Wood sliders are stuck - what to use? :(

[Catty1]

Several days ago I had a couple of friends stop by and I asked them to help me remove the leaf from my wooden table. It's not high-end, made in Vietnam, but it is nice.

That went well - but pushing the table into its new smaller shape ground to a halt.

The slider boards underneath are warped and areas are very tight. I tried removing a couple of the outer boards...some screws came out but they didn't budge.

I took the pedestal off the bottom...that didn't help either.

I can create some space in the tight areas, but what to put in? I thought of wax - all I have is some Mop 'n Glow. WD40 and 3-in-1 just soak in. There might be a type of silicone?

Advice is appreciated! I can't seem to phrase the question correctly for Google, so there that goes!

Thank you!

[robinh]

Just talked to my SO about this (he's a carpenter). He said to go buy "Johnson's Wax"; comes in a yellow can and it's a paste wax. It should work to make the two pieces of wood slide. .

[Catty1]

Thanks! I won't be able to buff it or anything as it has to go in a very tight area...I can poke it in with an old butter knife or something.

Away I go...

[Freedom]

I was going to say sand paper, and sand it so the wood slides smoothly. I suspect once the humidity goes down, it will revert to working well.

[Catty1]

Fixed!

Sandie, the spaces in between the sliders are so narrow at the tight spots that I wouldn't be able to sand them down. And taking them off - they are glued as well as having long screws, so dismantling is difficult. It hasn't been that humid here - I think the warp set in some time over the past 4 - 5 years since I have had this table with the leaf in.

I took a tip from robinh - I didn't see how I was going to get paste wax into the narrow openings either. I got my can of furniture polish.

I wedged the narrow areas open with bread-and-butter knives I don't use, and sprayed the polish gently along the openings. I would take one knife and work what polish I could into the crevices. Then I would do some chores, cook dinner, etc giving the stuff time to set. I did three different applications, including turning the table top right side up. I had removed the pedestal.

Finally, I stood the table on end and pushed down again. Nuthin'.

Then I got the idea to lift the table slightly and drop it on its end from a few inches up. Did this 5 times and it worked great! Put the pedestal back on and it's a happy little table!

I'll get a buddy to help with the warps later.

Thank you two so much for weighing in!

[robinh]

Glad to hear you found a solution.

[Willow Oak]

Hope you don't have any trouble pulling the two leaves apart now!

[Catty1]

Daniel, I will just have to stick with a small table! lol At least I can reach Cole's food dish and my piano much more easily!

I think the sliders can still be whittled a bit thinner - can't really plane them the way they are constructed.

[RICHARD]

A bar of paraffin wax will keep wooden drawers and zippers sliding, too.

An old candle will do in a pinch.

------------------------------

I love wood as a building material.

It's very forgiving and sometimes can be a real brainteaser to figure out.

This past week I finally fixed the wooden gate to the back yard.

We bring in the groceries thru that gate so I'd find myself, hands full walking into the gate that dragged on the concrete walkway.

I must have looked like a cartoon character running into it everytime, so I looked at it and pondered over the problem for a week.

I thought it was the hinges so I played with them and put new screws/bolts in....nothing.

When it rained, the wood on the post would swell up and the gate opened perfectly! So I looked at the post the gate hung on and saw that it was bowed. The next step? A fix.

I thought about exactly how to fix it and figured it out.

I wet the post for the better part of a day, when it straightened out I nailed two steel metal straps along the side of the post to keep it from bowing again.

It works like a champ. The only drawback?

All the brain cells I burnt out thinking about how to fix it!

[Catty1]

The trick here is that the sides of the boards that stick are about 2" high. When boards like this are stuck tightly there is very little room, if any, to apply a lot of these lubricants. A liquid would be great, but the wood would soak up much of it.

It's all good for now, anyway.

[Freedom]

Glad to read you have it the way you need it, Candace. Hooray for PT input!!!