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How to Fix Old Wooden Cabinet Drawers

April 13th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

When you re dealing with an older home, you may need to learn how to fix some things. Old kitchen and bathroom cabinet drawers can get stuck or be sticking just enough to make them difficult to open. In other instances they have a tendency to fall out or drop down when they are fully extended. You will find two helpful video tutorials on this page that will help you understand how to repair your problem.

Video About Fixing a Sticking Drawer




In the video you will learn three ways to fix a sticking old wooden cabinet drawer. This particular repair was needed on a built-in wall unit drawer.

When the paint is too thick:
If your old kitchen cupboards have been repainted several times, you may need to remove some of the paint from the sides of the decorative faces. This is best done using a heat gun and a putty scraper knife. Heat the paint for a short while and then use the putty knife to scrap it off.

If the drawer is a little to wide:
Use sixty grit sand paper and sand the sides of the kitchen or bathroom vanity cabinet drawers until things work smoother. This may not be as easy of a fix as it sounds. Sometimes it takes a while to work the wood down enough for the drawer to work properly.

Making the drawer’s center support runner work smoother:
This can be done by rubbing the old drawer bottom support with paraffin wax, a candle or even a bar of soap works just fine.

There are many things that cause old drawers to break. We could not possibly post all of the ways to repair old kitchen drawers.

Sometimes when an older kitchen or bathroom cabinet drawer has this problem, it may be because the bottom runner has broken off. They used to make them with a tongue and grove type application. Sometimes the groove breaks due to the weight in the drawer.

For any of the following problems with drawers, see our article on How to Fix Broken Cabinet Drawers

Old wooden cupboards can be challenging to fix. In most instances it’s just a matter of using a little common sense once the problem is diagnosed. If you have a few tools and are good with doing basic carpentry skills, you should be able to fix the old cabinet drawer without any difficulties.

Categories: Working With Drawers
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