'm thinking, if you make them offset to one side, you'll only have to route one side of the door panel, thus making the project faster... no?

really 👌

I taught for 38 years. You have a gift.

thank you for an informative video. can I use plywood or y boards with this?

Excellent video! Articulate, succinct, but all the necessary details. Thank you for not rambling on just to hear yourself talk as so many online videos do.

Would a triangular bottom work too? Or is that causing just too much friction?

I want to build sliding doors of hardwood (Tasmanian Oak) 43 approx inches high x 19 (approx) inches wide x 3/4 inch thick. Is this door too heavy for an easy slide using this method? Do I need to use a track and rollers instead? Thanks Chris for your very clear presentation. Look forward to your recommendation.

I understood that the weight of shoji screens were supported on the bottom shoulder, not on the tongue at the bottom of the groove. The groove can fill with dirt preventing the screen from moving. I gather you haven’t had issue with these smaller and cleaner cabinets.

This is really excellent Chris—thank you!

I was running my designs by some folks in carpentry and they all cautioned me on hardware-free sliding doors. They said they need lots of wax to maintain the sliding effect and wear out. Have you had that experience?

I have an old unit from my great grandparents that has these sliding doors however the doors keep getting stuck. How do I fix them?

Hi Chris, this video is super helpful. I'm curious why, at 3.50-3.53, you say that using through cuts on a cabinet assembled with butt-joints wouldn't work if you put the top/bottom panels between the side panels? I was taught that when using butt-joints that arrangement is preferable to having the side panels between the top/bottom so the ends wouldn't show. Just curious.

3mm & 9mm ? I am pretty SURE you MEANT 4mm and 10mm ...3 and 9 ...ridiculous .....

Thanks Master...I learnt a lot of this originally Japanese technique... No hardware at all!!!... Greetings from Medellin!!!