Thread: Workshop Drawer Unit

Handles?

Graeme, I make everything out of 17mm ply, offcuts from work. With the 19/25 melamine, it'll be a heavy bugger. Sorry I cannot help more, but maybe shoot off a om to Journeyman Mick, he builds kitchens.

The 5mm in the drawer bottom seems a little thin for a workshop cabinet, some 12mm ply would be strong across 450mm.
What are you using for the sides of the draws, if your going to the detail of dovetailing you might as well use some nice hardwood.

I don't think you mean you are wanting to dovetail particle board do you? You might also want to look into 20mm and 25mm paulownia blockboard which is nice and light and good to work with. At 750mm wide I would use 15mm ply for the base or 12mm with a muntin.

Cheers
Michael

Here is a place to try for the full extension drawer slides.

Keep the ideas flowing, guys.

Sorry I don't work with you, Pat, and have access to your 17mm ply offcuts. Getting some 2400x450mm offcuts would take some planning. As I don't intend carrying the drawers around, I doubt that the weight will be an issue.

I have never made drawer units before so this is in part practice for a kitchen unit in the future. Hence dovetails in melamine/chipboard. As its intended to be utilitarian I had dismissed wooden drawer sides on cost basis. Will check prices before I buy anything.

Will look at paulonia blockboard, Michael. Have never used it. I don't like machining chipboard & MDF (especially) but cost is an issue, especially for a shed.

Harry, I suspected 5mm would be too light for the bottoms - hence the question. Thanks. Thicker bottoms will probably be advantageous if I later decide I need partitions. Perhaps 12mm bottoms on deeper drawers, 5mm on shallower ones.

A mate has just suggested that I standardise on 19mm melamine and rather than doing one unit 2400mm wide I do three identical units each 800mm wide. "Lots of reasons why the kitchen fabricators do it that way..." Is this good advice.

Any ideas on how deep I should make the drawers? Or the mix of deep and shallow drawers? This seems a key issue to optimise the storage space - any significant space above the highest thing in a drawer is waste space - perhaps better to put in a shallower drawer and an extra drawer.

Finally Switt, I was really after first hand experiences - good and bad - with full extension drawer slides rather than advertising hype. What experiences have you had with the slides.

Thanks for the advice so far. I am refining my ideas.

Cheers

Graeme

Graeme, I have these from Elraco, very simple to install, as long as you have the correct levels . Rated 45Kg, so will do for most items. They stay shut, so remember to do the drawer handles first . No photo's as I have to build the next two drawers then install them, that's what I am supposedly doing now, not playing on the net

Thanks, Pat, now stop playing on the web and go and install the drawers so you can give us a warts & all report as to how well they work.

Now, if you are not ingenious enough to stuff up their installation, then I may be able to manage.

Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Finally Switt, I was really after first hand experiences - good and bad - with full extension drawer slides rather than advertising hype. What experiences have you had with the slides.

Graeme

???

No advertising hype. I do not work for, nor am I in any way associated with this company, their owners, their children, pets, etc.

I was after some full extension slides a couple of years ago, did my research, and found they seemed the best buy. Have purchased some slides form them, which I have yet to use, but on opening them thought they certainly looked up to the job.

Yer welcome.

Sorry Switt, didn't intend to upset you or imply anything about you.

I was just stating the obvious - all commercial sites hype their products. Ever seen one that says "This product is crap..."?

Lets hope those drawer slides work for you, and keep us all informed as to their qualities, as you find them

Cheers

Graeme

Graeme, despite the best efforts of the F up Fairy, the blessed drawer slides work like a charm. Very easy to install, just had to subtract 26mm from the cabinet void to get the drawer width. I ended up using a screwdriver to install them as my drill had to much grunt for me to control it. I installed one drawer with the cabinet on my bench, then the other two in situ.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Sorry Switt, didn't intend to upset you or imply anything about you.

I was just stating the obvious - all commercial sites hype their products. Ever seen one that says "This product is crap..."?

Lets hope those drawer slides work for you, and keep us all informed as to their qualities, as you find them

Cheers

Graeme

That's OK, I was having a bit of a cr*ppy day at work and probably over reacted. Sorry about that.

If I'd taken an extra minute to add a few details in my 1st post, I'm sure it would have been clearer.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Sorry Switt, didn't intend to upset you or imply anything about you.

I was just stating the obvious - all commercial sites hype their products. Ever seen one that says "This product is crap..."?

Lets hope those drawer slides work for you, and keep us all informed as to their qualities, as you find them

Cheers

Graeme

Just the other day I had a sales person (actually, it might even have been the boss) say, "We really do not recommend that xxx. We sold one once, the customer wasn't happy, it needs work and strengthening."

Not in corporate advertising, but staff tend to spill the beans.

Have a look.....


HERE & HERE

Originally Posted by MajorPanic

Have a look.....


HERE & HERE

Thanks MajorPanic. Those cabinets look great and functional.

For cost reasons I had almost decided to go with melamine but will now get some more quotes to see if the better appearance is affordable. I have also decided to go with an all drawer unit - later I may add some cupboards on top of the drawers.

Now that you have been using your cabinets for four years how have you found them?

• my guess is that the wide drawer is well and truly full, and you would like more small compartments,
• would you like to have another deeper drawer,
• how have you found the drawer depths,
• would you like more drawers.

In essence, what would you do differently if you were starting from scratch, but with that four years experience.

I hope you do not mind me using your experience ti refine my design.

Cheers

Graeme