Help fixing a chest of drawers

Stan33 · 17 Apr 2017

Hi all, hoping to receive some help with a wooden chest of drawers that i have that are a little damaged, any help would be very much appreciated as i'm not particularly experienced in this area.

The main issue that i have are the drawer runners, both on the drawer and on the chest itself, they have both snapped at the top which has in turn left me with sagging drawers. The runners are wooden and attached to the chest with staples and glue, so not particularly easy to remove and replace (well not for me anyway). The area where the runners attached to the chest glide through on the drawers has also snapped off, please see pics below for a better understanding of what i mean:

As you can see, they have both snapped at the top. The first is the drawer, the second is the runner attached to the chest. Is there anyway i can repair this kind of damage? I thought about applying a wood filler (i have ronseal wood filler) mixed with wood shavings (for a stronger filler?) to fill in where the wood has snapped off in the first picture and then perhaps sanding it down later to smooth it out but again any better ideas from anyone here would be more than welcome.

The runners attached to the chest i feel will be a little more tricky, how do i go about removing the staples and the glue? I guess pliers may remove the staples but i do worry about damaging the wood when i yank out the staples. Should i leave the runners in and fix them some other way?

Any ideas? Hope all the above makes sense, if not let me know and i'll do my best to answer any questions.

Many thanks.

foxhole · 17 Apr 2017

Pics too dark to see.

Stan33 · 17 Apr 2017

Hi Foxhole, thanks for the reply.

Sorry about the dark pictures, i've just taken a couple more, hopefully these ones are a little clearer.

Runner attached to chest:

Damaged runner on chest:

Not sure if it's that noticeable in the picture (i took a fair few, this was the best of a bad bunch), but if you can see, the top part of the runner has snapped off just above the groove in the middle.

This is what it should look like, this is an undamaged runner on the opposite side of the chest:

Below is the damaged glide on the drawer:

undamaged drawer glide:

Hope the above pics are a little clearer, can't seem to get a sharp enough quality picture to display the damage in greater detail, sorry. Thought i'd post the undamaged pics in order for it to be easier to compare the difference.

Thanks again for getting back to me.

Roger928 · 17 Apr 2017

Looks like soft timber on the drawer sides that is incapable of bearing the weight.

foxhole · 18 Apr 2017

Looks a fairly poorly constructed set of draws . You could remove existing runners and replace with an Ali U channel of suitable dimension , would give a hard wearing runner . The wear on the existing suggests the draws are a poor fit so complete replacement could improve the fit.

Stan33 · 18 Apr 2017

Thanks for the replies.

Did a quick search for 'Ali U channel' as i wasn't quite sure what they were, closest i found were aluminum runners, is that right? If so, i think that will be the way i go. How would i go about removing the staples (with pliers?) and the glue from the runners? I've been told a heat gun could work but i don't have a heat gun. Any other ideas?

Also, how would i go about fixing the snapped piece on the drawer, not the runner on the chest but the glide on the drawer itself. Even if i was to replace the runners the drawer will still sag due to that missing snapped piece. Would a wood filler mixed with sawdust be strong enough?

Thanks again for the replies.

foxhole · 18 Apr 2017

staples and glue can be removed with a sharp wood chisel.
Wood filler is ok but no sawdust as it would weaken it.

matz · 18 Apr 2017

I'd be tempted to replace the runners with new and make them wider so as to accommodate the wear on the drawer grooves. Then you would need to rout the drawer grooves wider to match the wider runner. If doing this, it doesnt matter if you damage the existing runner so just dig the staples out with a screwdriver and end cutters. If the original runner glue was cursory (often was!) and dried out, the runners may just ping off. If well glued you'll prob take off the veneer and some of the substrate of the carcase side - hopefully not too much then you can just bridge the damage with the new runners which would need screw and glue. The most skilled part of this is routing the wider grooves so maybe a no no in this case?!. You dont need to rout to the extreme edge of the damage just rid most of it. Filler is way to soft to stand any wear.

Stan33 · 19 Apr 2017

matz said:
I'd be tempted to replace the runners with new and make them wider so as to accommodate the wear on the drawer grooves. Then you would need to rout the drawer grooves wider to match the wider runner. If doing this, it doesnt matter if you damage the existing runner so just dig the staples out with a screwdriver and end cutters. If the original runner glue was cursory (often was!) and dried out, the runners may just ping off. If well glued you'll prob take off the veneer and some of the substrate of the carcase side - hopefully not too much then you can just bridge the damage with the new runners which would need screw and glue. The most skilled part of this is routing the wider grooves so maybe a no no in this case?!. You dont need to rout to the extreme edge of the damage just rid most of it. Filler is way to soft to stand any wear.

