How to repair wooden drawer slides on vintage dresser
The pieces on the insides of the dresser need to be replaced. If you have or know someone with a table saw, they are pretty easy to fabricate. Or take a sample to a woodshop, i can't imagine they would charge too much. Then you would remove the old and install the new pieces.
If the edges of the drawers are worn, sometimes I'll get 1/4" square rods from the hardware store, cut to size, glue and nail it to the worn bottom edges and use a sander or something to get it to the right shape.
More on reddit.comRestoring wooden drawer tracks? - DoItYourself.com Community Forums
Seeking advice for replacing wood slides on a dresser
[HELP] Broken Dresser Drawer/Track
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We have this used dresser that my spouse wants to upcycle to be used in our home. One of the things I want to change is the wood slides—I find center under mount wood slides to be the worst kind of drawer slide.
Info about the dresser:
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The drawers are inset, so any kind of side mount slide is out of the question. We are stuck with undermounts
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It’s probably not worth the money to add slides (since the dresser isn’t worth too much), but let’s ignore that fact for now
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The depth of the current wood track that the drawer slides on is 16 3/4”
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The dresser will hold (probably exclusively) clothes
My current plan:
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Remove the wood slides from the bottom of the drawers and remove the tracks from the dresser
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The drawer's bottom is only 1/4" thick. This is too thin to screw into and rely on the screw alone to grab the wood and get a meaningful hold
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I plan to glue a piece of wood to the bottom of the drawer–the thickest I can go is 3/8", which is pushing it (the drawer slides I'm looking at are 0.38" tall, and the current overall dimension of the wood slides are 3/4")
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From there, mount the slides to the drawer & dresser
Here are the questions I'm trying to answer:
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Is a 1/4" drawer bottom + 3/8" glued piece of wood thick enough to fasten to, or will this tear out from use relatively quickly?
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Am I being too optimistic with the tolerances, and should I change my plan to glue a 1/4" piece of wood (instead of 3/8")?
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Are there any issues with my plan that I'm not seeing?
I’ve uploaded images of the bottom of the drawer and the inside of the dresser to get a visual of what I’m working with. https://imgur.com/a/mPeMHhX