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I have a dresser drawer that is stuck closed without anything inside it blocking it. The inside of the drawer is empty, so I assume it is blocked on the rails somehow, but as far as I can tell I don't have any way to access them.

I've attached pictures I took of the drawer being pulled out and the drawers that are still working around it, and I found this youtube video of someone installing similar drawers and this question concerning similar drawers, but neither really helped in any meaningful way.

Is there some kind of tool I should get to free it up somehow? I've tried pulling back, and pushing up from the bottom and I never felt any give.

Drawer pulled open as far as I can pull it The inside of the drawer without the drawer Close-up of right side of the rail on the drawer

Aiden McMinimy
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  • Hello, and welcome to Home Improvement. From here, we probably won't be able to better than say "it's stuck, un-stick it." And, you should probably [take our tour](//diy.stackexchange.com/tour) so you'll know you'll know the details of contributing here. – Daniel Griscom May 31 '20 at 23:56
  • @DanielGriscom I'm not sure what you mean, after reading the tour I don't see anything that indicates this question doesn't fit the site, I know there have been stuck drawer questions on the site in the past, and one of the bullet points "Which tools, materials, and best practices for home improvement task." I am specifically asking if there is a tool I'm unaware of that I can use to un-stick the drawer. Is there some other information I should include? – Aiden McMinimy Jun 01 '20 at 00:39
  • Well, I don't have a good answer fo you based on your description; let's see if anyone else does. – Daniel Griscom Jun 01 '20 at 02:37
  • A “tool” will be specific to how it is stuck - so you have to work that out, then you can get, or most likely make, a tool to help. Btw I find metal coat hangers most useful... – Solar Mike Jun 01 '20 at 06:31
  • @DanielGriscom's suggestion to take the [tour] is his standard welcome to new posters, not an indication that there's anything wrong with your post in particular. That wasn't particularly clear. – FreeMan Jun 01 '20 at 15:16
  • Is it possible that there's something in the drawer below that's jamming the stuck one? If you remove the drawer below the stuck one, can you get your head and a flashlight in there to take a look at the slides to see why they're jammed? You might need to use a mirror to look at the slides if you can't get your head stuck in there far enough. – FreeMan Jun 01 '20 at 15:30
  • Sadly, this is probably going to require _you_ to do the fiddling as there is no generic "stuck drawer fixer tool" that I'm aware of. It could be anything from a loose screw or bent piece of slide to something that fell into the slide when the drawer was open then got jammed against one of the holes in the slides once it was closed. It doesn't even look like the drawer will open far enough for you to get a screwdriver onto the drawer's portion of the slide to pivot the slide and get it away from the rest of the slide to effect a "disassembly" type of removal. – FreeMan Jun 01 '20 at 15:32

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Do you see the screws that hold the slide attached to the drawer? One cause of stuck-drawer I've experienced is that those screws can back out far enough that the screw head engages with one of the many holes in the fixed track inside the cabinet.

A possible first step is to understand (figure out) what is mechanically holding the drawer stuck in this position. Several useful tools come to mind.

  • your fingers. It appears the space below the stuck drawer is open, and the drawer slide is on the lower edge of the drawer. Feel around all sides of the slide mechanism on both sides. Compare to the feeling of another, non-stuck drawer. Notice the protrusions, dimples, shapes, etc.
  • a probe instrument. This might be as simple as a thin piece of wire, a bit of paper or cardstock, etc. Maneuver it into the gap between the fixed and moving pieces of the drawer slide and move it along between the front roller and the drawer roller. Check the slide on each side of the drawer. Do you notice a difference between the two? A difference between these and a non-stuck drawer?
  • a visual tool. Maybe low-tech like a pocket mirror and a flashlight, maybe the front or rear camera of a smart phone, or even a borescope/endoscope camera (inexpensive, small, USB digital cameras can be found online at relatively low cost). Inspect the slides visually for any obstruction.

After you've understood how/why the drawer is stuck, or if you decide to proceed blindly, you might try techniques such as prying between the two pieces of the slide to un-bind them, or pushing/pulling harder on the drawer face in hopes of breaking whatever is holding it stuck.

Greg Hill
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Your problem seems to be is that moisture has gotten to the wood. When you figure out how to dry out the wood and get the draw out coat all the edges in candle wax. It does help to run a dehumidifier sometimes.

Barb Harris Ross
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