Storage Drawers / Platform for my GMT800 Suburban - WIP

[rayra]

That's the dirty little secret of GSDs, isn't it, that they never stop shedding. Somehow his hair gets practically woven into the carpet backing on the 2nd row seats. It just laughs at my attempts to vacuum it. How thick would you say that stuff is? The one I pictured above was almost like a layer of latex then a layer of carpet fuzz were sprayed into a waffle mold and steamed. It felt like I could tear it with my bare hands. My GSD is a 125-lbs and we don't keep his nails trimmed well enough. And he's a big boisterous doofus. Our shepherd-husky mix is about 80-lbs and more of a lady. They both like to supervise me closely while I'm working about the place.

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Well today it's finishing the 2nd drawer fronts and latch install, then maybe a quick final fit check in the vehicle, as well as marking the bolt-down locations. Then take it back out and slop some paint on it so its drying when I go back out in quest for some fine hardwood and some other carpet options.

Total projected raw material costs are under $300 for this build. And most of it could all be done with a drill, jigsaw and circular saw. But I've got a lot more tools at hand than that, so I'm doing fancier things.

Oh and I figured out why the joint stagger seemed to be off. I'd realized that I needed to trim the power module box back in overall length, because it is double-faced. I needed the room for the final hardwood and top bullnose edging on the front end too, to still clear the 3rd row seat. And once those features are installed, the front edge of the power module hatch and tool hatch will line up.

 

[rayra]

Sometimes the tool mess starts to get in its own way and it's worthwhile to stop down and clean up a bit so it's easier to find things.

Even though I'm still working with mockup drawer faces, the work isn't wasted. I'll use them as templates later to just whip the proper cuts on the hardwood. And all the fitment for attaching them is work that needs done anyway.
To that end, drilling / counter-boring the inner drawer face, to screw into the back side of the 'hardwood'. The blue tape on the ruler is just a quick reference. I wanted the corner screws to be 1" in from the corners. The ruler is 1" wide, the tape close to that. So I just set the ruler and drill a little and move on to mark the other spots this way. Close enough, I say. Then go back and drill everything at once. Take care when doing this that your countersink bit is set short enough for the screws you are using and that the screws themselves are short enough that you aren't driving their tips out the face of the workpiece. In this case it's (2)x3/4" and I'm using 1-1/4" plated screws, set just proud of flush. I'll sink them flush when I final-mount the real hardwood.

Note the way I built the drawer box. the end faces are set within the floor and sides. This is done on purpose, chiefly so that the fasteners go in from the sides instead of the front, so they are positioned perpendicular to the greatest force acting on them - trying to pull out a heavily laden drawer by its face. And since I'm putting a hardwood front on the drawers, the otherwise ugly arrangement of the ends of the drawer parts is hidden from view. And by attaching this hardwood fascia from the inside, the outer face is cleaner. That's kind of wrecked in this case with the deliberately 'industrial' look of the paddle latches and their clunky screws.

As soon as I finish burping lunch I'm going to go set the pieces in the back of the Suburban for a fit check, some photographs, and marking some additional cuts I have to make on them.
They they are coming back out for some cutting and painting. I've already belt-sanded all the protruding edges and used a cork block for hand sanding and an orbital disc sander to make quick work out of rounding all the sharp edges and corners. I'm probably also going to take a hand trimmer (mini router) with a 1/8" radius bit and buzz the edges of all the skeltonizing cutouts.

 

[rayra]

So after finishing a bit of fitting work it was time to put things in place and see how it looks. First off was the 'power Module' with 3rd row seat installed. It fit pretty good and as intended overall. I ran into a bit of fitting trouble with the plastic threshold at the LIftgate opening. I've built the modules to overhand this plastic lip. But I measured the middle. The outermost few inches on both sides S-curve towards the front of the vehicle. So I had to butcher a corner of the bases on both sides.

It masks my subwoofer, but that doesn't bother me. It fits below the factory storage location. It clears the seat with the hatch fully open.

Then I took out the 3rd row and put the two drawer modules in too. Almost thought they weren't going to fit and they sort of don't. It's a wedge fit and I don't even have the carpet overlapping the 6 edges. I'd measured a couple times. thought it was 49" wide, it's that at the front and rear, but apparently not in the middle. It's binding enough there that things sit cockeyed a little. Something will have to be done about that. Guess I should have test-fit the bare modules before I continued the build. But more on that later.

Here's a view from up front, looking back at the 'breadbox' end of things -

Not very much space, think of it as two more gloveboxes, for the junk clogging up the glovebox and center console now.

And here it is from the rear, in all its multi-stain-color glory.

the 'cutting board' tray is also a short mockup. It will eventually be ~48" long. And might be one of those 'butcher block' laminates. Haven't decided.

Then I started trying a few things out. I have a wood box / carrier, sized to fit three MWCs / MFCs. It usually rides in the rear corner, bolted to the floor using one of the cargo tie-down locations. I detailed that build project here about 18mos ago -
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/135929-Jerry-Can-MWC-MFC-stowage-box-build

So I screwed that to the top of the right-hand drawer to see how things stacked up. With two cans laying on their spines, the overall height was nice enough, still able to see over them.

Then I tried a couple other things that were only idly sketched, I hadn't really check the dimensions beforehand but it worked out very nicely. I have a small 12v cooler / heater (peltier?) box, will fit a 6-pack of cans, or (4) pint water bottles laying down, if they aren't too tall. It usually sits right behind the center console, between the 2nd row footwells, where I can reach it from the driver seat. Turns out it will fit nicely in the empty floor forward of the Power Module. Good spot when driving with 4 people.

And then I noticed something else about the remaining space.

In fact I could fit two MWCs in that space if desired, and leave the box out. But would have to rig a setup to lash them down. Maybe an open box that fits that hole, which the cans would socket into and be locked into. Not a convenient spot to wrestle 50# cans out of, but it's possible.


The bummer is I'm probably going to saw off 1/2" from the side of the Power Module. Maybe more. Got to fix the 'wedge' fit and enable the carpeting overlap too. That's going to wreck the inner end frames of it, too.
Too, the addition of the bullnose edging pieces also wasn't factored into the width. The 'zero clearance' cabinet hinges ARE 'zero clearance' in this arrangement and the protruding height of the bullnose edging totally gets in the way.

Additional complications.

In going for the max usable length overall, I've crowded out my fire extinguisher install. I'll have to figure a new placement for it.

Same cause, I've also blocked half of the intake grill for the rear A/C. That just won't do. The intake area is just a bunch of tarted-up slots in the big plastic trim panel. It's not even a direct vent duct to the squirrel cage fan of the rear A/C. The slots just open on a void space where the A/C hardware squats. So I'm now looking at ways of extending the slots rearward to restore lost space. Or even going whole hog and opening that rear corner to a greater degree than it ever was and using a perforated mesh as a screen, similar to the door speaker mounts. I can make it look nice cosmetically, while restoring the airflow capacity I've blocked.

So that's where things stand now. Updates on this will be much slower now, as I complete the fiddly finishing work, the tedious RE-work, and get on with the component shopping and finding some carpet. I'll get things painted up in the near-term, too, and start turning some of the 'mockups' into reality.

More to come.

 

[rayra]

Not a lot done on the storage build today.

I went ahead and chopped a full inch off the face of the 'Power Module'. That should give me enough room for everything when the carpet and edge mouldings are in place. I just taped the lid down in place, set my table saw fence to 1" and ran the whole box thru, all four faces.
It took about 90ins to make up the replacement pieces and put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Here's a shot of the inside of the tool drawer module. You can see the various rails / shims I had to add. The bottom corners provide the clearance for the 3/4" thick pullout shelf / table. And also become the runners the drawer slides on. Which basically eliminates about 90% of the contact area / drag / friction.
The other half of the problems with this drawer came about when I added the full width hatch. My design idea was to have the drawers - or at least their rear ends - be full interior height, so as you extended the drawer further out that end would keep the drawer from tipping. A good starting idea but then I wrecked it by adding such a large full-spanning hatch. Suddenly there's nothing for the drawer to press up against and whoops there's all your junk on the ground. So I added some top rails and lowered the sides of the drawers a bit to match. Thereby trapping the drawer both above and below.
This was also compounded by the style of 'frameless zero clearance' cabinet hinges I chose to use. They also jut into the drawer's space. So the top rails had to be as tall / deep as the hinges.
And as you can see in the other photos, it works pretty well. For being a patch on a patch on a patch.

