Finally started my extruded aluminum drawer system.

[daohaus]

I really love working with extruded aluminum. Bought all my stuff from tnutz.com, their prices are reasonable compared to 80/20 and delivery time frame isnt long (a little over a week). I used inside corner mounts for the middle uprights but thinking of changing that up and buying the drill jig so I can use Blank End Fastener instead. Any other suggestions for the middle upright?

Anyhow, have to order some 30" drawer slides as well as some plywood for the drawers and top. Definitely lighter than wood but this order right here cost me $400.

Need input if i should place down a 1/2” sub floor so this drawer can sit flat

Some more pieces came in the other day and so I installed the locking drawer sliders today. They were a bit tricky to line up the t-nuts in the channel but I figured out a way by installing one and sliding things around to have it line up. I was worried that the 1/4-20 button head bolts I was using would interfere with the sliding mechanism, but all was good and it cleared. I'll start on the drawers tomorrow and was thinking of using 1/4" melamine to cover the sides of the structure. But I'm realizing that I would have to do some partial dissembly of it in order to slide the paneling in.

Sliders final location not set yet.

Added these "T" shape corner bracket joint plate to make sure things are extra rigid. Started loctite-ing things

Started doing all the cuts for the drawers, had to put a pause on assembly because i don’t have the appropriate length brad nails to help secure the panels while the glue cures.

 

[Mike NXP]

Nice, looking good....I have my second row removed and the "air down gear up" SS1 sleeper platform installed. They used 80/20 as well. Earlier on just had these different style like slide in barrel connectors and they were solid....In recent years they switched over and I am currently running with these platic L shaped corner fasteners, prob same as what you are talking about?....Its super solid. I sleep two people on top of it and when not in sleep mode it has a dog + gear running around on it....I could get a few pics if you need.

 

[daohaus]

Nice, looking good....I have my second row removed and the "air down gear up" SS1 sleeper platform installed. They used 80/20 as well. Earlier on just had these different style like slide in barrel connectors and they were solid....In recent years they switched over and I am currently running with these platic L shaped corner fasteners, prob same as what you are talking about?....Its super solid. I sleep two people on top of it and when not in sleep mode it has a dog + gear running around on it....I could get a few pics if you need.

was thinking of corner/L brackets but didnt want to have it interfere w/ the drawer face

 

[RKRUGER]

Very nice. I really like the 80/20 form factor and the adult Legos sort of imaginative process… but it is spendy. To build my second row delete (60% side) the 6 sticks of 25mm 36” long was $155 delivered. Add in all of the other little brackets, braces and bits was another $125. Then another $50 for carpet. But it’s part of the DIY process.

Looks nice when it’s done

 

[hoser]

Just a thought but I think you might've been able to delete the three lower bars (below the bars with the slides) to save on some cost and weight. And then just add a couple of adjustable feet to support that remaining bar.

If you are like me and stuff the drawers to the max, the contents might get hung up on that horizontal bar above the drawer. I'd also consider adding an upside down "ramp" made of sheet metal so you can open the drawer without getting hung up.

 

[daohaus]

Very nice. I really like the 80/20 form factor and the adult Legos sort of imaginative process… but it is spendy. To build my second row delete (60% side) the 6 sticks of 25mm 36” long was $155 delivered. Add in all of the other little brackets, braces and bits was another $125. Then another $50 for carpet. But it’s part of the DIY process.

Looks nice when it’s done

View attachment 4130577

Oh i agree there’s a lot of ways to go about building this and the connecting hardware costs more than the extrusions lol

Just a thought but I think you might've been able to delete the three lower bars (below the bars with the slides) to save on some cost and weight. And then just add a couple of adjustable feet to support that remaining bar.

If you are like me and stuff the drawers to the max, the contents might get hung up on that horizontal bar above the drawer. I'd also consider adding an upside down "ramp" made of sheet metal so you can open the drawer without getting hung up.

Oh that’s actually a good idea about removing the bottom bar. I like the idea of the reverse ramp to keep things from getting hung up on the horizontal bar. Another build that i referenced here didn’t have any horizontal bars at all for the front. Definitely a lot of ways to skin a cat with this adult Lego

 

[Mike NXP]

Very nice. I really like the 80/20 form factor and the adult Legos sort of imaginative process… but it is spendy. To build my second row delete (60% side) the 6 sticks of 25mm 36” long was $155 delivered. Add in all of the other little brackets, braces and bits was another $125. Then another $50 for carpet. But it’s part of the DIY process.

