Making Wood Drawer Slides Slippery
Suggestions for making wood drawers slide smoothly without creating dust. May 11, 2011
Question
One of my customers has some very old cabinets in their kitchen. They have fir lumber drawer boxes that slide on fir lumber cleats. The friction from this operation is creating sawdust to filter into the drawer below. I am thinking that maybe this problem can be mitigated with some kind of Teflon tape on either the drawer box or cleat. Would this solve the problem? Can anybody recommend a source for the self-adhesive slippery tape?
Forum Responses
(Cabinet and Millwork Installation Forum)
From contributor N:
Rockler has nylo tape in 10 and 20 mil. I think Lee Valley has some also.
From contributor J:
Lee Valley has some slippery tape, but have you tried just waxing the parts?
From contributor B:
Try McMaster Carr.
From contributor S:
Had the same problem when I resurfaced the kitchen in my first house. I put a strip of Formica on the bottom of the drawer side and on the wood guide in the cabinet. Put some paraffin on the laminate and you're good to go for little cost.
From contributor C:
When confronted with similar situations I like to seal the wood with shellac and then apply a wax. It works great!
