Drawers

[RCW]

Hello all, i have made a "work bench" shown on the Kreg project videos. My question is what is the best way to add a drawer to this. it would run the whole length of the bench. In other words just  one big drawer. Thanks for the help on this.

[John Schaben]

Just how long, wide and deep of a drawer are you thinking of? Drawers, especially shop drawers, tend to get heavy. Large drawers tend to get HEAVY.

[RCW]

It would be the width of the table. Which is 48 inches. I would say the drawer would be about 44 inches. I was interested in how i would go about installing it. Do I use something like a two by four on either side of the table to attach the hardware? Then make the width of the drawer match whatever size that would be? Thanks for the help.

Just how long, wide and deep of a drawer are you thinking of? Drawers, especially shop drawers, tend to get heavy. Large drawers tend to get HEAVY.

[John Schaben]

Well, you're still missing a couple of dimensions.. how deep (up and down) and how long (front to back)

Just for discussion, 44 wide, 4 deep and 20 long is a pretty good size drawer, easily capable of holding 300# or more of stuff. You can buy slides rated for that  but I would be concerned more with the drawer construction itself. 44" is a long span, especially unsupported in the center somewhere. If I were doing something like that, I would probably run a couple of 2x4's, one across the front and one across the back below the drawers and then put 3 or 4 2x4's spaced to support the drawer between them and give the drawer something to slide on. Forget drawer slides altogether and just put some strips of UHMW down for the drawer to contact. JMHO

RCW said:

It would be the width of the table. Which is 48 inches. I would say the drawer would be about 44 inches. I was interested in how i would go about installing it. Do I use something like a two by four on either side of the table to attach the hardware? Then make the width of the drawer match whatever size that would be? Thanks for the help.

Just how long, wide and deep of a drawer are you thinking of? Drawers, especially shop drawers, tend to get heavy. Large drawers tend to get HEAVY.

[James Bross]

I put a drawer about that size in my workbench. You can see it in my pics under projects on my page. I did use 2x4s on the sides to attach the drawer slides. It has worked out great. No problems so far at all.

[RCW]

Hey James, could you give me the dimensions of your drawer and what kind of slides you used? What you did is what i am looking to do. Thanks again James.

James Bross said:

I put a drawer about that size in my workbench. You can see it in my pics under projects on my page. I did use 2x4s on the sides to attach the drawer slides. It has worked out great. No problems so far at all.

[James Bross]

Yea no problem.  The drawer is built out of 3/4 inch plywood.  The base is 45 3/4 x 24.  The front and back are 45 3/4 x 6 1/2.  The sides are 22 1/2 x 6 1/2.  The drawer slides were from Home depot.  They are the 24 inch  bottom drawer slides (the two piece bracket where one slides into the other).  They are supposed to be rated for 100lbs.  I didn't use the hardware that came with them, I used heavier screws with a beveled head.  They were cheap and I didn't know how well this drawer was going to work out.  They are the one thing I would change if I was going to do it again. I would probably spend a little more to get some better guides.  But so far they work perfect so i haven't worried about replacing them.  In the drawer itself I ended up making some dividers to hold certain clamps or drills and just laid down some of that non slip material.  Hope this helps.  

[RCW]

Yeah that is a big help thanks James. I will look into getting upgraded slides just in case. Another project, that's the cool thing.

[RCW]

Just about finished with the drawer. Came out pretty good. I'll update pictures soon.

[James Bross]

Awesome.  

[RCW]

Here's a couple of photos of the finished table with drawer.

[James Bross]

Man that looks good. Good job.  I love the drawer on mine.  Keeps everything handy, organized and close but out of the way.