In that third picture above you can also see the correction I had to make on the fly while skeletonizing things, to accommodate the height of the hinges. I basically lowered that line in the hinge area another 1". You can see my hole saw almost didn't get the memo in time.

lastly, I put strips of 1/8" thick pressboard as runners / skids on the drawer bottoms. I built that 1/8" into the design. I may use nylon or teflon or even flat metal bar stock, later. I just put a very fine bit of glue and a few brads to keep the pressboard in place during use, it won't be much trouble to remove and replace it later. If ever.
This is the tool drawer bottom, the strips are 1" wide and roughly correspond to the spacer rails for the pull out table. The other drawer got 2"W strips, it's otherwise in full contact with the bottom of its module.

Probably going to paint the outsides of the modules and the insides of the drawers satin black tonight. And I've got some toolbox no-skid liner material for the drawer bottoms, to cut down on things sliding and thumping around.

A 9.25"W oak plank is about $7.10 a linear foot around here. Call it $36 to have hardwood fronts.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on the 'breadbox' portions, get them fitted and spaced for carpet, piano hinges, embed magnets as catches, maybe add some sort of drawer pull or flattish handle to them. And take a good look at that A.C. vent and figure out what I'm going to do about it.

 

[rayra]

That rear A/C is just a big bunch of clunky equipment, masked by the big trim panel. There's literally no ducting from the rear return slots to the cage fan of the AC unit. So I can add more 'breather' openings just about anywhere.
I could cut horizontal slots across the face of the panel, above the storage platform height. Or taka 3" hole saw to it and use something like soffet vent grates. There's all sorts of variety and styles of those. All I have to do is drill a hole and insert an insert.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=soffet+vent+grate&FORM=HDRSC2

 

[boll_rig]

Your thorough planning and prep is very apparent in your project, regardless of the small setbacks. Really, for such a precise project I'd expect more of them. I have to say I'm very impressed at the craftsmanship here Ray, its pretty incredible, but damn, why do I feel like I have to up my woodworking game now! Not that it could ever come close, but it definitely inspires me to get a little neater with my work, which is pretty limited as is. A lot of it has just been teaching myself as I didn't grow up doing it much, so threads like this help.

I have been noting small techniques you used here and there as I read through the thread for when/if I ever get to my lower platform/counter area. Love the design all around and love that it is fully removable. Any luck on the carpet? I went with that Home Depot in and out crap and its pretty thin/already wearing from canvas work...

My biggest problem for a storage platform is that I need it to go past the back of the second row, that is have either then 60/40 split folded down so that I can sleep down there when need be, meaning I need a flip up section, or removable, extended section that goes over the gap in the floor well and onto the folded second row. Are you planning on sleeping on this thing? And if so it fits for you?

 

[rayra]

Thanks very much for the praise, I've got to do better in the finishing phase to be worthy of it. Half of woodworking is hiding your mistakes, anyway.

Yes I am planning some sort of extension to make sleeping in it possible. My tentative idea is to borrow the design of one of our members that had a flat double-folding sort of flap that unfolds to complete the platform. I'm thinking of a filler panel that bridges most of the space of the 2nd row. I'm not sure how the 60/40 folds, but the 2nd row buckets / captain's seats have the bottom fold up and forward against the backs of the front seats and the backs fold down flat. The backs also have a thin board panel / 'drawbridge' that unfolds to bridge the 3rd row footwell gap and basically create a flat floor all the way to the front seat backs.
So I'm thinking a filler panel that has flat legs hinged on the leading and rearmost edges. The foremost legs / paddles would tuck between the stored 2nd row seat segments and the rearmost would sit inside the 'breadbox' ends of the storage platform.
I could probably find some sort of flat metal bracket in the furniture world that I could attach to the front face of the storage modules, with its mating half attached to the legs of the sleeping extension.
So it would be a flat-pack sort of thing, stored flat on top of the platfom, then just slid forward, hinged legs lowered and inserted


Here, just sketched this out base on the above. And I'm already thinking of revisions. A hinge up the middle from front to back, so it's two halves and another fold / unfold. So again it all stores flat and now just fits over the passenger side module, leaving the tool hatch unobstructed. I'll have to take some measurements to get a better feel for it.

