Ramathorn15's Drawer Build (1 Viewer)

[Ramathorn15]

Many of you may have seen my LX build thread. I'm now starting to work on a set of drawers/sleeping platform for it. It's a pretty big project, so I wanted to start a separate thread and document the process.

I only got to work on them for a couple hours tonight, but here's what I have so far:

The idea is that there will be two halves and the right one will be removable.

I plan on building the skeleton entirely out of steel (1" x 1" x .065 cold rolled square and some flat bar) and then using wood for the drawers, top, and drawer face surrounds.

I'm going to work all day tomorrow so hopefully I'll have more progress to share tomorrow evening.

 

[Ramathorn15]

Made a bit more progress on the frame.

You can see how the right half bolts to the left half. Don't mind the sloppy tacks. It will be much cleaner when I'm finished.

 

[nnnnnate]

Would you mind sharing your dimensions? After going out this last weekend again I'm started to get motivated to build myself a platform. I'm still undecided on drawers but I can really see the value of having two levels in the back.

 

[Ramathorn15]

Would you mind sharing your dimensions? After going out this last weekend again I'm started to get motivated to build myself a platform. I'm still undecided on drawers but I can really see the value of having two levels in the back.

I can get them to you this afternoon.

I think, off the top of my head, that the depth is 40", the width is 42" and the height is 12-1/4". The total height will likely be 13" because I will be adding a 3/4" piece of board on top of the steel.

You could probably get 42-1/2" or 42-3/4" width, but I wanted to keep it a bit smaller so its not totally smashed up against the base of the wheel wells.

 

[nnnnnate]

Any updates to these that you can share? I'm trying to decide whether to try and build something for my LX before Cruise Moab in a month.

 

[Ramathorn15]

I built the frame entirely then when it was time to glue the UHMW polyethylene to the tracks, I learned that there is no glue that will bond PE to metal

So I scrapped the first frame and started over. I'm pretty far into it, but don't want to share any photos yet. I decided to go with skateboard bearings instead of PE this time. It seems to be going well so far. I hope to have it nearly finished this coming weekend.

 

[REZARF]

Why not countersink and screw the HDPE to the steel? Or use 3M VHB (very high bond) tape, I've successfully bonded steel to HDPE with in this application.

 

[Ramathorn15]

When not countersink the HDPE to the steel?

Considered that but I bought and designed around 1/8th inch sheets of HDPE and from what I've read, it sounds like thin sheets tend to be hard to keep from moving even when bolted and the expansion and contraction from temp changes is enough to actually rip the sheet around the screw/bolt.

I also was planning on using 2 sheets for the bottom of each drawer, 2 sheets for the tops of each drawer, and 2 for the sides. That comes out to 12 sheets for 2 drawers at 40" lenght. So if I put a bolt per 4 inches, I would have needed 120 bolts.

With all that, I still wasn't totally sure I would be happy with how they slid. I decided that 100 skateboard bearings at 45$ on Amazon was the better route for strenght and smoothness.

 

[fireball]

The drawer set for my 100 series was the first one I built. I've since done a few more and can share a bit that I've learned along the way:

1. I built my set in two halves thinking I might remove and reinstall one side of the third row seats. I have never ever done that!
2. You can build a very nice fridge slide with the Acccuride slides for a good bit cheaper than the ARB slide. Integrating it into your drawer system is the way to go.
3. Why are you using steel and HPDE? It seems a heavy combo, and much harder to work with than all wood.
4. What you build above the drawers is almost as important as the drawers themselves. With all the gear neatly tucked into the drawers, you are then back to throwing stuff randomly on top for it to slide around, move around, rattle, be hard to access, etc.
5. You will love having a drawer setup!

