Any brilliant ideas for drawer stops on Gerstner and Sipco boxes?

The drawers have no stops preventing them from pulling all the way out. They also have no dividers between them, so no obvious way to attach a stop.

I have two toolboxes and one jeweler's workbench with the problem, all complete with expensive tooling, gages, etc. After a couple of near-misses, I am getting to where something needs to be done before something truly curse-worthy occurs.

The only thing which has come to mind is to somehow add a groove to the side, with a spring-loaded pin riding in it. That would be rather troublesome to do, two grooves per drawer x 32 drawers, with the work done up inside the box in a very restricted and cramped area. Plus I'm not much of a woodworker.......

The drawer slides are like this:

Workbench:


Gerstner:

Sash chain and small eye bolts?

The top photo indicates very wide runners, so you could mount stop blocks under the pairs of runners.

On the topmost Gertsner drawer, you could mount a stop on the underside of the case top. Something springy, say a length of leaf spring, or a strip of plastic.

You should be able to mount stop blocks on each side of the Gerstner case, probably make them out of tight-grained wood, which could be glued into place.

If the stops are hinged, you could remove the drawers; gravity would allow the stop to fall into place after the drawer is inserted.

You could rout grooves on the drawer sides, install threaded inserts on the casing, and install a machine screw that rides in the groove.

Or....
Gerstner - STOP-TRAC Drawer System

The Gerstner STOP-TRAC Drawer System can be installed on your new Gerstner Chest at our factory. You can also purchase the STOP-TRAC Drawer System for older Gerstner Chests and mount the hardware yourself with our easy to follow inscructions.

Click to expand...

How's this for customer service?

Gerstner STOP-TRAC Drawer System: $37.00 plus Shipping & Handling

The Gerstner STOP-TRAC Drawer System includes:
20 bullet catches (enough for 10 drawers)
20 phillips head screws
1 drill bit for mounting the bullet catches
1 drill bit for mounting the screws
Felt to put on your work bench to protect your chest while you mount the system
A steel bar to properly insert the bullet catches into the drawer sides

Click to expand...

Good Luck
Steve

That IS amazing service!.

"Any brilliant ideas for drawer stops on Gerstner and Sipco boxes?"

Moral fortitude is all that is required- man up...

Thanks.........

The Gerstner system obviously will not work, since neither the Gerstner chest nor the Sipco chest have the screw that Gerstner mentions.

Clearly that is for some new type box that they didn't use in 1921 or so when mine was made.

A pin with hole in the slide might work for the wide slides in the workbench as in pic 1. I'd prefer a system that works on all of the drawers, but I suppose I might compromise.

The chain is good...... up until you need to put in the last drawer................

basically, I HAVE and use the gerstner and the Sipco, and more importantly, I HAVE AND USE the workbench. yes, I have 3 or 4 other Kennedy boxes, and several rollarounds, mostly Waterloo, I suppose...... But I fitted the other boxes into where they are, and it's easier to fix 'em than replace. The Gerstner is an old one without even a top compartment nor flip-up cover.

Boxes be hanged, the workbench is important...... and all have the same issue

I did come up with a solution which may work on the bench, and maybe on the gerstner..... if I notch the inside edge of the slide, the surface towards the drawer, a catch can be installed to "drop" sideways into the notch. With a flat on the front side, and a ramp on the back. we are off to the races.

Now, how to make that notch with no space to work....... that's another question.

Fine on the bench, as the slides are 1/8" thick metal..... perhaps not so good on the Gerstner, as the slideways are wood, and wood if notched in that way near the end, may just chip off.

On the Sipco, the slideways are metal, but a stamped metal which may need some thought.... but they at least are removable for work. The others are set and glued in place.

I suppose a metal piece set into the side with a flat front and a ramp behind could work in the boxes.... those sides are not very thick though.... but at least that way all I need to do is make the hole for the metal piece...... the question is what does the pin "run" on to avoid digging in on the plain wood side....?

The "not much room" was more about how to make the notch back in the hole where the drawers go..... "not much room" to work. There is plenty room for the mechanism inside the drawers.

"Reminder"......?

Sure.... I don't NEED a reminder, I need something for when I am in a hurry and not paying attention to spots of paint, etc. The drawers are a different depth from the metal ones, and a person who has been "into" several of the metal drawers and pulls out the wood one may forget......

Spots of paint then serve to "remind" a person that they DID in fact know better, as they collect the various indicators or whatever off the floor.... Even though I generally have a rubber mat below the drawer units, it is unlikely to improve most measuring tools to drop several feet onto ANYTHING..... My goal is to avoid that potentially expensive mistake. I already caught one drawer before it tipped (I have pretty decent reaction times...).

The stop needs to be robust enough to deal with ordinary drawer-pulling.....but of course nobody needs to be able to "chin themselves" on it....

