First chuck box design, thoughts?

[JCDriller]

I'm currently designing my first Chuck box. I plan on building on for myself and it all goes well building one as a wedding gift for a family member. It's still in the design phase, any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

The box must fit in the back of my JKU which is already limited by my drawer, front runner water tank and Smitty Arctic/Indel B fridge.


I'm building it around the following items:

Coleman 2 burner duel fuel stove
Standard roll of paper towels
10x11" Bamboo Cutting board
10" Knife Magnet
GSI 4 Person nesting table set
Stansport Stainless cookset
Coleman 12 piece stainless flatware set
Standard spices such as McCormick's 4.25 and 5.75" tall.
3 bottles of wine or dry goods will also fit in the left door.

Final external nested dimensions will be 24.5" tall, 26" wide and 16.5" Deep. Once open and un-nested the prep surface is 33.5" tall which is the same as my tailgate table and 15.5" Deep, 50.5" long. I plan on building this out of a 1/2" birch box with all the internals at 3/8" for weight savings.

The design is shown with translucency to help convey the internal layout.

 

[Herbie]

What's your total square footage of 1/2" and 3/8" material? I ask because that looks like a lot of box, and it could be heavy. Your cad tool should be able to help you add it up and compare to the weight of a full sheet of each material.

If you don't need the internal pieces for joinery purposes, you might look into making them thinner, by quite a bit. I used tempered hardboard (masonite), just over 1/8" thick, for all of my internal dividers. I riveted these pieces to thin bits of aluminum angle, then used those angle pieces to attach to the sides and other dividers inside the box.

 

[MojaveKJ]

I love* people who can just design and build stuff.


*am very envious of

Both boxes look awesome.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JCDriller]

Herbie, You're right, i need to look into how to lighten it. However, If I keep the 3/8" (.023lbs per 1 in3) shell and swap everything else out to hardboard (.017lbs per 1 in3) I only save 4 lbs. The base and the shell just make up too much volume compared to the drawers and shelves.

Total volume is 2172.74 in3 the shell is 1445 in3.

I'm going to have to keep studying this. So far I've decide to remove the paper towels and add a detachable rod. Saves me some space and makes the left drawer bigger.

 

[JCDriller]

Wow Skygear that is really nice! I like the trash bag holders. I'm still working on the design, doesn't seem like I can really get it below 40lbs even using 1/4" ply and hard board instead of 1/2 and 3/8 ply. Weight savings is 10lbs, which is 20%, however I don't think it's worth the strength loss.

Pics of my redesign to follow

 

[achuto]

What i like about his design is he went and found the exact items he wanted. Put them in a pile and built it around it. So it is built with a specific intended purpose with everything he wanted in it. Then he accounted for very little extra storage room for incidentals or extra settings.

This is exactly how I built mine, figured out what I wanted in the box and made it accordingly. Problem I see that you have is the dimensions you have to work with, you're limited by smaller size with what you can fit in the box.

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I used 1/2" birch for all of mine, didn't need or care about the weight........wanted it strong. Paper towel bracket has only one screw solding it down so it swivels for access to the rear.

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Good luck with the build, if it's as detailed as your drawings are it's gonna be awesome!!

 

[crusaderJK]

take a peak at the http://campchamp.at for design ideas

That thing costs $5900 :yikes:

 

[dlh62c]

I'm currently designing my first Chuck box. I plan on building on for myself and it all goes well building one as a wedding gift for a family member. It's still in the design phase, any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

Your design looks good.

I've consider building one myself, but I keep going back to using Rubbermaid totes. Not all camping trips have perfect weather and the totes work for me under those situations.

 

[JCDriller]

Your design looks good.

I've consider building one myself, but I keep going back to using Rubbermaid totes. Not all camping trips have perfect weather and the totes work for me under those situations.

That's a good point on the weather, but it'll be under an awning or in the Jeep 99% of the time. I'll glue it together, seal it and paint it so the box will be fine, but the contents may get damp If left in a downpour.

I made some minor tweaks and I've reached out to a local CNC router company. I've never done anything using a CNC router, but it may be worth it especially if I end up doing a bunch of mouse holes to lighten it up. updated design photos to come...

 

[JCDriller]

After a trip to REI and deciding on higher quality components and actually measuring all items I've adjusted my build. Here is where I'm at now. Weight should be about 45lbs unloaded. I've ditched the drawers for nice containers I found at the container store and all the door shelves were sized for container store containers as well as McCormick's spices and condiments.

 

[kj4vyi]

did you ever make this and use the cnc company to make it ?? would like to see how it turned out

thanks
Chad

 

[JCDriller]

did you ever make this and use the cnc company to make it ?? would like to see how it turned out

thanks
Chad

I didn't, it got put on the back burner. I still want to make one,but I got tied up on other projects.