I didn't get much else done on this project today. Been e-shopping power module related parts, I did a couple test fits again, final fit checks. The tool drawer has 5.5" high sides and about another 1.25" of clearance, call it 6.75" and that works fine for the bunch of 12"L tool bags I'll be using to organize the contents. And the other drawer has an inside height of about 7-5/8" which with non-skid drawer liner jusssst clears a standard ammo can

 

[boll_rig]

haha talk about squeaking by there with the ammo can. Nice fit!

Thats a good idea for the bed extender. Essentially the 60/40 seats are the exact same, minus the fold out "drawbridge" for me which are long broken off and gone. Ive replaced them with street signs acquired over the years from various living situation with friends, one saying "no jumping from bridge" which then have carpet over them.. I was thinking of just having a hinge or completely separate square platform that can move around to extend that bed. Pretty much like you have drawn here.

Keep up the good work over there!

 

[rayra]

Think about maybe making the filler platform dual use, with some screw in table legs. IKEA has those cheap. Better yet, just have two sets of legs, one set normal dining height, the other set cut down to support the platform in the vehicle for sleeping.


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Did more fitting and re-work and inleting for latch striker plates. I think I have everything ready for paint now. Just too damned hot though. 104F outside, 92F in the closed garage. Time to quit and go swimming. Maybe I'll paint tonight.


eta putting a bit of a radius on the joint of the breadbox hatches. And gapped them for carpet overlay. Trying to have less of a sharp edge for both looks and carpet longevity.

 

[rayra]

Definitely too damned hot out there, 106F. Braved it to do a proper fit check and measure off the penetrations for bolting it to the existing floor brackets, before the painting. The 1" off the 'Power Module' seems to be the right amount. And I took the belt sander to all the other edges / faces, like a trim router sort of thing, got rid of all the miniscule overhangs. So I figure I have enough room now with the carpet overlapping the edge.s

These pictures are after some rework. I cut it too close on the overall length as well as the width. The cargo deck in the sub has a small step in the front edge, before the drop-off to the 3rd row footwell area. That step is like a footing for the 'drawbridge' flat pieces on the back of the 2nd row seats that bridge that gap and make the cargo floor continuous from front to back. I cut it too close and it was literally a wedge fit - uncarpeted - against the front end of the modules. I resolved that by stripping off the 3/4" ply I'd fronted the modules with, stepping back to 1/2" instead.

That final length of the module base is 55-1/4", to fit close from the 2nd row seat 'drawbridges' to the inner edge of the plastic trim threshold of the cargo area, at the rear hatch. My drawer faces project a further 3/4 over that threshold and are still about 1-1/2" from the face of the hatch.


The combined weight of the three modules and two drawers, in the wood as pictured above, is 112-lbs. I don't think it will be over 125-lbs when it is completed. Not a bad weight penalty for the functionality being added.

NOW it's time to go swimming.

 

[jgaz]

Nice work! Also, nice design. Considering this is version 1 you have had very minor "engineering changes".

I'm in Phoenix and smile at your reference to making progress before it gets too hot. Its not that I can't work in the garage at 110'. But if given a choice, on a non critical project, I also choose swimming.

Any idea how much weight you saved with the cut outs?

I really like your multi purpose, roll around, table as well.

 

[rayra]

No more than 20 pounds. Call it 20% tops. I should have saved the pieces to weigh. I made the cutouts in the 1/2" ply of the floor and sides, the 3/4" deck is intact and most of the weight, anyway.


