Repairing
Drawers
Over time, wooden drawers that
are
well-used will begin to show wear
and tear. Boards can warp and lose their fit, guides slide
poorly along
worn runners, and the frame of your piece may become damaged.
With
prompt attention, most drawers can be fixed and returned to use,
enabling them to glide open smoothly, holding everything from
sweaters
to silverware. Here are some of the most common problems with
draws:
Loose
Joints
Drawer frame construction is
similar
to chair construction. Dovetail
joints (wedge-shaped openings or dovetails that hold matching
pins cut
in the joining piece) are used in old or expensive furniture.
Butt
joints (joining pieces simply butted together either face to
face, edge
to edge, or face to edge with no integral fastener) are glued
and held
with corrugated nails in newer furniture.
Dovetail joints seldom separate;
if
they do, adhesive can be forced into the
loose joint which can then be tapped together with a hammer.
Butt
joints are
another problem. To tighten a loose butt joint, The joint should
be
glued and tapped together as firmly as possible with a hammer
then
clamped firmly until
the glue is dry. If this method fails to provide enough
strength,, it
may be possible to nail the
joint through the face of the drawer. The nail heads being
countersunk,
and the holes finished with wood filler.
Binding
Problems with drawer frames are
usually the cause of sticking and
binding drawers. When a drawer sticks, it's jerked to get it
open and
slammed closed. This causes the joints in the frame to separate.
First,
the joints are checked to se that they are tight, then the
drawer
guides are lubricated and
the top and bottom edges of the sides with stick lubricant, wax
from a
candle, paraffin, or silicone spray. Petroleum based
lubricant is not used;
oil will collect dirt and dust and cause more problems than the
binding.
If lubrication doesn't solve the
problem, we carefully sand down the
binding points. Removing only as much wood as necessary, and
seal the
raw
wood with shellac to prevent future swelling. If sanding doesn't
eliminate binding, the drawer's runners and guides are
examined.
Worn
Guides
and Runners
Drawers are built with wood or
metal
runners and move back and forth on
guides or tracks. In old furniture, the runners are parallel
pieces of
wood fastened to the drawer bottom, and the guides are strips of
wood
across the frame. Sometimes the runners or guides are missing;
sometimes they're split, warped, or badly worn. Rough guides or
runners
can cause the drawer to bind and can eventually damage the
frame.
If the drawer guide is missing,
metal
guides are installed (or duplicate wooden ones on antique
furniture),
metal guides are available in
several lengths. If a wood
drawer guide is rough, it is smoothed carefully with sandpaper
or a
rasp, or
-- as a last resort -- a block plane. If the drawer still binds,
the guide is removed completely. A hacksaw blade is broken in
half and
one end of
it wrapped with electricians' tape. The guide is cut out with
short strokes of the saw blade.
After removing the old guide, it
should be possible to install metal guides, or a new wooden
guide that
is the same size
as the old one. Hardwood is used to make the guide; softwood
wears too
quickly. The new guide is glued into position, and secured it
with
nails. The nail heads are countersunk so they won't interfere
with the
drawer's
operation.
When the runners are worn, the
drawer
moves unevenly because the wood
is uneven. To replace a worn runner, we plane and rabbet the
worn edge
to
form an even, smoothly mortised strip along the drawer edge. A
new
thin strip of hardwood is glued into each mortised runner edge,
building it up
to its original height. The runners are secured with small
nails, and
the nails countersunk so that they won't interfere with the
drawer's
operation.
If the drawer frame has a wood
kicker
above the sides and the kicker is
worn, it is smoothed and add a new hardwood strip added to build
it up
again. The same procedure used to replace worn runners is
followed.
Split
Drawer Fronts
Split drawer fronts are usually
the
result of broken ormissing drawer guides.
First we replace broken or missing drawer guides. Second, we
repair the
split with glue forced
into the break, wiping away any excess glue, and lightly clamp
the
edges
with a strap clamp. Only light pressure is used; too much
pressure will
buckle the wood at the split.
Split
Drawer
Bottoms
Drawer bottoms are not fastened
into
the drawer sides and ends; the
bottom panel fits loosely into dadoes (slots cut into the face
or end
of a piece of wood) in the sides. This permits expansion and
contraction of the wood and prevents the joints from
cracking.
To replace a drawer bottom, we
remove
one end of the drawer and slide the
bottom panel out, replacing it with a new plywood or hardboard
panel
cut
to fit. Some drawer bottoms are lightly tacked to a piece of
molding
nailed to the inside edges of the sides and back, and some
drawer
bottoms are set on triangular glue blocks. These fasteners or
braces are removed before disassembling the drawer. If the piece
of
furniture is an
antique, the drawers were probably hand-fashioned. These drawers
should
not be repaired with plywood or hardboard.
Warped Boards
Table leaves and other flat
parts can
warp unless they're properly
sealed, and years of uneven humidity can leave them severely
cupped. In
most cases, unwarping them isn't too difficult.
To unwarp a board, its better if
work
is done in the summer. The traditional cure is exposure to
wet grass and hot sun. A grassy area is watered thoroughly, and
set the
board curved side up on the wet grass. As the dry side of the
board
absorbs moisture from the grass, the moist side -- the convex
side --
is dried out by the sun, and the board unwarps. Unless the warp
is
caused by stress in the wood, the board should straighten out
within a
day.
When the board has
straightened out,
it is clamped between two straight
boards so that it will dry evenly. Before replacing it in the
piece of
furniture, the unfinished side is sealed with shellac to prevent
it
from
warping again.
LOCATION
