quick repair for worn old snap on friction sliders

[Glassdave]

Just thought I'd share my solution to the severely worn friction sliders on a vintage SO box i use in my shop. I did some searches but did not find much on finding replacement parts so i came up with a work-around.

I pulled the drawers with the bad sliders and drilled a small pilot hole in each spot weld and followed that with a quarter inch drill to knock the spot weld out. I own a body shop and have every spot weld drill on the planet but instead i actually wanted a quarter inch through hole.

After getting the slider freed up i simply flipped it over and clamped it back in its original location

Now because the original welds were not symmetrical in any way i have a nice hole to do a button hole weld from the inside on fresh new metal.

Since this is basically my beater shop box i was not terribly concerned with appearance plus you really cant see any of them anyway. you could easily grind/finish the weld. I dont think i eould try to weld the holes inside the stack though, to tough to get at.

With the drawer back in place it works as it should with the weight of the drawer on the top slide and any torquing when fully open is easily handled by whats left of the bottom slide. took about a half hour to do two slides

I dont post much but just thought if anyone needs a quick fix for one of these old boxes i'd put it out there. Thanks for all the great content on the site guys . . . . i'll still be lurking in the shadows lol

 

[Oldtuleguy]

That's a good solution. Thanks for the tip!

 

[lilredex]

Did you lose the stop doing that? The one that stops the drawer from full pull out on the floor?

 

[Glassdave]

Did you lose the stop doing that? The one that stops the drawer from full pull out on the floor?

Actually it just moves the stop back slightly as its not centered for some reason. It prevents the drawer from opening about an inch less then before but its tough to even notice.

I have been thinking about trying this since i got the box out of a storage unit across the street from my shop (see my other thread from couple years ago) I periodically searched the site here for some solution to a badly worn slider and could never find any. I came up with this and it seemed and like the best and easiest fix, been thinkin about it for a while and this afternoon i flat out got sick of those two drawers dropping when opened even though i put my least used stuff in them lol.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380727

 

[lilredex]

See what you mean. Pictured is a drawer from one of mine.

That part is not all that difficult to make. A length of steel stock with tapered edges forms an anvil and a strip can be bent up around it. That bump out could be raised with a punch from behind.

 

[Glassdave]

i have a thirty inch leaf brake that is capable of bending that deep, unfortunately that brake is at my car shop and the tool box is at my boat shop. Just got on a roll yesterday and wanted a quick fix after the umpteen millionth time i pulled that drawer out knowing full well it was going to drop lol. Surprisingly flipping the slide puts it right back to 100% functional and the missing/worn bottom section does not come into play at all

 

[bmwrd0]

Just got on a roll yesterday and wanted a quick fix after the umpteen millionth time i...

And that is the story of Garage Journal!

Awesome solution.