Zinc-Finished Soft-Close Drawer Slide Built for Volume Cabinet Work

The Knape and Vogt 8450 FM series is a 14 inch full-extension side-mount ball bearing drawer slide rated 100 lb per pair, with an integrated Force Management soft-close damper and a zinc finish engineered to disappear inside a finished cabinet. This bulk-pack format delivers pairs loose in a carton — the right format for cabinet shops running drawers by the dozen.

Key Features

• Force Management soft-close — a patented dampening cylinder with balanced spring technology catches the drawer near closed and settles it shut silently, cycle after cycle.
• Full extension — the three-member telescopic design brings the entire drawer out to the cabinet face so nothing stays hidden at the back.
• 100 lb rating per pair — covers loaded kitchen drawers, utility drawers, and shop storage in the standard cabinet class.
• Zinc finish — a functional, low-profile surface that blends with white melamine, natural wood interiors, and painted casework without drawing the eye.
• Non-handed design — both slides in every pair are identical, so there is no left-right sorting on the bench.
• Bulk-Pack format — pairs come loose in a carton, sized for shop throughput rather than single-drawer retail jobs.

Where This Slide Earns Its Place

A 14 inch slide length fits shallow kitchen drawers, bathroom vanity drawers, desk drawers, and island spice drawers — any drawer box built to roughly 13 to 14 inches of depth. Full extension means the whole drawer box clears the cabinet opening, so even a shallow drawer gives up nothing at the back. The soft-close damper makes the slide a natural fit for residential kitchens and finished living spaces where a slamming drawer is a quality complaint, not just an annoyance. For shops running a production mix of drawer sizes, the bulk carton keeps the 14 inch size on hand alongside longer runs without the overhead of retail-packaged hardware.

Zinc Finish in Context

Zinc plating is the working standard for steel side-mount ball bearing slides. It provides reliable indoor corrosion resistance, handles the friction of a ball-bearing slide living inside a cabinet, and stays neutral against nearly every interior finish. The zinc surface on the 8450 FM is a matte, utilitarian coating — not decorative chrome, not stainless, not painted. Once the drawer is closed, the slide is invisible. For installs where the open drawer reveals the slide hardware against a contrasting interior, the same 8450 FM line is also available in black and white to match the cabinet box.

Specifying and Installing the 8450 FM

The slide requires 1/2 inch of side clearance per side, so the drawer box is built 1 inch narrower than the cabinet opening. Both the drawer member and the cabinet member mount on the industry-standard 32mm hole pattern. The design is non-handed, so each pair consists of two identical slides. In frameless cabinets the slide screws directly to the cabinet side panel. In face-frame cabinets, rear support is required — add the matching KV rear mounting brackets, sold separately, because the face frame sets the front mounting surface back from the cabinet interior.

Frequently Asked Questions

Quiet Drawers, Volume Pricing, Done

The 8450 FM bulk-pack in zinc brings damped soft-close closing to standard-class 14 inch drawers — the straightforward choice when a production run calls for quiet hardware in a neutral finish without the overhead of retail packaging.