How to make dresser drawers pull in and out easily?

Question

I have bought new dressers and the drawers are sticky and don't pull in or out very well. I've seen nice rail parts on more expensive drawers and wondered if you can add these somehow? If so how do you do it and where do you get them?

Thanks

Answer 1

you can buy them at home depot, lowes, etc.  whether you can add them or not depends on the clearance between the drawer side and the frame of the dresser.

Answer 2

Use CRX brand silicone spray and lube up the traveling glides or just use paraffin wax.

Answer 3

Try taking a dry bar of soap...rub it on all surfaces of the opening for the drawer in the dresser and over the sides and tops of the drawer that touch the opening when it's pushed in and pulled out.   Someone did that for mine, and it worked!

Answer 4

Do not use WD-40, that is not appropriate for your bedroom dresser. The stuff smells and it will get absorbed quickly into the wood. It is a terrible choice for sticky drawers.

Paraffin wax is good and bar soap is not as good. But I have used them a lot. The very best thing to use is Butcher's Wax. This is a paste wax containing carnauba wax. This is used on floors, bowling alleys and it leaves a very slick sliding surface. This is the absolute best thing to use. The paste Butchers Wax leaves a hard coating of wax which will really get your drawers sliding better than paraffin/candle wax or bar soap. Just apply it liberally to the sliding surfaces, let it dry for a while, wipe off the excess and you're done.

If these are heavy drawers made in the old style where the bottom of the wooden drawer sides are bearing upon wooden slides in the casework, you might consider adding thin strips of teflon, or even thin strips of Formica. This would be a huge pain, but if it was a piece you couldn't live without and you needed the drawers to glide better, this is a very good solution, but would be hard for the do-it-yourselfer to pull off.

Do the drawers fit? If they were poorly fitted all the wax in the world will not help that much. You might need a cabinet maker or someone who knows how to use a plane to tweak them a bit.

Answer 5

well if the drawers are just sticky then you shouldnt buy new parts

i suggest spraying the parts with WD-40. its a spray that can loosen up things

if that doesnt work, try sanding down the edges that are sticky

Answer 6

You can change out the parts and you can get them at any hardware store but something tells me that you really don't want to take that route.

A quick fix is wax.  Yes "WAX" .  Go to your grocery story a get a couple of block of paraffin wax.  rub the wax on the rails and you will notice a substantial difference.

Answer 7

just spray the draw track with wax polish