Stiffening cheap dresser drawers
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- Опубликовано: 1 апр 2014
- A lot of furniture these days is only put together with knock-down fastenetrs. Disassembling and re-gluing the drawers can make them much stronger!
Article to go with this coming soon... 
Хобби
Lesson learned: Don't point a nail gun at your balls, even if there's a layer of wood in between.
I'm surprised Matthias didn't delete this comment
x.D
Yes I was quite horrified at that too. Could have been a much shorter video
Knocking apart dresser drawers and putting them together stronger.
I guess one advantage of it showing that I shared it on Google + with a comment is that it avoids all those annoying "first comment" type comments that I always delete!
I always glue up flat pack furniture too, the addition of a little glue makes it last a whole lot longer, these days I try to buy old solid wood furniture at auction whenever I can.
There is much wisdom in making an item like this last a little longer. It's more environmentally friendly, and a lot less frustrating to use. On the down-side, it encourages people to buy cheap stuff and just fix it LOL! This is why I just build the furniture we need nowadays ... ;) (often using your helpful videos as inspiration).
Oh, Ikea furniture! Never move it after it has been assembled. Those particle board joints get lose just by looking at them the wrong way.
lol
x.D
Too late 😭
A good tip is to insert the dowels into the sides first. If you put dowels in the drawer front, you risk pushing the dowel through the front. Always insert dowels where you have the most wood backing it up. :) I worked in a furniture shop back in the days, and learned this the hard (expensive) way. :)
By tapping the dowel lightly, you will squeeze out excessive glue. Slam it in, and you risk cracking the part. Also a lesson from my mistakes. :D
Great video, Matthias! Love your channel!
Glad to see I'm not the only one that reinforces that cheap furniture. Good find!
I winced every time that nail gun was fired pointing towards you. I've had too many near misses with those guns...
One other thing would be a diagonally mounted piece of scrap on the underside. That would really stiffen the whole thing more than just relying on the joints and the bottom's glue.
I did this for all of my drawers regardless of quality. It, to some extent, also adds rigidity to the bottom, so it doesn't allow it to bow out. Now, the drawers i have were made with actual wood sides and 4 layers plywood bottom but in your case Matthias, since you're also placing heavy-ish equipment, it might be a good thing to add.
Cool video. I have a cheap dresser too which needs some stiffing up, I'll take your advice.
All of that quick assembly furniture gets loose. This is a perfect approach to building or re-building with strength. Well done.
Excellent tips on making particle board drawers more sturdy.
Regards,
Bob
Thank you. I know how to fix these old chest drawers now. It'll keep me busy. Blessings.
I like it when you take crappy stuff and make it better
Nice fix for lightweight drawers!
I have a chest of drawers from Ikea. They can't hold anything heavy (computer cables, old manuals etc) as the flimsy bottom panel just falls out... So I'm planning to build new bottoms out of plywood, with a rabbet around the edges so they'll slot into the existing sides/front.
The piece you are fixing up in this video is almost identical to one I received today for free. Perfect vid for how I need to go about it too! Thanks!!
These are all steps I've taken with el cheapo office furniture at work and some similarly bad bedroom furniture at one of our facilities. Another step I'll take is to add some lumber to the underside of that completely inadequate bottom board, usually two or three strips running front to back. Paint stirrers work well.
Matt, you are near Genius again. Thank you so much and keep having fun and posting. Vital to WCS. (Working class stiffs)
2:20 that scared the shit outta me XD looked like you accidentally launched a nail at yourself
Nice improvement. I think ikea furniture would be even more popular if they supplied a small amount of glue and advised people how to do this. There cheap, rickety and wobbly reputation would be improved if it were just cheap
It would, but think of support costs. if 5% are idiots assemble it wrong, with glue, those will be bringing back useless junk. So that packet of glue would be VERY expensive to include.
Matthias Wandel
I think the 5% idiot estimate is probably very low :)
In Germany they ad Glue. But it is by far to little and not of the best quality. And here not only Ikea builds like that, but nearly every furniture is made in this way....even the semi expensive.
I like to put a nice thick bead of construction adhesive on the underside of drawers like these to help keep them square and from getting loose.
Good job! :D you are an amazing wood worker!
Great item! Would highly recommend!
With any kind of furniture you should glue those dowels in. Screws and eccentric plugs are just for clamping it together. This is where most people get it wrong and don't glue dowels into place and think that eccentric pkugs are those that hold everything together. Corners should be glued too, mittered or rabbeted, doesn't matter. But most people throw those tiny tubes of glue away not knowing what they are.
