I have a Lane Danish Modern desk from the 1960s, that has a drawer I can’t get back in. I pulled it out and left it out for a month or so and now it seems to tall for the space.
Is there anyone that can advise me as to what I need to do to get it useful again
Thanks
There are two ways to go about this. Either using heat and/or moisture to change the dimensions of the wood, or cutting some wood off. I wouldn’t know how to go about the first one.
If it were a run of the mill desk, I’d have no problem taking a cabinet maker’s rasp to it until the drawer fit. BUT, since you have an original Lane item I would strongly recommend against any subtractive work. I am very jealous that you have a Lane desk and I don’t, by the way.
I don’t have your answer, but I just want to encourage you not to do anything rash until an experienced woodworker advises you.
Start with keeping the desk and drawer someplace dry. Usually issues like this originate from being stored in too high a humidity.
Does this mean it is back in place but drags/scrapes when opening/closing, or as in you can’t get it back into its space?
I can’t get it fit in the space, and I tried in high summer when it was hot and dry—no AC at my house. I think I took it out in the spring when it was raining a lot. The desk is in use, I have craft and art supplies and jewelry tools in it
It really needs to be in a climate controlled environment. Even though it’s hot out the humidity will still be high enough to get things to swell.
I am sort of stuck on that since my house isn’t. Without that, how do I fix it?
Could this be something as simple as a loose or broken drawer slide under the drawer?
Even though the outdoor humidity is high through the winter, indoor humidity usually goes down through the winter. It might do better in February. But there is a risk it might seize in place next summer.
I will check under it, and I don’t have any central heat, no heater near it.
Would putting an electric heater in front of the opening and running it some help any?
Heater may help but it would be energy consuming. How long have you had it?
Wood expanding and contracting is a product of local environmental changes - with the seasons come differences in humidity and temperature. Likewise if part of a piece of furniture is exposed to excessive sunlight, airflow, or any of a number of things, wood can expand and contract. I have little to no experience with your problem, but I would be weary of concentrating heat on a certain part of a piece of furniture as that could potentially exacerbate the problem.
Was the drawer (or the desk) independently exposed to some environmental change? Set in the sunlight or taken out of the sunlight, etc. I would want to understand what caused the change before attempting to fix it.
I have been hesitant to post this, as I have a knack for insulting people without meaning to. Please believe I have no intent to do that in this case.
Also, my experience with wooden furniture is limited, and I am no expert on any aspect of any of what I am about to say.
It seems to me wooden European-style furniture has been a part of human domiciles for thousands of years, [at least hundreds on the North American continent][1], and for the vast majority of that time “climate control” was limited to what you have in a home with no central HVAC. I do not think that removing a drawer “for month or so” would make it change significantly compared to its parent desk unless, as stated in other posts, it was subjected to something remarkably harsh (left on a shelf above a cooktop with boiling water, used to collect water from a leaky roof, left in a kiln or dry sauna, in a bright sunbeam, in the attic, etc.) In other words, if the’ve been in the same house the experience of the drawer and the desk should be fairly similar. I suspect changes in the desk or drawer are not the issue. This is where I get to sound like I’m trying to insult Cairren, and I assure you, I am not. Not only have I been here, and done this, but I like to think I’ve learned from the experience. We must be missing something about how the drawer fits into the desk. Usually drawers have some mechanism for ensuring they remain in the parent piece when opened fully, and sometimes it is tricky to get them in or out. I suspect “the trick” is the issue, whatever that may be. I have removed something more than once only to not remember how it goes back together. Altering something which worked when you disassembled, and then made no changes to, because it won’t go back together has always been the wrong thing to do in the situations I have experienced (not limited to furniture, but including). I have to think given the information we have at this point altering a desk that’s been around for 45+ years and worked until “now” seems like we must be missing something rather than it needs heated, cooled, soaked, dried, cut, etc. Pics might help us hazard further guesses…
EDIT: I just remembered another of my favorite debacles to repeatedly perform on the drawer front. Did you remove more than one drawer, and are they similarly sized? Might one have been replaced into the others space? Again, I ask from personal experience of mixing up the two top drawers on a 3 drawer desk…
[1]: http://www.latiqueantiques.com/index.php/magazine/article/120
There was one thing, a pan with liquid in it, ended up being placed in the open drawer slot and it was forgotten (I don’t think any one wants the details bur if involved my inability to swallow and trying to keep the dog from it–and was forgotten when I had to go to the ER).
It sat there for several days, but that was months ago, and I would have thought that it would have dried out in the summer heat–no AC here
jast, the last was my hubby’s thought, and they both fit fine,
If the area it goes in had swelled, they shouldn’t, The problem seems to be the drawer itself,
It was a bottom drawer and this desk has ‘liners’ under each drawer. I have a matching dresser, but can’t get to it, because of too much stuff in front of it