AboutJamie Yocono Expertise Woodworker, Furniture designer/builder, industrial arts educator. Bachelor degree in Furniture Design, and journeyman carpenter, with a 4 year apprenticeship. Currently owner of custom furniture/cabinet shop in Las Vegas, NV.
Can answer most woodworking questions EXCEPT those regarding repairs, refinishing, and antiques.
Experience Bachelor in Furniture Design - Ohio University (1980)
Journeyman Carpenter, Local 639
Adult educator - Developed adult education woodworking program for the University of Akron, and taught classes there for 9 years.
Question is there something you can do to make drawers that are almost impossible to pull out of the chest slide easier? I have a chest I can't use because the drawers are to hard for me to pull out.
Answer Jeanne,
This is just a guess, but I think humidity/ambient moisture is what is causing your drawer to stick. But before I go into that, have you checked the drawer slide itself? Depending on what sort of slide is used to install the drawer, sometimes they have parts that can fail and make the drawer hard to open.
For example, a slide with a single roller wheel can fail when the wheel is worn out. Also, I've seen a ball bearing slide so jammed up with dust/lint, that the bearings won't move, which, in turn, makes the drawer hard to pull out. So I would check your drawer slide first, if you can.
But - if your chest was built with wooden slides, that's a whole other story! See wood shrinks and swells with the humidity in the air. That's why sometimes a door or drawer is hard to open in one season, and easy to open in a different season. Wood absorbs moisture, and swells a bit, causing friction. When air is less humid, the wood shrinks and makes it easy to remove the drawer or door.
If you can remove the drawer, sometimes a good waxing of the wooden slide parts will solve the problem. Some people use soap instead of wax, but I prefer wax. Minwax makes a one pound can of paste wax for about $8, it's widely available.
If you own a small hand plane, you might also see if there is an area on the wooden slide that you can plane down a bit.
Last suggestion - if you do have wooden slides that are giving you this problem, I suggest converting the drawer to use a metal slide. The metal ones don't stick nearly as bad as wooden ones do.
OK, I hope this helps. Write back if you have more questions,
Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com
My woodworking blog: www.wooditis.blogspot.com
