Old drawer bottoms: the right way to fix

[Stan Calow]

I have to repair several dresser drawers from some old (100+ years) oak furniture. The drawer bottoms have all sagged and wont sit in the grooves that held them on three sides of the 28-32" wide drawers. Since the back is not constrained, they will not support any weight. The two chests are not valuable, and were pretty basic so Im not worried about value, but I do need to make them usable.

I want to keep the bottoms where possible (1/4" solid wood), but cant decide how to support them along the back side. Not sure at this age that movement of the bottom solid panel is a problem, but making and gluing in wood braces inside the drawer, or metal brackets doesn't seem workable. Any suggestions on what is the right way (not the easiest) to fix them so they are usable are welcome.
Thanks

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[Lee Schierer]

There are a few ways to solve your problem while keeping the solid wood bottoms. You could add a couple of washer head or pan head screws into slotted holes in the bottom panel up into the back of the drawer. Or, you could make an "L" shaped bracket out of wood that attaches to the back of the drawer that holds up the bottom panel. Attach this bracket to the back of the drawer with screws.

[Richard Coers]

What direction is the grain in the bottom? Draw slips on the sides will help you and Lee has the right idea if the grain goes from drawer side to side.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Stan, when I make traditional drawers the drawer bottom is typically much thicker stock for a 28-32” as you have, typically 1/2” with a bevel (raised panel profile) on the front and sides, this allows the thicker stock to fit in the 1/4” dado.

As Lee mentioned, even when using the thicker stock, I will cut two slots in the drawer bottom spaced at thirds, you can use a small screw with a washer secured (I use 1” x 4 round head with a washer) in the drawer back to support the drawer bottom.

[Andrew Hughes]

I would consider saving the front and making new sides and bottom.
Use one or two of the old side to make the back.

[Charles Lent]

For the sag, can you install the bottoms upside down? I had to do this, as well as make replacement strips for the bottoms of the sides, since the drawers had been opened and closed so many times in their lives, that the drawer sides had worn away almost to the groove for the bottom. If the bottom isn't long enough to reach into the grooves in the sides, your drawer sides have spread apart, and the corner joints need to be reglued and pushed back together. If the drawer bottom is too short to reach from the drawer front groove to past the bottom of the drawer back, joint the back edge of the drawer bottom and add/glue a strip of wood the same thickness to it. Don't glue the drawer back to drawer bottom though. I always use long brad nails through the drawer bottom and into the drawer back, using new hole positions. In another 20-30 years, the next furniture restorer will thank you.

Metal drawer stops, driven into the boards below the drawer bottoms frequently wear holes in the drawer bottoms as the bottom edges of the drawer sides wear away. If the drawer bottoms extend down as low as the drawer sides, you may have, or have had these metal drawer stops. They are just a flat plate with triangle points extending down from the bottom edge. These were driven into the board below the drawer, so if they are gone, there might be holes in this board where they had been. When new, the drawer would be pulled out fully to these stops and then tilted down so the upper rear of the drawer cleared the face of the cabinet. The drawer could then be lifted clear of these stops. Reversing the process was necessary when replacing the drawer.

How do I know all of this? I have a cousin who loves buying the oldest of old furniture, and then asking me how to fix it. Then I frequently end up fixing it for her. Only trouble is that we are 780 miles apart. Well, maybe that's a blessing for me.

Charley

[Stan Calow]

Thanks everyone! There's a lot of good advice here to chew on. I have ten of these drawers to deal with, and I now realize that each one of them has some additional unique issues of racking, spreading sides, splitting panels, or broken corners. So I'll have to put a lot more thought into each drawer. Turning the bottoms over to make use of the crown is a great idea.

I'll likely use the L-shaped brackets with oval screw slots. I had just been thinking glue, but that makes sense. These bottoms are indeed 1/4" solid wood, of single pieces of some hardwood - 13" to 16" wide. The joinery is pretty rough from age, but currently no metal parts.

And Andrew holds me to my word. Remaking the drawers would be the right thing to do, but I've decided it would be overdoing it for these particular pieces of furniture.

Thanks all.