DIYbanter - View Single Post - Tuning Up A Century Old Dresser

J. Clarke[_4_]

In article , says...

On 04/11/2016 9:07 AM, dadiOH wrote:
...

Which means that you have to get the bottom fully into the grooves. Or, at
least, far enough to remove the "belly". Once there, a couple of screws
through the bottom into the sides should take care of it.

The length of the arc for a 1/2" sag in the center for a chord length of
36" is 36.0185" -- thus the movement on either end of the bottom is only
about 0.01". Not significant. There's no chance you can prevent that
kind of movement in wood w/ a mechanical fastener from the side (besides
the damage done to the piece in trying to do that).

Is the drawer 36 inches deep or just 36 inches wide? If it's not 36
inches deep then the chord you have to work with is the front to back,
not the side to side.

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

The most probable reason it bowed was that it had too much weight stored
in the drawer for 100+/- year and it's simple relaxation over the
unsupported span. No different than setting the set of encyclopedias or
a 100-lb bust of Beethoven on a long, unsupported bookshelf and leaving
them there--over time the shelf _will_ sag unless it's far more than
just a 3/4" ordinary shelf. In this case, we don't know what was in the
dresser, but whatever it was was too much for a minimal initial design.
1/4" is not enough material for a 36" drawer for anything but the
lightest of loads.