Furniture drawers need help sliding

[slownsteady]

We have an old dresser that was built with wooden tracks for the drawers to move on. Needless to say that by now they are worn down and not very slippery. I remember hearing that wax was the preferred method of lubing the tracks ( I'm using the term 'tracks' loosely. It's basically wood sliding on wood). Anything more up-to-date available? I hesitate to use a spray-on like graphite. Would a silicone spray be good for the wood? If it needs to be waxed, what kind of wax?

 

[Snoonyb]

I use bars of hand soap on wood double hung windows.

 

[slownsteady]

I tried candle wax the other day and it helped a little. I think bee's wax is a traditional trick. I'd like to add nylon or some other plastic but I don't think I have clearance for the thickness.

 

[bud16415]

My mom used to can and she used paraffin wax to seal the jelly jars. We always had a container of the round chunks that popped out and the rectangular bars that were not yet used. Her or my dad would be rubbing them on drawers or sticky doors and I would take them and use them on my sled runners in the winter and the big sliding board at the school in the summer. First rub it down good with the wax and then the first few rides down you would sit on waxed paper and then let me tell you kids were getting beat up flying off the end of that slide.

 

[slownsteady]

I don't have pariffin handy, but I do have bar soap, so that's first try

 

[user 4883]

My mom used to can and she used paraffin wax to seal the jelly jars. We always had a container of the round chunks that popped out and the rectangular bars that were not yet used. Her or my dad would be rubbing them on drawers or sticky doors and I would take them and use them on my sled runners in the winter and the big sliding board at the school in the summer. First rub it down good with the wax and then the first few rides down you would sit on waxed paper and then let me tell you kids were getting beat up flying off the end of that slide.

Coated with Non-Nutritive Cereal Varnish?

 

[bud16415]

Coated with Non-Nutritive Cereal Varnish?

Ya that’s the stuff. We used to ride our bikes to the corner store and for a penny you could get a little bottle made out of paraffin that looked like a miniature coke bottle. You bit off the cap and it had some sugar syrup that tasted like coke inside. When done you had a glob of wax as you normally ended up chewing on the bottle. I didn’t buy many of them as for the same penny you could get an atomic hot ball that burned your mouth for a good 15-20 minutes.

It was all free actually as we would find soda (pop around here) bottles by the road and you took them to the beer distributor and he gave you 2 cents for one. Half mile one way to get 2 cents and then half mile the other way to spend it.

 

[bud16415]

I don't have pariffin handy, but I do have bar soap, so that's first try

Be sure to use Irish Spring. It makes your socks smell great.

 

[zannej]

I love the smell of Irish Spring but discovered I'm allergic to it. At least, the older versions. Don't know if they've changed it. Haven't used it in a very long time.

But yeah, bar soap is good. I have some drawers on wood tracks like that too.

 

[Jim_in_JAX_FLA]

you can order small bars of Beeswax, on Amazon

 

[tmiskimen]

We have an old dresser that was built with wooden tracks for the drawers to move on. Needless to say that by now they are worn down and not very slippery. I remember hearing that wax was the preferred method of lubing the tracks ( I'm using the term 'tracks' loosely. It's basically wood sliding on wood). Anything more up-to-date available? I hesitate to use a spray-on like graphite. Would a silicone spray be good for the wood? If it needs to be waxed, what kind of wax?

A quick fix is a some talcum powder. May not last as long as other things but it is nearly always available.

 

[BvilleBound]

Another trick is to press a few thumbtacks into the runners on each side. The drawer will slide easily on top of the tacks.

I hope this is helpful.

Mark

 

[slownsteady]

Coated with Non-Nutritive Cereal Varnish?

So rub some Sugar Smacks on the runners?

 

[slownsteady]

Sort of like the thumbtacks, I have seen them with a plastic -maybe nylon- heads. Just can't find them.

 

[bud16415]

The thing with wooden drawers is when shut they sit on the bottom guides when you open them the weight in the front starts putting more force on the front edge and lifts the back. At some point the weight is front edge bottom top edge back and there isn’t a lot of sliding going on. Modern roller slides are captive and transfer the force back and forth with no real sliding going on. Over the years the old wood ones wear enough that one side will slide the other binds and the drawer locks up.

 

[Eddie_T]

Lowes has these called furniture glides, they may be too thick but looks the same as what Rockler sells and called Tack-in Drawer Glides.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-Plastic-Tack-Glide/4402295

 

[zannej]

I completely forgot about Sugar Smacks existing. LOL. I think the hardware department in Walmart carries a mini slides similar to the picture in the last post. There is also a plastic clip thingy that goes on the very back of the drawer that can hook over a wooden T-rail.

 

[slownsteady]

Eddie-T hit the nail right on the head (). That's what I was thinking but I'm pretty sure that I don't have enough room between the rails for those. I don't have the center rail that you see in Zanne's post but those little corner pieces might be helpful...depending on how thick they are.
So I guess it's back to basics.

 

[EricK]

Johnson paste wax. The drawers will fly across the room! (Soap work temporarily but will wear out sooner and will gather dirt)

 

[bud16415]

Is it just me or am I thinking of something different for bees wax. As a kid we had bees wax I used on my long bow string and that was always a bit sticky. It might have been sticky because my dad may have got it with the honey he used to love that came in the wood frames with the wax. I don’t think they sell honey like that anymore.