Loose drawers fix?

[Robert Opalko]

Building a hutch for my wife with 9 drawers on the lower portion. As my first project building drawers, it looks like the fit it is going to be loose on the side to side fit, maybe as much as 3/16". They are overlay drawers, and have wooden guides on each side of the drawer in the carcase interior. Is there a way to tighten the fit easily? I was thinking of a thin strip of something that could be glued to the edges of the wooden guides. And before you say it, no, I'm not going to rebuild the drawers or carcase!

Dukester

[John Keeton]

That would be my suggestion! And, probably the easiest fix. Just don't nail them so that you can take a small block plane and fine tune the fit after the strips are installed. Remember, snug in summer, loose in winter.

[David DeCristoforo]

Thin strips of hard maple glued to the bottom edge of the drawer sides will take up the slack and act as "glides". Make them thicker than needed then plane them down to get the "right fit". Wax em up good... Trying to add to the guides inside the cabinet will be very cumbersome.... Of course, if you can replace the guides with "fatter" ones, that would be even better....

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Use a fatter O-ring.

[glenn bradley]

+1 on hardwood strips glued to the drawer sides where they are supposed to contact the guides. The strip should run from the back of the drawer to as close to the front as you can get with your handplane. For me that means I would stop about 3" before I hit the overlay front.

[John Keeton]

I agree with David on the ease of applying the strips to the drawer sides, but esthetically, if you can fatten up the guides themselves, I like that idea better.