Disassemble Blum bottom mount slides?

Scorpion

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Jan 15, 2014
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I have a couple of pair of Blum bottom mount slides that were installed while some granite installers cut out the hole for the cook top.  Unfortunately the stone cutting activity coated the slides with a very fine granite "dust" that has gotten into the grease that the slides are assembled with and now they're anything but smooth.  I tried spraying them down with brake clean (automotive cleaner) which should have stripped both the grease and the dust but it only got about half of the grit.  Tried a few more times and can't get it all.  In guessing it's in spots I can't get the solvent to (wish I had a solvent tank).

Anyway, has anyone disassembled and/or cleaned a messed up pair before?  Tips?

TIA
 
Try dishwashing detergent and water.

They do not come apart easily. I recall some tab that need to be bent. I'll look tomorrow.

Do the have Blumotion?

Tom
 
I think if they are newer ones the cartridges just "pop" out. I am certain I saw a video showing this. I am waiting for my newest set to come in as I have been using K&V ones and they are not nearly as nice. If I find the video, I will post it up.

Cheers. Bryan.
 
tjbnwi said:
Try dishwashing detergent and water.

They do not come apart easily. I recall some tab that need to be bent. I'll look tomorrow.

Do the have Blumotion?

Tom

I'll try dishwashing them tomorrow.  Any reason they can't be submerged in the sink?  Suppose I could try the dishwasher.

Yes, they have tabs that are bent in and it looks like they're fairly thin (meaning fragile).  Maybe disassembly isn't the best plan.

Yes they are Blumotion.

 
No reason you can't submerge them.

I'll look at the ones I have tomorrow.

Tom
 
I think those tabs are stronger than they look.  I have swapped the blumotion cartridges on a set of those by bending one tab and carefully sliding the cartridge out from under the other tab.  I've never completely torn down one of the guides; I've never had to.  The dishwashing detergent idea sounds good for trying to float the dust out.  Make sure everything's really dry before you re-grease the slides or else you'll end up with a messy emulsion.

What type of grease are you going to use? 
 
No need to dismantle.

My suggestion is to find a piece of pipe that the hinge will fit into, plug one end, set it up vertically, fill with a solvent (petrol is cheap and very effective) and work the hinge mechanism in the solvent. This will remove all of the grease, dry well and then you regrease it.

If you use petrol make sure to discard it and not put it thru a motor.
 
mastercabman said:
Don't bother to clean them
Just replace them

It sounds like he's already jumped in.

The one pair I swapped the soft-close cartridges on were on a servo-drive unit and I had no bottom-mount guides with me.  I was thirty miles from home, so it seemed like the fastest, cheapest way to make the customer happy.  But yes, for my $18, I'd prefer replacement over rebuilding.

>>edit: I see the 569 slides for trash pullouts run more like $50-$60, instead of $18 for 563's.  Still cheaper than rebuilding.
 
mastercabman said:
Don't bother to clean them
Just replace them

I did.  I came across four sets of slides when or I was cleaning that I removed about two years ago that I kept for some reason instead of throwing them away.  It was good timing, I needed two pair exactly this length.

Bohdan said:
No need to dismantle.

My suggestion is to find a piece of pipe that the hinge will fit into, plug one end, set it up vertically, fill with a solvent (petrol is cheap and very effective) and work the hinge mechanism in the solvent. This will remove all of the grease, dry well and then you regrease it.

I like the pipe idea.  I found about 2 1-2 gal of auto solvent in the garage today.  May try that if the dish detergent doesn't work.  Thanks for the idea.

WastedP said:
>>edit: I see the 569 slides for trash pullouts run more like $50-$60, instead of $18 for 563's.  Still cheaper than rebuilding.

With 4 sets that's $200.  If it were customer pay I'd pitch them for time savings and it wouldn't be my buck.  Figure if I can spend 30min to an hour cleaning and have 4 good sets, that's better money than I usually make in an hour...so worth it.  If I get beyond an hour and they're still troubled, to the trash they'll go.
 
In a perfect world, the stone guys would be backcharged for new slides.  Like the guy who trained me put it, "If somebody has to pay for it, it might as well be the guy that f----d it up."  I'm well aware, though, that the cabinet installer/provider gets left holding the bag for a lot of problems that are caused or overlooked by others.
 
WastedP said:
In a perfect world, the stone guys would be backcharged for new slides.  Like the guy who trained me put it, "If somebody has to pay for it, it might as well be the guy that f----d it up."  I'm well aware, though, that the cabinet installer/provider gets left holding the bag for a lot of problems that are caused or overlooked by others.

Unfortunately the waiver that gets signed for the stone install clearly notifies the customer that all things should be removed from the cabinets by the homeowner prior to install to avoid contents from being coated with a fine dust.  That's what we did however it didn't occur to me that the slides should also be removed (or I would have).  They refused to pay for the slides because of the waiver.

The guy who trained you is right, whoever is responsible should fix the mistake.  Unfortunately, those that are responsible sometimes know how to avoid responsibility.
 
I looked at the slides I have here. The piston pops out by sliding it out of the tabs. The upper carriage and nylon glide come off by bending one tab in the rear of the upper glide.

Tom
 
I ran into this problem as a seller of blum about 12 years ago.  As far as I know, there is no easy solution short of replacing the slides.  As hard as steel may seem, it doesn't hold up to Quartz, Mica, Feldspar, Jade, Basalt, etc.  You might think the top installers would try to protect the slides but they typically do not. 
 
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