The whole issue is that this was never considered by the makers..... the drawers fit into a space with very little "wiggle room", there is much less than space for even one small screwhead between the drawer sides, top or bottom vs the sides top or bottom of the space they fit into.

Made for a slower and less hurried time, I suppose.........

Plus, they go on and on about the Phillips head screw -- mentioned three times in the link -- and then show a slotted head screw in the drawing!! Damn engineers, how are we supposed to assemble things when the supplied parts don't match the drawings?! What if we start the job with a Phillips driver in-hand, then have to go back for a slotted? And what if that drawer falls out when I'm getting my screwdriver out? And now my double-shot espresso is cold, and I'll have to go back for my fourth cup of the evening!

How much are those hotdog carts again?

Chip

Eh.....

I've no love for Gerstner......overpriced due to "name" and the MIA factor..... Sipco isn't a "name brand", so nothing much there. Not that I give a rip for brand names, I don't.

But I use these two. The Sipco was Uncle Walter's, and the Gerstner belonged to great uncle Ollie, so they stay. And they are perfect for some of the metrology stuff, the drawers fit the items, and the wood doesn't clang like metal (even with felt), plus there seems to be less rusting in wood.

Their value as useful items with a history exceeds their heating value......

Could you tolerate a magnet recessed in the outside of the drawer side and inside of the casework? Don't know the content's tolerance of magnets, and also don't know the swarf density of the bench... But if you can live with that, a pair of recessed, hot-glued magnets that come into close proximity when full extension is reached might be a good 'cue' to stop pulling, or that you're near full withdrawl of the drawer. By choosing weak ones, there would just be a little 'hitch' in the slide action, which could be overcome without having to muscle past it. (If you cover them both with a bit of plastic, veneer, or just a smoothed-over layer of glue, it will prevent full-contact, and allow some degree of resistance to bypass. Experiments would be in order...)

If the environment or contents demand a magnet-free zone, then this idea would, of course, be repulsive.

Chip

"Spots of paint then serve to "remind" a person that they DID in fact know better, ..."

LOL. I always do placard all my vehicles with the all-important sign on the dashboard,
that says "Do Not Crash this Vehicle." Good reminder!

I thought gerstners already had drawer stops - spring loaded ball plungers? THought
mine at home did have those. Couldn't those be retrofitted to the older boxes?

My new and old Gerstner give me no problems, small light drawers tend not to fly out, and it is nice for an old blind guy to be able to slide the drawer out to see what is in it.

For larger drawers my grandfather put a small spring loaded catch on the back surface to catch the drawer.

The Gerstner system will certainly work on your Gerstner, since you ADD the screw.

I think you could devise a similar system for the other cabinet with the thinner rails

An image of a catch for a larger drawer:

Vintage Craftsman 1930’s Cabinet Latches – NOS [CL1200] : Historic Home Hardware for Authentic Antique Restoration Originals


An idea for the non Gerstner:

Turn a bunch of small bullets, maybe 1/4 or smaller. They need to be the thickness of the drawer side, plus the nose radius, plus maybe 3/8. Turn a thin notch in the bullet about 1/4 from the non radius end.

Drill a 1/4 inch hole in the side of the drawer intersecting with the drawer slide.

Notch the drawer slide where you want the drawer to stop.

Get some small strips of spring steel[or even mild steel] maybe 1 to 1/2 inch long. drill a small hole in one end and cut a notch in the other for the notch in the bullet.

Bullet in the hole. spring steel on the bullet, screw the steel to the inside side surface of the drawer.

Now you can either pull on the end of the bullet or stick your nail under the spring steel to allow the drawer in or out, but it will stop normally unless you yank on it



Comparing a Kennedy to Gerstner is like comparing a Trabant to a Ferrari. Both cars, yes..................

Do a search on the term "self clinching plunger", they are spring loaded plungers and you can mount them in the bottom of the drawer and glue a step on the slide that the plunger will hit unless it is retracted. Or you can do the same thing with a pair of drywall screws, run one into the side of the cabinet below the shelf and run the other one through the bottom of the drawer so they hit when the drawer is opened all the way.

jim rozen said:

I thought gerstners already had drawer stops - spring loaded ball plungers? THought
mine at home did have those. Couldn't those be retrofitted to the older boxes?

Click to expand...

This gerstner is so old that they may not know they made it..... it's most like the "style 18" shown in the history page, but has half drawers on top, and is 4" wider. 1920 might be a good guess, could be later, but great-uncle Ollie worked in an airplane factory back when streamlined wire was used. Tools found in it were all old....Slocomb mics, pat date May 12 1896..... you get the picture.

Anyhow, I don't see at all how the "stop-trac" thing works, nor how on earth it would work in this one. It may get all antiques in it and go elsewhere, which would still leave the Sipco and workbench.... dunno It's a nice enough case.