10-Minute Drawer Repair
A neighbour recently asked me to repair a kitchen drawer for her, as the drawer kept slipping out of the drawer runner, the front was fallling off and the base of the drawer was broken at the front.
12/10/2018
Kitchen drawers, especially in an older kitchen, can often cause problems. A neighbour recently asked me to repair a kitchen drawer that kept slipping off the drawer runners, plus the front of the drawer had fallen off. I'm sure that many of you have kitchen drawers that need a bit of a 'tune up' to have them running properly again, so here's a bit of info on how I repaired this particular kitchen drawer.
Drawer Front or Face loose
1. The screws holding the drawer face in place had ripped off the back of the drawer face (see above). The easiest way to fix this is to remove the face and re-attach. If the holes are stripped you may need to use a small roll of Alcolin QuikWood to plug the hole, and once set hard drill a 2mm pilot hole before screwing the drawer face in place.
2. As a result of the drawer front being ripped off, the drawer front was cracked. You have two options here: you can simply cut a piece of SupaWood to replace the broken piece, or you can use some wood glue to stick it back together. Since it wasn't completely broken, we used wood glue to fix and clamped overnight.
Loose drawer runners
Where a drawer keeps slipping off the drawer runners, this is more commonly due to a loose runner either on the side of the drawer or the side of the cabinet. In this case the runners affixed to the drawer were loose and these were re-attached. The original runners were secured with 13mm screws and 16mm screws were used to re-attach.
Replace a drawer base
Most builders-grade drawers have a 3mm base that is usually Masonite. With the front of the drawer removed it was easy to cut a piece of Masonite to fit and insert this into the drawer. You can buy small pieces of Masonite for very little cost at Builders Warehouse.
Re-Fix Drawer
Older drawers can come apart. Where screws are loose or missing, these can easily be replaced. Use a small roll of Alcolin QuikWood to plug the old holes. Let this set hard and then drill a 2mm pilot hole before driving in 40mm screws.
The cost to repair the drawer was minimal since nothing needed to be bought for the repair and the drawer should be good for a few more years. If a kitchen renovation is not on the cards and you need to do some minor repairs, most can be done in a few minutes for very little cost - so keep that in mind.