Looks nice when it’s done

View attachment 4130577

Not bad at all, I think I paid over $1000 because Im not smart enough to build it on my own so you did good lol...

I like those little foot mount bracket things, what's the deal with those did you make em'?"

Currently, my legs drop down into the floor mat area and it takes up space for cargo

 

[LJE]

I call these my "Gear Down Air Up" drawers - more or less a straight up copy of the excellent (but not inexpensive) Air Down Gear Up drawers. I didn't really intend it to be such a close clone, but as I worked through my design process it turns out @suprarx7nut
and myself have a lot of similar thoughts, hahaha!

(notice how the side panels have inserts to keep the little wheel-wheel areas separate so you can stash stuff there without it interfering with opening/closing the drawers? Snazzy.)

Full-length (36") drawer slides in this baby! Just watch out if you open a fully loaded one on a incline...

I had originally intended to do a build thread on it, but I felt a little weird about that once it became so close to a fellow 'Mud-supporting vendors product, haha.

It's an extruded aluminum frame that's anchored to two 3/8ths aluminum bars that are bolted to the floor. The entire thing could come out by removing 4x bolts, but she's heavy. The drawers have slots for partitions (not really shown) and the drawers eventually got painted black with drawer fronts. I have fancy marine-grade HDPE to make the fronts out of, but haven't gotten around to that yet so it's just plywood faces (not shown).
All the connections to the phenolic-faced hex plywood and all the drawer connections are done via barbed T-nuts. Like the ADGU drawers, there's nothing that threads into wood here, it's all metal-to-metal. It's got flip-up wings on the sides and the double-hinged extensions to create a long platform over the middle row for sleeping.

I love this drawer system & its super handy (especially because when I wheel I take just about every tool needed to do anything on a 100 series - you can't buy friends, but you can bring tools to fix people's stuff on the trail and that's pretty much the same thing!) but it was a solid 40 hours of work to build and $1500 in material or so - and I definitely got some deals on stuff too!

 

[jaewastooshort]

...but it was a solid 40 hours of work to build and $1500 in material or so...

I have a horrible habit of wanting to do things myself with the excuse that "it'll save me money" and find out I'm over-invested in both time and money. XKCD nailed it with this:

...and yet, "DIY 'til I die" I guess it's the engineer's curse.

 

[daohaus]

I call these my "Gear Down Air Up" drawers - more or less a straight up copy of the excellent (but not inexpensive) Air Down Gear Up drawers. I didn't really intend it to be such a close clone, but as I worked through my design process it turns out @suprarx7nut
and myself have a lot of similar thoughts, hahaha!

View attachment 4131817
(notice how the side panels have inserts to keep the little wheel-wheel areas separate so you can stash stuff there without it interfering with opening/closing the drawers? Snazzy.)

View attachment 4131818View attachment 4131819
Full-length (36") drawer slides in this baby! Just watch out if you open a fully loaded one on a incline...

I had originally intended to do a build thread on it, but I felt a little weird about that once it became so close to a fellow 'Mud-supporting vendors product, haha.

It's an extruded aluminum frame that's anchored to two 3/8ths aluminum bars that are bolted to the floor. The entire thing could come out by removing 4x bolts, but she's heavy. The drawers have slots for partitions (not really shown) and the drawers eventually got painted black with drawer fronts. I have fancy marine-grade HDPE to make the fronts out of, but haven't gotten around to that yet so it's just plywood faces (not shown).
All the connections to the phenolic-faced hex plywood and all the drawer connections are done via barbed T-nuts. Like the ADGU drawers, there's nothing that threads into wood here, it's all metal-to-metal. It's got flip-up wings on the sides and the double-hinged extensions to create a long platform over the middle row for sleeping.

I love this drawer system & its super handy (especially because when I wheel I take just about every tool needed to do anything on a 100 series - you can't buy friends, but you can bring tools to fix people's stuff on the trail and that's pretty much the same thing!) but it was a solid 40 hours of work to build and $1500 in material or so - and I definitely got some deals on stuff too!

That's some stout drawer sliders there. Looks like a mix of 10 series and 1020 series extrustions. Nice and overbuilt! I'm trying to figure out right now how to mount it to the back of the truck. I'm afraid to look at what 3/8 aluminum bars cost nowadays so I may resort to wood instead.

 

[RKRUGER]

Not bad at all, I think I paid over $1000 because Im not smart enough to build it on my own so you did good lol...

I like those little foot mount bracket things, what's the deal with those did you make em'?"

Currently, my legs drop down into the floor mat area and it takes up space for cargo

Mike, I apologize I thought I responded. The feet are from Trail Tailor but I modified them.

 

[suprarx7nut]

I call these my "Gear Down Air Up" drawers - more or less a straight up copy of the excellent (but not inexpensive) Air Down Gear Up drawers. I didn't really intend it to be such a close clone, but as I worked through my design process it turns out @suprarx7nut
and myself have a lot of similar thoughts, hahaha!

View attachment 4131817
(notice how the side panels have inserts to keep the little wheel-wheel areas separate so you can stash stuff there without it interfering with opening/closing the drawers? Snazzy.)

View attachment 4131818View attachment 4131819
Full-length (36") drawer slides in this baby! Just watch out if you open a fully loaded one on a incline...

I had originally intended to do a build thread on it, but I felt a little weird about that once it became so close to a fellow 'Mud-supporting vendors product, haha.

It's an extruded aluminum frame that's anchored to two 3/8ths aluminum bars that are bolted to the floor. The entire thing could come out by removing 4x bolts, but she's heavy. The drawers have slots for partitions (not really shown) and the drawers eventually got painted black with drawer fronts. I have fancy marine-grade HDPE to make the fronts out of, but haven't gotten around to that yet so it's just plywood faces (not shown).
All the connections to the phenolic-faced hex plywood and all the drawer connections are done via barbed T-nuts. Like the ADGU drawers, there's nothing that threads into wood here, it's all metal-to-metal. It's got flip-up wings on the sides and the double-hinged extensions to create a long platform over the middle row for sleeping.

I love this drawer system & its super handy (especially because when I wheel I take just about every tool needed to do anything on a 100 series - you can't buy friends, but you can bring tools to fix people's stuff on the trail and that's pretty much the same thing!) but it was a solid 40 hours of work to build and $1500 in material or so - and I definitely got some deals on stuff too!

Well that certainly looks familiar, lol.

 

[Scotty UZJ100]

I have a horrible habit of wanting to do things myself with the excuse that "it'll save me money" and find out I'm over-invested in both time and money. XKCD nailed it with this:
View attachment 4132114
...and yet, "DIY 'til I die" I guess it's the engineer's curse.

I like to call that D-I-Why the f*** am I doing this

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

 

[LJE]

That's some stout drawer sliders there. Looks like a mix of 10 series and 1020 series extrustions. Nice and overbuilt! I'm trying to figure out right now how to mount it to the back of the truck. I'm afraid to look at what 3/8 aluminum bars cost nowadays so I may resort to wood instead.

This is all metric stuff that I got when the company 'OpenBuilds' was shutting down - it's 20x40mm. That's about as light as I would go, but it's super stable once all together - zero wobble. I wanna say the aluminum bar stock was... $150 or so from a local supplier? Something around that.

Well that certainly looks familiar, lol.

Hahah, undoubtedly. That's why I canned my planned step-by-step build thread - once these drawers (for my personal use only) ended up being so close to what you folks offer it just would have been weird and not cool for sure.

 

[Scotty UZJ100]

View attachment 4132969

It's the fuzz scatter!

 

[daohaus]

A little update as I mustered up some motivation to do some more work on these drawers.

I took @LJE design and used wood boards to give the frame something level to sit on. Had a long piece of aluminum angle that I cut down and tied it to frame and will bolt it to the wood planks using the T nuts and will get some turnbuckles to secure the whole assembly to the body. I took everything that was in the storage area and threw it into the drawers to see and with a bit of organization it'll be good. Once I'm done securing this to the body, I'll put the top deck on with either carpeting or that rubberized roll. Not sure how I want to finish it. Also will do the drawer face as well. I really like the look of bamboo boards we'll see how much they are.

Thinking about adding wings on the sides to finish it off and not have stuff fall to the side.

 

[daohaus]

Almost there. I installed turnbuckles secured them to the body. I slapped the roof and said this isn’t going anywhere. Now to mount the top and some wings for the sides

 

[Raymond525]

This is what I have planned for mine as well. I like the turnbuckle idea, but not certain about the wooden or aluminum cross members.

Have y'all found those to be significantly important to security and stability?

 

[mustardfj40]

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