In your list of benifets of wood over metal you mentioned that wood was quieter than metal. This is not the impression I have seen with any drawer system or any other product, (e.g. My camper which has zero wood in its construction.) Almost every drawer system I have seen with wood as a primary component in the drawers themselves has had issues with squeaking and fitment issues due to expanding and contracting wood. I've never seen any of the issues you mentioned with a metal drawer system. No noise, no cracking, no stress fractures, strength issues etc. Now perhaps you have solved all of the problems associated with a wood drawer in which I really applaud your craftsmanship, but I can't help but think a quality system will use both wood and metal in key areas for the best compromise on weight, strength and noise.
After two years of hard use my drawers are still absolutely silent. They are more than strong enough for anything I could possibly load in them and they are in like new condition.
Again, I'm not bashing anything you are doing, in fact I think some of your ideas are far and away better than those implemented by others. I just wonder how the system will hold up under hard use in tough weather conditions with dust, water and various gunk ingress over time.
When I am speaking of the noise level- I'm talking more about the noise of the cargo against the material, not the drawers themselves making noise. To me, if you are spending $1500 and up for a couple of drawers- they better be silent! No, I just mean that the wood is inherently quieter in terms of things banging/rattling against it. In fact, the only noise I get from my system is when carelessly packed items rattle against the metal cage. Yes, if you cover either with a sound deadener, they should both be pretty good. And for me personally, a bed liner product or similar is more desirable than carpet.
I don't know, of course, what wooden drawer systems you have seen, but I would imagine that most of them have been DIY systems, since there aren't many wood systems on the market. These systems may or may not have been built by an experienced woodworker. I have not invented any new methods for building wood drawers, but actually just use tried and true proper techniques. In my personal system, I used "solid" core high-layer count hardwood ply with the proper moisture content, dadoed, piloted, screwed and glued. The dadoes were sized properly- too tight and the glue joint becomes starved, too loose and the glue joint will be weak. Done properly the joint is stronger than the material itself. The wood is completely sealed on all sides. This makes expansion and contraction of the wood almost non-existent. I would happily pit it's durability against any drawer system out there. I think it would fair well. No nails are used- nails squeak and are for building houses, not drawer systems or any other quality furniture-type woodwork, imo. If techniques are used properly, and the natural tendencies of wood are taken into account, not fought or overlooked, wood is an exceptional material and has few equals when it comes to strength/weight, rigidity, and resistance to fatigue. Another example of this is the rocking chairs that I make. They are made of approximately 130 individual pieces of wood, none of them square. All joinery is finished by hand and not a single piece of metal is used in the chair. The back braces are thin, flexible, and are free to float. they are incredibly strong. They may take me 9 months to make (spare time) and cost $12,000 if you were to buy one, but they don't squeak- ever. I'll throw up a pic or two below- these are not mine, but very similar. Mine are on an external hard drive since I've changed computers recently. Ok, enough tangent!
I'm very happy to hear that your drawer system has been good for you. I have no problems with what's out there, I just know that for me the drawers that were available when I was looking weren't what I wanted. They were all limiting for me in some way. Having the background that I do I knew I could do better-for me. You are right, the perfect drawer system would use all materials where they are best used- wood, metal, donkey fur, whatever. I agree, but I think with my background I see the wood to have more capability than others may that have less experience with it or with correctly-made wood products. People just naturally think "it's made of STEEL!", so it must be strong. Your camper (absolutely awesome, btw) is a great example of a craftsman using metal who truly understands the material. If the metal is used in a way that minimizes any fatigue/work hardening by overbuilding, structural shapes, gusseting, etc., it will stand the test of time. But the cost of this is money and often weight. I would never build a trailer frame, for example, out of wood. It's not the right material. But I wouldn't build a racing kayak out of metal, either! Here's another example you may find humorous. I used to fly a 1952 Hiller (helicopter). It had wooden rotor blades. No, really, it did. They took some maintenance to ensure they had not warped, etc., but they were exceptionally strong, light, and fatigue resistant. If you've ever seen slow-mo video of a rotor blade you know the extreme flexing they are subject to. Fast forward. I'm flying a state of the art BH407. Each rotor blade is made of high-tech composite honeycomb core with a thin sheet (metal) skin. And they cost $70k. Each. And there are 4 of them. And guess what cracks? Yep, the sheet metal. And when it does- into the garbage can. The Hiller's blades you just give a little sand and finish and off you go!
Ok, enough rant. One more point- in my production system I don't have the luxury of using some of the construction methods mentioned above due to cost (man-hours), turn around time, and shipping logistics. So, I had to use other methods to ensure the reliability of the system. The wood will be CNC cut for accuracy/repeatability, covered on all sides of every piece with Line-X to reduce sound and moisture-related issues to nil, and fastened with connector bolts and cross dowels- a tried and true method which is incredibly strong. A nice by-product of this type of construction as opposed to a glued/permanent method is that, like your OS drawer system, each part is removable to access or modify the system, and repairable.
After all of this- I'm not at all opposed to the metal used in the drawers. I just want to have the best compromise that will do the job, and do it well! Maybe if I knew someone who could mold carbon fiber...
I've had both wood and now metal. Both were/are silent.
I would suspect construction methodology to be a big factor. In my wood based system I used lots of dado, glue and very high quality hardware. The Baltic birch is extremely stable material, lesser woods would suffer to a larger degree from heat and moisture.
FYI I have inspected 1407s current build and observed the highest level of care and craftsmanship.
Thanks, Rob. It was good to see you, and hear your cool exhaust!
