Expert: Jamie Yocono - 6/19/2007

Question
QUESTION: I have a set of fairly new bedroom furniture and have to move a heavy chest out of the room.   The drawers have a lock or stop that will not allow them to be taken out.  Is there some mysterious button or screw that I cannot find?

ANSWER: Hi George,

There are so many different drawer glides out there, there's no telling which method will work to release your drawer box from the cabinet.  There are at least a dozen manufacturers of common drawer glides used in household furniture, so I'm just going to give you a few tips. If these don't work, you'll need to write back and try to gave me a little more information about your particular glide.

One of the more common glides is removed by fully extending the drawer all the way out, then tipping the front of the drawer up a little bit. By tipping it up, you're disengaging the rollers from each other, and the box should be able to be lifted out.

A different glide uses small tabs on the glides, some you toggle toward the front or back. These tabs would be on the drawer slide, as you pull it out, just a few inches from the front of the glide.

Extend the drawer all the way out, as far as it can go. Look for something irregular, like a small lever, button, tab or whatever. While most drawer glides simply lift out with no locking mechanism, your heavy cabinet might have something that requires a little extra effort to remove the drawer. That way, the drawer can't fall out when fully extended. Higher quality glides usually have some sort of button to release them, lighter duty glides usually just lift out.

Regardless, if you don't figure it out, write back with more information, or even send me a picture. My personal e-mail address is jamie@wooditis.com. You can send a JPG of the glide to me, and I'll try to help after looking at it.  If you can't send a picture, some information that I'll need is how the glide is mounted (middle of the side? lower corner of the side? undernearth?) color (white, black, or plain metal) and obviously- a manufacturer's name, of you can find one.

OK, good luck, I hope this helps. If not, send me a picture and we'll go from there.

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


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Jamie the glide is center/bottom of the drawer and the stop is metal shaped to fit the glide (like a U with wings).  As to color its close to the brown finish on the piece.  Oddly the frame is veneer over pressed wood but the drawers and anything other than the sides & top is solid wood.  No screw or button and impossible to get a meaningfull photo.
 Aside from all that I want to thank you so much for the quick response and the information.

Answer
Hi George,

I just pulled out two of my drawer glide catalogs, to try and find a glide that looks like the one you've described. While I couldn't find something that exactly matched your description, I did learn a few things. So here are some thoughts...

When your drawer is fully extended, there might be a small tab that's visible in the center of the glide, toward the rear.  Sometimes, on a full extension glide, which extends in a couple of different pieces, you have to slide one of the sections back to expose the tab. So pull the drawer all the way out, then try to push part of the glide back into the cabinet. They sort of work like a table leaf mechanism. But if the piece isn't pushed back, you won't be able to see the release tab.

There is one type of bottom mount drawer glide made by Hettich that does not come apart. This is a heavy duty glide, and it vaguely sounds like the one you described.  I never knew there was a glide that didn't come apart; it seems a little counterproductive. So it's possible that there are some glides that cannot be disconnected, and probably can only be removed by taking the mounting screws out. Who knew? Anyway, you mentioned that your chest was a heavy one, so it's possible that this glide might not come apart. Do you see screws that you can remove?

You didn't mention if there was a roller, or if the glide worked with ball bearings.  Ball bearings probably indicates a heavier duty glide, once again, when fully extended, look for a small lever at the rear of the glide. I just looked at something that suggested that roller-type glides probably just lift or tilt out, while glides with ball bearings probably use some sort of a release tab.

That's about as good as I can do, given the information you've provided. I hope this helps, when all else fails...... get that screwdriver out and start taking the glide apart. Just don't let the drawer drop on your head when you remove that last screw!

Good luck,
Jamie Yocono
www.wooditis.com