Expert: Jamie Yocono - 8/4/2006

Question
I have  and old chest of drawers and it is in really good condition except for the opening and closing of the drawers, they either get all lopsided or they almost fall out when I'm getting something out of them.  How can I fix this?

Answer
Hi Angela,

From the description, it sounds like your dresser drawers need drawer glides. I don't know if there are any existing mechanical glides, but probably not, since you would see them and would have mentioned them. The problem you're having usually occurs when wood rubs on wood. Humidity can make them stick, and pulling them too hard in one direction makes them lopsided. It's a mess, and hope fully, if you're handy, I can suggest a couple of things.

The first thing I would recommend is installing drawer glides- but there is one stipulation. Most drawer glides require a 1/2" of room on each side of the drawer. So if your drawer opening is 20" wide, the drawer box would measure 19" wide. There HAS to be one inch of difference. If you're lucky enough to have that, I could recommend purchasing some drawer glides from Lowes or Home Depot and installing them. They're not too hard to install, although if your cabinet is small, it's sometimes difficult to install the necessary screws inside it.  

My favorite glides are made by Grass hardware, but KV makes a perfectly nice glide too. If you go to www.rockler.com, you can look at the information they have on drawer glides. This will be helpful, is this site will talk about various methods of installation, as well as the different types of glides out there. The illustrations should be very helpful to you.

BUT.... if you don't have that one inch of clearance between the drawer box and the cabinet opening, you can't install traditional glides. The only thing I can recommend is that you might look for a nylon tape that often is helpful for keeping drawers from sticking the way you've described. This tape comes on a roll, and you apply it to the bottom of a drawer, where the wood comes into contact with the cabinet interior. It reduces friction, and helps the drawer slide better. I believe Rockler sells that too, but you might check your local hardware store to see if they have it.

Last thing- you mentioned that the drawer is falling out. That means there is no drawer stop. If you install drawer glides, the drawer will automatically be stopped by the end of the glide. But if you go with the nylon tape route, you're probably going to have to make some sort of drawer stop. I've seen something as simple as a screw (or nail) that it installed in the back of the drawer, sticking up, so that it comes into contact with the cabinet interior, the drawer is stopped. Another solution could be a small block of wood installed on the back of the drawer, sticking up once again. The theory is that when the drawer is pulled out, the block comes into contact with the cabinet face frame and stops the drawer.

Here's a link to show what I mean:
http://www.michaelholigan.com/departments/TVShow/seg_index.asp?ts_id=5992

OK, I hope this helps. Please feel free to write back if you have any further questions after reading this. Good luck.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com