dresser drawers hard to pull out

[smcartor]

Does anyone know a way to make dresser drawers slide out easier without damaging the wood?

[Tumbleweed]

What kind of drawer do you have that sticks?

Is it just a wood drawer that slides against wood? If so a temporary fix is to use a hard bar of soap and rub it along the areas that slide. Or use an old candle. The wax or soap makes it slippery and thus easier to pull out.

You will have to do this again when the coating starts to wear off.

Long term fix...I'm not sure. It could be the drawer isn't square or the place it slides in isn't square. It sure wouldn't hurt anything to take some really fine sandpaper and just go over the areas where the drawer makes contact with the casing of what ever the drawer is in and then rub the candle or bar of soap over it.

If your drawer has metal sliders then one of them may be loose or mis-aligned and it would be a matter of tightening them down.

Oh, I did have one more though. Sometimes when you move heavy furniture you can kind of pull them "out of square". I found if I just slide a piece of wood under the object, say a dresser, and lift it up it will have a chance to move back into square. In other words I have moved heavy furniture so it actually kind of pulled apart the structure a bit. LOL

[Tumbleweed]

By the way, the candle or bar of soap works great for sticking doors. I find some doors stick when the humidity is high. If you can ever think of it, during the dry season, run that candle wax or bar of soap over the offending sticking areas. This will protect the wood from absorbing moisture and we know wet wood expands.

Hope this helps.

[smcartor]

Thanks for the tip! I had a door that was sticking and I rubbed a candle on the part that was sticking and now it opens fine. I also tried it on my antique dresser drawers...it didn't work. I guess it isn't square anymore. RATS!

[barb]

admin said:

Oh, I did have one more though. Sometimes when you move heavy furniture you can kind of pull them "out of square". I found if I just slide a piece of wood under the object, say a dresser, and lift it up it will have a chance to move back into square. In other words I have moved heavy furniture so it actually kind of pulled apart the structure a bit. LOL

I never thought of that before and it makes so much sense.

One with the metal slides may need to be sanded lightly and re-lubricated if they have gotten damp and have a slight rust layer.

[Tumbleweed]

smcartor said:

Thanks for the tip! I had a door that was sticking and I rubbed a candle on the part that was sticking and now it opens fine. I also tried it on my antique dresser drawers...it didn't work. I guess it isn't square anymore. RATS!

Do you know if it was slid into position because this often makes them unaligned. Especially if you are sliding on carpet and the lower bottom gets so much pressure on it. Believe me, I have moved furniture by sliding so many times and made pieces go out of whack.

You can also take a level and put it on the side of your dresser, in the front etc... so you can get an idea which way it is leaning and then take that board and pry it in the other direction. If you try this make sure you cover the board with a wash cloth to protect the wood.

If this doesn't work, I would sand the wood in the areas you think it is rubbing. You can probably tell by looking at them. Sanding where no one sees won't hurt anything - even an antique and besides, it is wearing off the wood anyway so you might as well help it along. You'd be surprise what a tiny bit of sanding can do.