Nice! I might use this to fix my Ikea dresser!
fantastic work as usual
I have done the same with some junk furniture some of my renters left behind, it can make some good shop or storage room furniture.
That's what i do to the old walmart special furniture. It works great. Great tip.
newly subscribed and enjoying every video thus far, well done sir
Thanks, I am going to do it on one of my closet drawers. the sliders can barely hold it since it lost it shape.
You are a champion Matt!
i love MDF so practical , so cheap so durable. Only problem is that you need good saw blade to make clean cut without breaking the surface.
gary851 MDF is junk
this is not MDF.
I'm glad you did not get too precious with it by removing the handle and protecting the face surface... the whole "get in - get out - move on" aspect of this project is as instructive as the "where to shoot the glue" parts. If it were not shop furniture then I'm guessing you'd not have picked it up in the first place.Yay Matthias for avoiding mission creep!
Nice job! I often find I have to put flat pack furniture together more than once, first to check it all fits etc and then again when I have glue and re-enforced it. We got lucky with dining set that I just assembled per instructions and it's solid as a rock, really well made but a bedroom suit that was pre-built of solid wood is rickety and awful.
Great video Matthias, have you thought of making a adjustable holder for android tablet with bluetooth keyboard? I would love to see a project for that. Kind of like your PC/monitor holder. Thanks Sorin
I love what a little glue and a few nails can do to help make something a lot sturdier, i think il give the gluing part a go on my own draw set, il give the nails a miss though as i dont have an electric or air nailer and like hell im gona try and pin it all by hand, id just end up making things worse.
Brilliant video though buddy, i like seeing videos/projects like this where near enough anyone with a bit of common sence and a few basic items can do it aswell.
Nice Ikea Rehab.
Do you have any video or plan one about a whole wonly chest of drawers? I would appreciate it sooo much!
Same! My IKEA malm drawers are so wobbly 😭
Hopefully this will help me with my bookcase. 👍👍
Thank you! Still useful in 2021 😁
Outstanding.
THANK YOU!
Shop furniture, Mathias you are a treasure.
Allways, allways use glue when you put something like this together. You will never take it apart so you might as well try to make it as strong as it can be.
thank you for this other great video ;-)
i have one question, are you satisfied with your finish nailer?
i am looking to buy one, and dont know about which brand
mick szym Neither do I.
An easy solution to an age old flat pack situation.
Thank you Anthony.
Great find. I don't know where you go to find stuff like this, but I'd sure like to find out.
Which glue is best for this kinda compressed wood boards .
I have to fix my cupboard made with this cheap board .
Gute Idee! Danke.
Mines so cheap it has no hardware the drawer goes on like a puzzle piece, I also don't have a nail gun, wonder if it's even worth trying to rescue. Can a 8gal compressor run a nail gun?
Nailing towards yourself 😯
2:22 What happent there? Did a piece of wood hit you're shirt, or did the nail go throw it?
Is that an Ikea item ?
I really like metal filing cabinets for shop storage
What is the best glue
What kind of glue did you use?
Are you okay? It looked as though when the nail popped through the front that it went through your shirt and in your side, blood popping out and into your shirt. I hope you are okay.
It's not blood, it's part of the nail
It's the piece of board that got blown off
I think the rails inside the cabinet needs some amount of re-enforcing. You can see the drawer jiggle left-right as you push it in.
SIMPLE QUESTION.WHICH GLUE?
Props!
I think these principles could be used for just about all flat-pack furniture. For many people ease of disassembly probably isn't much of a concern - very often cheap furniture like this will be moved assembled if it is moved at all.
I think the manufacturers could maybe make it clear to people that if they don't mind it never coming apart them using some glue in certain places would make a big difference to the longevity of the piece.
The manufacturers don’t like longevity.
ikea what you did there
What is the glue you used?? Is it just wood glue or is there a special particle board glue?? What about using liquid nails would that work???
Are you sure you don't have to worry about wood movement? I agree that the melamine/particle board is considered stable, but I'm not sure the same is true for the mdf. It expands isotropically, but unlike plywood, it does expand quite a bit with humidity.
Awesome
I like these junk repair videos.
I do this same process for any furniture I buy that you need to assemble yourself. Why would anyone avoid glue?! Glue is great!
What kind of glue did you use to glue it
"ORGANIZED!"
Great resolve Mathias, but enough to stick. No more nails. ;-)
What glue are you using
Nice job! Don't tell Mattias but we are going to put some semi good stuff out and wait to toss a new over him:-0) Only kidding....good job
Those fasteners on the side always take half of the hole with them when I try to remove them...you have very good luck.
sometimes it helps a lot to turn the screws from the excenter to get better pressure
What is that on your shirt near the 2:20 mark, after you put in the first brad?
