splitbrain.org

electronic brain surgery since 2001

Scrapwood Drawers

As I mentioned in other posts, the shelf solution I build in 2016 is part of my workshop and still holds a whole bunch of stuff besides also housing my drill press and band saw.

However I'm not so happy with the Trofast boxes anymore for several reasons:

  • They're not the most effective use of the available space
  • Their roundish shape makes it hard to create internal dividers
  • Their open nature is not very dust proof and adding lids to them makes them less usable
  • After the move, the dimensions of some of my shelf columns are a bit off and the boxes don't fit very well anymore

So I decided to start slowly replacing them with home made wooden drawers. Starting with the column that has the most fit problems.

The drawers are a very simple construction. 18mm boards for the sides, with a 12mm wide, 10mm deep grove cut on the router table. 6mm ply glued and brad nailed to the bottom. 4mm ply at the end, 6mm ply for the fronts again.

I built seven drawers using only “scraps” I still had available. The 6mm ply was probably the nicest material used - I only got it recently from the scrap bin at the hardware store for pretty cheap.

For the sides I still had some leftovers from the printer cupboard, but not enough. So I had to get creative and glue together some offcuts in the end. I used my cheapo lamello router (40 bucks at Lidl) for joining the boards. I also used my set of plug cutters for the first time to fill in some drill holes.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome. With some wax applied in the groves, the drawers slide very well on the wooden rails. And the tight, custom fit of every front makes the whole thing pretty dust proof.

The handles are my favorite 3D drawer pull knob design. They print quick and easy, have a good size and a M4 screw taps right into them. Doesn't get any easier than that.

Tags:
diy, woodworking, workshop
Similar posts: