DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Monday, April 11, 2016 at 10:07:29 AM UTC-4, dadiOH wrote:

The question is, why did it bow in the first place? I can only think
of two reasons...

1. The grooves are wider than the bottom is thick. If that is the
case, pushing the bottom flat and gluing in a few small wedges into
the too wide groove should fix it.


2. If the grooves are not wider than the bottom is thick then the
drawer sides have moved out of vertical and possibly parallel. Is
the distance between the sides exactly the same at both top and
bottom all along their length?

There are at least 2 more possibilities, probably a combination of
both. I list these in no particular order:

- Obviously, years of weight on a 36" x 18" piece of 1/4" wood (or
even plywood) could cause considerable warpage. I can't speak to the
contents
of the drawers over the years, but anything other more substantial
than
linens could certainly have warped the bottoms.

Quite true if the construction was such that bending could occur. If you
glue a 1/4 x 36 x 18 piece of ply across a couple of 2x4s then clamp down
the 2x4s and stand on the ply, do you think the ply will bend? I don't.

- The bottom side of the drawer bottoms are unfinished, the tops are
finished with what I assume is varnish. I can only assume (I'm no
expert by any means) that the raw bottom would have absorbed more
moisture over the years, resulting in swelling/uneven movement.

Also true but it doesn't take years, just a few days. Maybe even less in
the winter with the heated house resulting in much lower humidity.

I'm in the process of building an entry door. The glued up panels are 7/8"
thick. They were built 3-4 weeks ago during a rather warm, humid spell. It
turned cool again and I noticed a couple of days ago that the 26" wide
panels had bowed, probably 1/4" - 3/8" belly. No big deal, if they haven't
flattened themselves out when I get to assembling stuff I'll just dampen the
concave side.

Note that the panels would not have warped if the edges had been
constrained; split, maybe, but not warped.

Bottom line, and I know you'd agree if you saw the drawers, the
bottoms are bowed beyond the point where edge attachments are going
to flatten them.

Maybe so but whatever you do won't last unless you correct whatever caused
them to warp in the first place. If it were me, I'd just do the best I
could and forget it. A bit of belly in a dresser drawer isn't gong to hurt
anything; maybe even help if one keeps one's marble collection in it