How to Remove Ball Bearing Drawer Slides

Some tool boxes, cabinet drawers and some table always come equipped with ball bearing slides drawers. These railing systems use the ball bearings to create a smooth opening and closing action for easy removal of the contents in the drawer. Unfortunately, due to prolong usage the oil can begin to dry out, and the drawer becomes more stressful to open. This may continue up to the point in which the drawer may longer slides.  To fix this problem, you only need a few tools, some procedures which I will outline in this article and your ball bearing drawer slides will work like new again.

The first thing you need to do is to open the drawer and remove all of the contents inside but in case your drawer is already stuck, this step may not be needed. You can open and close the drawer to determine if it is stuck and you can also use this to verify if it is the ball bearings or it was one of the objects inside that is preventing the drawer from opening and closing properly.

Pull the drawer out by lifting it up as you are pulling it. You may need to shake the drawer vigorously several times in other to remove it. In case the drawer remains unmoved, you can bring out a lubricant and begin to apply it around it's edges. You can make use of cotton buds or cotton to apply the lubricant. Apply the lubricant to the extent that you feel there is no more friction occurring between the drawer and the ball. The ability to slide decreases with increase in the friction and what you need for your drawer to move is to decrease the friction by adding lubricant.

There are some factors which may make your ball bearing drawer to become difficult to remove, this includes the age of the drawer; drawers become more difficult to remove after several years of usage, they tend to develop more friction.

Another factor that causes difficulty in removal of ball bearing drawer is the is the type of material in which it is made from; some wood imbibe water easily and when this occur, they tend to increase in size and this usually result in the blockage of the movement of the slide.

The third factor is the presence of a material blocking the slide, sometimes the slide may be block by nails or other materials and this use to make removal of the drawer very difficult, to verify this, you need to examine the rails on both the outside of the drawer and the recess for foreign objects. Should anything be obstructing the ball bearings from rolling freely, you can remove it by hand or with a pair of scissors.

If after trying all your efforts to remove this drawer and it is still stuck, you will need to make use of crowbar. To use crowbar to remove your ball bearing drawer; there is need for you to exercise great care as the crowbar can easily damage your ball bearing drawer. If you are not confident of your carefulness; I will advise you consult a furniture maker to get it done for you.