Thread: Big drawers, heavy contents

John, I use 17mm ply in some of the drawers in my workbenches, to hold Chucks, Sharpening gears and sundry heavier items. As long as the bottom is secured to the sides, front and back, it will suffice. Personally, if I was going that route again, 6mm ply with 12mm ribs, every 250 - 300mm, to save on weight.

what photographic equipment are you storing?

I've got a fairly extensive SLR kit and including the pelican case that holds it all is around 15kg which shouldn't be an issue in even the most flimsiest drawers. canned food on the other hand is a different matter... kind of half curious why these would be stored under the bed and not in the pantry? Midnight cravings?

But if you're really concerned i second what Pat says, if you glue/nail the bottom in, you'll be surprised how much weight it'll hold before it begins to sag. Also spread the load over the entire base eg don't try and put a 40kg medicine ball in the middle and expect it not to pop out.

16mm particle board is plenty; you could literally stand in the drawer holding all your gear and it still wouldn't break.

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

what photographic equipment are you storing?

I've got a fairly extensive SLR kit and including the pelican case that holds it all is around 15kg which shouldn't be an issue in even the most flimsiest drawers. canned food on the other hand is a different matter... kind of half curious why these would be stored under the bed and not in the pantry? Midnight cravings?

But if you're really concerned i second what Pat says, if you glue/nail the bottom in, you'll be surprised how much weight it'll hold before it begins to sag. Also spread the load over the entire base eg don't try and put a 40kg medicine ball in the middle and expect it not to pop out.

Thanks for this. All the SLR gear is Nikon pro stuff, much of it from the "solid metal" days. Add all the accessories (particularly a lot of Alpa "Macrostat" gear that makes up into camera stands, light stands, macro stands etc.) and the weight mounts up.

As for the tinned food: currently our "store cupboard" is an actual cupboard in the room where the bed will go. It's easy for things to get lost at the back of the shelves, so my idea is to have big strong drawers that open fully so everything is visible. The store cupboard will then become a linen cupboard. All this is part of a staged conversion of this room from dressing room (with storage) to study (with storage and bed).

Originally Posted by Pat

John, I use 17mm ply in some of the drawers in my workbenches, to hold Chucks, Sharpening gears and sundry heavier items. As long as the bottom is secured to the sides, front and back, it will suffice. Personally, if I was going that route again, 6mm ply with 12mm ribs, every 250 - 300mm, to save on weight.

That's a good idea. What would you make the ribs from?

Tinned food in a cupboard, you get to look at the labels.
Tinned food in a drawer, all I used to see were the blank ends/tops of the cans.
Laying them down, the drawers don't hold as much. Back up in the cupboard.

My GF bought a total new kitchen. Everything is skinned particle board. I'll guess about 17mm.
The cupboard above the fridge started sagging less than a month in. Bottles & jars.
If there was enough space, ribs of hard wood glued to the underside would help a lot.

Had a client as me to make several "camping boxes". He had one of those pop up tent trailer things. The back swung open and allowed you to access a cavernous area, but it was impossible to reach to the back.

I ended up making six giant MDF boxes with large fingers and a rebated base. The sides were 9mm and the bottom 12mm. Each was 1000x600 and 300 tall. They had rope handles (cool!)

So so pretty big.

He was going to store all the heavy pots and pans and accoutrement in there.

To make them easier to slide in and out, I added two hardwood runners to the underside. Just glued on. The runners were perhaps 15x10 and glued sideways to the grain to resist bending.

They have been used half to death on a thousand trips and have held up very well. Zero sag.

Straight grained, clear Hardwood, Spotted Gum, Black Butt Flooring, Jarrah. You could even make a lattice pattern with half lap joinery.