On Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 2:06:32 PM UTC-4, dpb wrote:
On 04/10/2016 12:05 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
...

As J McCoy notes, they're nailed with brads; this is common construction
so the bottom can be replaced if necessary; if all four sides are
captured in groove then the only choice is to try to disassemble the
drawer itself...anyway, that aside, I'd recommend to _not_ do major
structural modifications; two suggestions.

1) use a _tiny_ drop of epoxy in _only_ the nail holes and sufficiently
small it won't glob up and glue the bottom to the rear drawer bottom and
re-nail. I've had success if the drawers aren't subsequently
drastically overloaded in that the epoxy will hold the nail but you've
not ruined any chance of removing them for repair/replacement of the
bottom later by gluing the bottom itself...

2) there are only three (or maybe there's a fourth towards the left;
unclear from picture for certain) brads shown; whether that's all there
were or that's all there are left, having lost a couple of others, the
obvious fix in the vein of the original is to add a couple new ones in
fresh wood locations. I'd probably add a second near the existing and
then insert new between present locations.

Securing the back of the bottom to the back of the box may take care
of the sag from left to right, but the bottoms have actually taken on
kind of bowl shape.

Flattening the back by securing to the box hardly removes any of the
center sag.
...

Well, you didn't provide sufficient info to know about it, either...

The question becomes one of how much you're willing to sacrifice from
original; another mentioned one option similar to that which I outlined
above which isn't _too_ obtrusive.

No dimensions given; depending on just how wide they are, I've had some
success in the past if they are solid material in dampening and
weighting as dry to reform them but that's a hit 'n miss proposition.
The one thing of it is that it basically is a no-cost/no-foul thing to
try as long as there's not veneer to lift.

You are right, I didn't post any dimensions, so here they a

The interior of the drawers are 36" wide, 16 1/4" deep at the outer
edges, 18 1/4" deep at the center.

I clamped the bottom of the drawers to the back of box in three spots,
completely closing the gap along the back. The front and sides of the
bottoms are fully seated in the grooves of the box. I placed a 36"
straight edge across the bottom of the interior of the drawers and
measured the gap between the straight edge and the bottom of the drawer
at the center of the bottom.

3/8" on one drawer, 1/2" on the other. I'm guessing that those are
considerable gaps, probably too much for the dampening and weighting
technique, correct?



Other than that, you can try simply the "invert and weight" (and wait)
technique.