Anarchist’s 2017 Gift Guide, Day 8: Drawer Tape

If you build traditional drawers without metal slides, then “drawer tape” is something you should probably become acquainted with.

Sometimes sold under the brand Nylo-Tape, this stuff is great for fixing drawers or any other sliding assembly that has become worn from use. My tool chest, for example, has three sliding tills that get moved a dozen times a day. After five years of this activity, the sides of the tills wore just enough so the tills would stick.

A single layer of drawer tape on the side of the tills fixed this problem.

You also can use drawer tape on new constructions. Once I made a chest of drawers where the drawer openings tapered slightly (and the taper was not in a direction that was helpful). A layer of drawer tape on the inside of the carcase in the problem area fixed everything. And you cannot see the stuff unless you pull out the drawers.

Nylo-Tape is made from a “low-friction polymer” that is “both self-adhesive and self-lubricating.” The stuff in my shop is about .015” thick once the tape’s backing has been removed. If that is too thick for the problem you need to solve, simply stick the tape down and plane the tape. It cuts nicely.

The tape comes in a variety of widths because some people use it on machine fences to reduce friction. I find that the 1/2”-wide stuff is the most useful.

— Christopher Schwarz

• To read past entries from this guide (and from former years), click here.