I went out and partially painted most of the pieces, late last night. Inside the drawers, outside the modules. Trying to decide if I want to paint the contact surfaces but don't think I want to. Tolerances are close and it will totally change the friction / gall things up. There's enough clearance to probably paint the sides of the drawers, they shouldn't rub much. The downside of a slide-less design, the slides would keep things from touching, at much greater expense, loss of volume, etc. My drawers are moving freely now. I might stack stuff up and load up the tool drawer just as a test, before moving on and painting some more. It's 94F in the garage and 108+ outside right now. Don't think I'm getting much done on it today.

eta the table, I've had a rolling work table for quite a while, 2x6 rails, 3/4" melamine-coated particle board surface, 4x4 legs, 8'Lx44"W and the same height as my table saw so they can both be used together. And my small router table is inset into the bigger table surface.
I recently rebuilt it, blending it with the portable workstation designs of Ron Paulk. He has a lot of stuff on YouTube, has done some very interesting things. He's a pro-carpenter / builder and does a lot with portable work trailers etc. I rebuilt my table using his portable box/truss structures then rebuilt my rolling chassis for the new depth to keep it the same height as my tablesaw. And have sawhorses so I can take the tabletop modules somewhere else to use. And when I rebuilt things I shortened them somewhat to make a better fit in the Suburban. And their widths will let me transport them on edge on top of this storage platform build. The table redesign done with that in mind. I do some handyman / home remodeling stuff on the side and wanted the portable workbench.
And for some time I've been re-working my garage layout to turn a quadrant into a more permanent woodworking area. But the table is used for all sorts of projects.

 

[jgaz]

I'm familiar with Ron Paulk's work. That's what your table reminded me of. Thanks for the info on the bench.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The 20 lb. savings is not bad when you factor in the fact that it looks cool and gives you a good way to grab hold of the modules to remove and install them.

In my experience of building wooden tool bench drawers I definitely would not paint the sliding surfaces. I put several coats of shellac on all surfaces of the drawers I built and that alone made a real difference in how they slid. Coated was much worse than just bare wood. I ended up adding a couple strips of slippery plastic to the sliding surfaces of each drawer and that worked well. I don't remember exactly what the material was but I got it from a Woodworking catalog. I can look for it if you want me to.
The hard board you added may be enough especially if you wax the sliding surface.

 

[rayra]

No significant progress today, just some shopping for drawer pulls and got a couple MDF planks glued and clamped up, for milling for my bullnose edge trim.
Painted again late last night. Not really happy with the results. Went with a satin black, doesn't really look good on the raw plywood, even after the 2nd coat. Probably should have used eggshell, specifically didn't want flat black. I might have a quart of eggshell finish in a very dark gray mixed up. Not sure.

The MDF will mill nicely enough and take a decent finish and look better than some cut-down wood. I'm enlarging the overlap over the carpet, as that lip will be the attachment to the modules. Large countersunk flush screws into the top deck of the modules. The front face of the curb above the hardwood will be smooth / unmarred by fasteners.
Laminated a couple '1x3' strips together, actual total dimension is 1.25" x 2.5" which is just about perfect. particularly the height. So I'll decide on the final width then chop it up and get busy routing and drilling and sawing, probably tomorrow morning.

And I got some black metal 'card catalog' type of pulls for the breadbox doors. I wanted something closed from above so my dogs don't snag their toes in open handles.

Tonight I moving the painted modules aside and reassembling their hatches and maybe fitting the new pulls on the breadbox hatches. Then setting up to chop up the MDF and mill it. So tomorrow morning it's an onslaught of power tool noise for my slugabed neighbors.
Part of the night work is to try and avoid the worst heat, but I'm also opening up the attached garage and getting it to cool down as much as possible.

 

[rayra]

A bunch of farting around and some barely acceptable painting. Really should have gone with an eggshell finish.

Got the drawers painted and cleaned up, added some non-slip toolbox drawer liner. Still have the stained plywood stand-in for the drawer fronts.

I went ahead and fitted the 'breadbox' doors, their piano hinges and closed 'card catalog' -style door pulls. The top deck and breadbox ends are still going to be carpeted, but I haven't found the right stuff yet and since I was painting the sides of the modules and the drawers anyway I just went ahead and painted the top of the deck too. wasted effort once the carpet is glued and stapled down, but until then it will look sort of finished.

Family photo.

Tuesday morning I chop and mill the MDF boards I glue-laminated together, to make the protective edge moulding. 6-7hrs I stick my fingers into some whirling steel blades of Death.

And I might go ahead and mount the whole mess in the vehicle tomorrow. The electrical additions are going to take a while and the hardwood work can be done with the stuff in the vehicle. I've already done the inletting for the latch striker plates, as well. Haven't attached them yet as they'll protrude from the module bodies and that's the face they are standing up on now.