Fixing Dovetailed Drawers Glued Up Out of Square

[Uncle Hook]

I am trying to complete a Bartley Furniture Kit for a “file cabinet” that was started and abandoned by someone else. Unfortunately, all 4 of the overlay drawers have been glued up out of square and none of them close flush against the cabinet face. The right side of each drawer front closes flush, but the left side has a slight ¼” to 3/8” inch gap between the cabinet face frame and the rear side of the drawer front. These gaps spoil an otherwise fine piece of furniture.

The drawer fronts are made of cherry and the sides are made of oak or ash. The drawer fronts are attached and glued to the drawer sides using half blind dovetails. Full dovetails are glued in the rear. The drawer bottoms appear to made of birch or maple ply. Several small glue blocks attach the drawer bottoms to the drawer sides.

I am thinking about trying to unglue the drawers. Other options are to make new drawers, or plane the drawer runners inside the cabinet. The drawer slide hardware is designed to mount between the drawers and drawer runners attached to the cabinet sides. I am concerned about making matter worse if I plane the drawer runners out of parallel, or make the gap between the drawers and the drawer runners too wide.

Has anyone had success ungluing dovetailed joints? I have thought about using hot water, steam, possibly mixed with some vinegar.

Has any used this D-Glue Goo remover sold by Woodcraft?

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=3627

I am wondering if Oops might work.

http://www.amazon.com/OOPS-All-Purpo...6697408&sr=8-1

I would to hear suggestions on how to fix the problem or unglue the drawers.

[MilDoc]

Well, I don't know if this will help or not. The first drawer I made had the same problem. My buddy clamped it "straight," let it sit, and it fit fine. Still works, too.

[cabinetman]

If the drawers were glued with any degree of success you will likely not be able to un-glue (disassemble) them without damage. As you stated you have a regularity of offset with the drawers. Have you checked the drawers for square? And have you checked the cabinet for being out-of-square or twisted?

A cabinet can be torqued which will affect how drawer fronts and doors will fit. I would isolate the exact problem before establishing some corrective measures.

Put the drawers in the cabinet in their proper opening, close them, and then put slight lifting pressure under each of the four bottom corners of the cabinet. If pressure on one of those corners will allow the drawer fronts to lay flat to the cabinet, it could be just a cabinet problem.

Another test would be to push on the top corners, each in two directions horizontally, one at a time, (side to side, then front to back) to see if the drawer fronts will lay flat.
.

[pecker]

Even if you could unglue the dovetails, I'm not sure you could reglue them. Many glues do not adhere well if they are not applied to bare wood.

If it turns out the drawer boxes are indeed out of square, I would probably try sawing off the faces, clean up the backside of the faces, then attach them with screws from behind...onto a set of newly made drawer boxes that are square.

[RAFlorida]

A friend of mine told me that once the glue

cures, you will damage the wood trying to get the pieces apart. And he was right when I tried. I've got to support both Cabinetman and Pecker with their suggestions. Dovetail's are strong when glued and cured. The use of water and or chemicals may or may not cause you problems with the wood appearance and trueness.

[JR]

Is there any chance you could attach new false fronts, fitted to the openings?

JR

[cabinetman]

Other than the cabinet being twisted, there might be another thing to check. Make sure the slides are installed correctly on both the cabinet and the drawer, and that there's not some obstruction keeping the drawer from closing. Just offering possibilities to check out before you start cutting up any drawers.
.

[Uncle Hook]

If the drawers were glued with any degree of success you will likely not be able to un-glue (disassemble) them without damage. As you stated you have a regularity of offset with the drawers. Have you checked the drawers for square? And have you checked the cabinet for being out-of-square or twisted?.

Thanks for alll of the suggestions. The drawers seem to be glued with a good degree of success. I have checked the drawers for square using several of my own squares and Rocklers clamp it assembly square. All four drawers are a little bit out of square to the same degree and in the same way. The back left corner of each drawer is a little more than 90 degrees and the back right corner is a little less than 90 degrees. This small error is magnified over the length of the drawer. I am guessing that the person who did the glueup used a square that was out of square. I can partially close the gaps by applying pressure to the left side of the drawer front, but the gaps re-appear when I remove pressure. I will re check the cabinet for squareness but I think it is probably square given Bartleys construction design. I worry about damaging the cherry cabinet if I try to torque it out of square to match the drawers.

Based on everyones comments, it sounds like my best option may be to build 4 new drawers and attach the existing drawer fronts to them.

[scmhogg]

Uncle,

After you take off the fronts, but before you build new boxes, try this: measure the diagonals, then use one or more clamps across the long points; gently tighten until the diagonals match; then tighten just a little more [this is for rebound] .

If nothing has cracked, force epoxy or Gorilla Glue into the small openings in the joints. Let sit for 24 hours.

Don't ask how I know this, as I have never made such an error on a dovetail box.

Steve

[Daryl]

How about removing the bottoms, torquing the drawer square and re-attaching the bottoms? Or using new bottoms if necessary.

[cabinetman]

The two drawer sides can be parallel to each other, and square to the front of the drawer, and the two back corners could be out of square just by having one side slightly longer than the other. That in itself would not necessarily cause the drawer fronts not to seat.

If the bottom is a slide out, the bottom itself could be out of square.

If the cabinet needs to be shimmed, it may only take a slight bit of pressure at some point to bring it back to square. It likely won't do any joint damage.

Here's an example in doing this type of shimming. When installing base cabinets when leveling, and before screwing to the wall, if all the doors lay flat and the gaps are all perfect, it gets screwed to the wall. If the doors are cocked or not lined up perfectly, thin shims are added to one of the bottom corners until the doors line up. Sometimes it's the way the floor is under the cabinet.
.

[Uncle Hook]

I am happy to report I finally solved the problem after some trail and error.

I tried using hot water to unglue the drawers, but it wasn't successful. After several different attempts I gave that idea up for fear of breaking the drawers.

The full extension drawer slides are attached to wooden rails that run front to back inside the cabinets. I used my thickness planer to reduce the thickness of the rails. Then I used shims to reinstall the rails to match the out of square condition of the drawers.

Now the drawers close properly like they were glued up square to begin with.

[cgallery]

Just goes to show us (again) that, where there is a will, there is a way.

Nice job!

[chopnhack]

Nice fix, care to show us some pics?

[Uncle Hook]

Here is a link to the pics I just posted in the finished project section.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=42755