That sounds interesting. I've tried the Ronseal wood filler as i stated above on a spare piece of wood just to test it out and while it seems pretty solid i'm not sure it's going to be durable enough in the long term. I plan to give these set of drawers as a gift so would like to do a job that lasts.

In regards to widening the groove on the drawer, how would i go about achieving that, what kind of tools? I don't have a power router to use, i have a jigsaw (PST 680e) but would that be precise enough? How about sawing it down?

Also, in regards to the line, where do you recommend i should cut to? I've added a couple of pics below of the options, i should cut right across the black segment and then include the red segment right?

Many thanks for the help.

matz · 20 Apr 2017

you would have to use a router - tricky job for anyone not used to one so sounds like this is out as an option in this case?. And yes re. my comment about cutting to the widest point that would include the red outline. You have to increase the width of the groove (rebate) in the drawer side. Do you know anyone handy with a router who could do this for you? PS the depth of the rebate must not be increased at all!

Stan33 · 21 Apr 2017

I've asked a couple of people that i thought may have a router but they do not have one either, so unfortunately and frustratingly i do not know of anyone that has one. Would it not be possible to saw it down, or would that likely lead to an inaccurate rebate? What i have in mind is firstly to mark the cut out, then cutting in with a Stanley knife in order to create a decent enough guide for when i saw the rest out. Granted this would not be the easiest method and i'd have to be extremely careful not to go off course but i've hit a bit of a brick wall here. What do you think, could that work? Do you have anything else in mind?

If all else fails i guess i could add metal runners but i'd ideally prefer to keep them as wood.

matz · 21 Apr 2017

ok, there may be another option and that is to let in a strip of wood into the worn bit. ie mark a line with a knife dead parallel with the good edge of the rebate on the outside of the damaged edge. Then carefully chisel out until the rebate is widened then cut a strip of hardwood and glue into the widened rebate making sure the inside edge of the strip is parallel with the good edge thus forming a neatly repaired rebate. As long as the new inside edge is perfectly aligned with the original the other side it doesnt matter so much about its outer edge (of the new strip) and that can be filled if a bit gappy. I guess you could actually chisel out the wider rebate but that relies on leaving a perfect new edge straight from the chisel whereas with the strip you have a perfect edge where it counts most ready made . All very time consuming and needs some deft handwork but doable if you have the patience on both counts

Unless anyone else can suggest something I dont know of any other way to work on these rebates eg router or chisel. Just make sure if gluing a strip that the strip doesnt wander when you cramp it....

Roger928 · 23 Apr 2017

A razor sharp 25mm chisel using a 60mm deep straight edge as a 90 degree backing reference for the chisel will work fine.
The drawer would need to be benched properly with backing support behind the groove inside the drawer.
This is where a work bench comes in. Like this big roubo styled heavy bench I built a few years ago..

You can clamp over hangs from this bench and it just sits there solid.

Tap the cut line gently and then a smaller chisel to chip out the pieces.
And tidy out the base with a router plane.....

As the groove looks to be ending up wider I'd glue in a slip of hardwood to act as the glide rails.
I have the veritas router plane and its a nice piece of accurate tooling to work with. A screaming electric router is not always necessary.

Stan33 · 24 Apr 2017

Thanks guys, much appreciated, the good ol' trusty chisel it is then.

Did not get the opportunity to work on the drawer this weekend so i have no update right now but hopefully in the next few days or so i will do. Mightily impressive work bench there Roger, nice work, unfortunately i don't have anything like that so i'll have to make do with something else.

Thanks again.

Chud · 25 Apr 2017

Roger928 said:
A razor sharp 25mm chisel using a 60mm deep straight edge as a 90 degree backing reference for the chisel will work fine.
The drawer would need to be benched properly with backing support behind the groove inside the drawer.
This is where a work bench comes in. Like this big roubo styled heavy bench I built a few years ago..

You can clamp over hangs from this bench and it just sits there solid.

Tap the cut line gently and then a smaller chisel to chip out the pieces.
And tidy out the base with a router plane.....

As the groove looks to be ending up wider I'd glue in a slip of hardwood to act as the glide rails.
I have the veritas router plane and its a nice piece of accurate tooling to work with. A screaming electric router is not always necessary.

Great advice - router planes aren't cheap though (more expensive than a cheap 1/4" router as far as I know) although Paul Sellers has instructions for a poor mans router plane on his blog if I remember.

Anyhow...if I had to do a repair I would be inclined to replace the stapled on runners with hardwood (ash/beech) and also rout out and insert some into the top of the recess of the drawers so you've got hardwood against hardwood like Roger suggests - either that or as someone else suggested line the channel with aluminium profile.

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Help fixing a chest of drawers

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