I have just picked up a large chest of drawers on long-term loan from one of my brothers (he has no room in his current house but didnt want to sell this piece. The chest is a pretty standard late victorian piece with veneer covering the webbs between drawwers and a strong square edged top also veneered on the end grain. All drawers have very fine cock beading and full dovetail construction.
Aside from chipping of the venner and a few dents, the most serious problem with this piece is the wear on the drawer runners. All of the drawer sides are heavily worn, and the web frames have deep (up to 2mm?) corresponding grooves. These have round bottoms.
I have heard chat on this site about repairing this sort of damage as being fairly routine maintenance. Can anyone please describe the processs and any traps. I suspect that any patching of the worn grooves will require creating a regularly shaped channel for filling, so a description of technique might need some tool advice. My only thought so far is to set up a scraper in a holder and treat it a bit like running a groove for inlaid banding.
I do not want to dissassemble the webframes. Principally because the risk of damage to areas like the veneer is just too high for my liking. On the plus side, the shallowest drawer is about 7″, so there is plenty of working space.
thanks in advance
David
Replies
Patto,
Building out worn drawer sides is commonly called "halfsoling". The most straightforward way is to stand the drawer on its side, and rip a straight edge on the worn edge. This is a stopped cut. Using a smooth cutting combination blade will usually yield a gluable surface. And resetting the fence to the other side of the blade to cut the opposite drawer side, will eliminate having to drop the drawer onto the spinning blade. Finish the cut by popping the remaining scrap off the side, up to the drawer front, and paring it smooth with a long chisel, or a bull-nose plane. Piece the drawer side out with a slip cut from matching wood. Glue in place.
Some things to watch out for:1) Nails from previous repair attempts, or used to attach blocking between drawer side and bottom. 2)Running the saw into, or through, the drawer front(!) or the drawer bottom (blade raised too high). 3) You'll need to tape a shim to the side at the top if the drawer's front is taller than the side, so it won't hit the fence. 4) Make the halfsole plenty wide; 1/16" or so strong of the drawer front, so you have enough wood to make adjustments in the fit of the drawer.
Sometimes it is easier to just knock the drawer apart, so you aren't wrestling a huge, unwieldy drawer on the tablesaw. Or if the wear has gone into the groove for the bottom, and you need to re-form the groove. That's called "wholesoling".
The simplest way to repair the bearers or runners, is to remove them and simply turn them over and replace with the underside on top. Usually this means swapping left for right. Usually removal isn't too bad a job, once you figure out how they are attached. Commonly they are frankly nailed in place. Sometimes there's a tenon at front, and a nail in back. Rarely, you will have to remove the backing of the chest to remove the runners. Even if you choose to patch the worn area, (for instance if the tenons aren't centered on the ends of the runners) it will be easier to do if the runners are removed first. Usually the repair can be made by cutting a dado or rabbet to remove the worn area, and inlaying a slip of matching wood.
Regards,
Ray Pine
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