 

[Ramathorn15]

The drawer set for my 100 series was the first one I built. I've since done a few more and can share a bit that I've learned along the way:

1. I built my set in two halves thinking I might remove and reinstall one side of the third row seats. I have never ever done that!
2. You can build a very nice fridge slide with the Acccuride slides for a good bit cheaper than the ARB slide. Integrating it into your drawer system is the way to go.
3. Why are you using steel and HPDE? It seems a heavy combo, and much harder to work with than all wood.
4. What you build above the drawers is almost as important as the drawers themselves. With all the gear neatly tucked into the drawers, you are then back to throwing stuff randomly on top for it to slide around, move around, rattle, be hard to access, etc.
5. You will love having a drawer setup!

Thanks for the info! I ditched the two halves idea to save weight and complication. Right now, my frame with the bearings weights less than 50 lbs so with drawers and the top wood, I suspect it will be less than 80 or maybe 90 pounds.

I plan to add tie down locations to the top of the drawers. I don't have a fridge yet, so I'm not designing with one in mind. I figure if I do decide to get one in the future, I would add the slides to the top of the drawers in order to not take away any drawer space. Thanks for the info on the slides!

I hope to be able to update this thread this weekend with some good looking functional drawers!

 

[REZARF]

Looking forward to what you come up with. I too have gone back and forth between Teflon, drawer slides and skate bearings... I'll follow with interest!

 

[Ramathorn15]

I think the main advantage to the teflon or UHMW PE is that there is still a decent bit of friction that will keep the drawers open if your on a decline. With the bearings, there will be such a low friction coefficient that the drawers will want to slam shut on the slightest declines.

The solution to this is a mechanical way of locking the drawers in the open position. I have an idea in my head but actually translating it to real life might be more difficult than I imagine.

Really, the simplest (but pricey) option is to buy heavy duty, locking drawer slides and build the entire thing from wood. All in all, I'll probably have more into my set up than it would have cost to buy the slides due to rebuilds and initial ideas not working, but I enjoy knowing that I created something unique and semi-pioneered an idea that someone else might be able to use.

That's assuming it all works how I plan

My next post might be a picture of a pile of square tubing heading to the trash on top of a pair of ARB drawers in the back of the LX.

 

[Get outside]

I know there are the super duper extra nice ones for a lot of coins but there are also options that won't cost your arm and do the job well!
Allegis Corporation

 

[Ramathorn15]

I know there are the super duper extra nice ones for a lot of coins but there are also options that won't cost your arm and do the job well!
Allegis Corporation

That is definitely the easiest route. You're looking at about 300 in 4- 36" slides. They are plenty strong and you can build the rest out of wood. I would honestly suggest that route if your not wanting to put serious time into building a set with other methods.

One disadvantage of slides though, is they get packed with sand and get super gritty and rough. @alia176 can vouche for that.

The idea behind the UHMW PE, and now the skateboard bearings is not only are they cheaper, they're easy to replace if need be. If I successfully make these using the sealed skateboard bearings, if they ever get gritty or loose their smoothness, I can easily order a whole new set for sub $50 and replace them in minutes.

 

[duggy]

Have you seen how ARB builds their slides? They use roller ball bearings too but they have a mechanical latch that catches when you get to the end of the slide. It's on the left side of the picture.

 

[Ramathorn15]

That's similar to what I'm thinking.

Its difficult getting all the bearings lined up perfectly! I think I'm almost there though./

 

[Ramathorn15]

So I've made a lot of progress. I've built roof racks, tubular chassis, done axle swaps, etc and this is probably at the top of the list for difficulty.

I think my inner perfectionist is struggling with this one because making sure 70+ ball bearings are all linned up perfectly and slide perfectly smooth was extremely challenging. There is absolutely no room for error unlike in most projects. A bearing being 1mm off can mess the whole thing up!

I still have some more work to do, but figured I'd share a picture:

 

[nnnnnate]

Wow! That is really slick. I've got a bunch of questions about how the bearings are installed but will wait until you get more stuff done and posted up. Good work.

 

[Ramathorn15]

Ask away. In finished with the slides. The rest is all drawer/cosmetics.

 

[Ramathorn15]