Edit: Nevermind. I guess I should finish watching the video before commenting. :s
2:22 wtf shot onto his shirt? at first i thought the nail went thru or something
EDIT: NM he sorta explained near the end, part of the board broke off
They say don't bang on your stuff with your hands. Use a mallet and save your body.
What nails did you use?
I never bought, but I guess particle board must be one of the cheapest types of board... it's awful in so many ways...
great vid, it didnt need the nails though!!!!!
Hi Matthias Wandel, could you build a professional drawing table? ... maybe it foldable.
我喜歡自己動手做家具
At 1:50 he forgot to put that fastener thing back in the hole, so he actually had to take it back apart, lol I've done it too
Actually, those round hook things can be put in the hole even if the other part is already in.
Oh nice, you got lucky.
I think these things can be left out anyway due to all these reinforcements
Matthias Wandel Where you put that furniture you pick? :D You seem to find a lot of furniture and you still find place to them.
2:22
Harder Better Faster Stronger
O er kill! I like it
Взял и фасад угондонил)
Why not just glue a ply bottom onto the underside of the drawer instead? That would achieve almost all of the stuff you used all that time on in one fell swoop. Plus the drawer bottom would be able to hold much more weight.
That's great if you have half of those tools!! Can you make a video for someone like me who just has a screwdriver and some screws please
Errr... I'm a bit negatively surprised given the overall high quality of the videos in this channel. If you want to stiffen up flat-pack furniture, just tighten the screws. If they're already maxed out, that means the wood has given a bit or the threads have been stripped so either plug the holes where the screws are with some putty/glue or get new screws respectively.
You cannot expect cheap flat pack furniture to be as strong as normal furniture so use it within its limits. I don't see the point in turning it into fixed-joint furniture as this deprives it of its only positive feature: ability to be easily disassembled. Then again, flat pack furniture is considered as throw-away furniture by most people which makes it a completely pointless, landfill filler to me. One might as well buy second hand and spend the time on fixing something that is worthwhile.
Could have glued fasteners aswell😂
Should never point the gun at any part of your body. The cheap mdf may have vacuous regions so that the nail passes straight into you.
2:21 What the heck was that red stuff that shot out of the other side o_O I thought you shot yourself!
=*Edit*= That'll teach me to comment before watching the entire video...
i thought the same thing and was about to comment but then i saw yours haha
Да уж, ящик один хер болтается. Расстояние межу каркасом и корпусом великовато, да и сами роликовые направляющие за 30 рублей изначально так себя ведут. В итоге: всё проклеил, пробил скобой, попортил дно, фасад и сделал неразборным.
А кто его будет разбирать? Даже в случае переезда, проще как есть погрузить в машину, а не разбирать. Т.к. если такое собирать больше одного раза - будет еще хуже.
Михаил Ярошевич я так понимаю что он пытался устранить боковой люфт
It's like the cheap drawers they put in mobile homes and double wides. just JUNK
Икея?
Скорей всего Гарлем
Always good videos, but if I could afford professional pneumatic tools & compressors, I might not use particle board furniture pulled from the garbage.
and that's why you can't afford the tools.
I know, six of one, $8,589 of the other
You can do the same with Brad set punch and a hammer. Also this will keep it from blowing out the other side as well. $5 amazon. I assume you have a hammer. :)
Oh man I was thinking dumb idea when you used that nail gun, but then at the end you said to be careful lol
Yep I just have a staple gun available 😂😂😂😂 and clamps dang
nigga you're just gonna rest some power tools in it, it doesn't have to withstand a hurricane.
Never glue the base! it needs float freely in its slots, the reason for this is to allow the base to flex with changes in humidity in your room. To make the base stronger,install a 15x30mm wooden strip on the underside of the draw from front to back, and use glue and pocket holes to install.
0:49 "Both the panel and the drawer are both made of particleboard and MDF I don't have to worry that much about wood movement"
He addressed that.
there is more than 1 way to do the job
When gluing togather dowel joint drawers use wood superglue dont just go for any kind of glue. You only need a few drops in each dowel hole then mate the joint firmly ensure the surfaces are sanded and clean before gluing can use clamps or weights for the joins.
Just buy another damn cheap like dresser every 6mos. Shit breaks no matter what you do
you are a awesome workman, but please stop using your hand as a hammer. the long term damage, taken from experience you will NOT LIKE.