Storage Drawers / Platform for my GMT800 Suburban - WIP

[jgaz]

I reread this entire thread again today, thanks for rescuing it from photo bucket.
Concerning your paddle latches: I completely understand how you mounted the latch in both the hardwood drawer face and the plywood drawer front bulkhead. Do I understand correctly that your striker plates are mortised into the front, sacrificial, trim piece that is on the upper edge of your drawer platform? Were these striker plates a DIY item? Do you have a picture of what you used? If there is one in the thread I must have missed it.

Here’s my under construction pics of the drawer set up in my LJ.
BTW: You inspired me to skeletonize my outer drawer box. I do have before and after weight figures but they’re not in front of me as I write this.


The drawer box fits better than it looks in this pic. The glue squeeze out hadn’t been completely removed from the bottom edges when I took this pic and the drawer has since been trimmed slightly to allow the 1/8” pressboard slides to be added to the drawer bottom. I still have to add the front hardwood face to the drawer and mill the trim piece.
As I said, this is currently “under construction”

 

[rayra]

asnwered vi aPM already but for the rest of the readers - I just used standard residential door striker plates, as a matter of convenience, I had them laying around already. Some longer style 'security' strike plates would be sturdier. And even then, there's enough flex in the drawer box or deck surface for the lock to be defeated by prying things open with a screwdriver. Like most locks, they just keep honest people honest and won't stand up to determined thievery.
On the plus side, having a lockable drawer fulfills CA's legal requirements of a 'locked container' for transporting handguns in an SUV.

 

[rayra]

Just a bump / revisit. Some months ago I finally got around to making some 'J' bolts by prying open some eye bolts. I cut a slot in the floor of the passenger side's 'breadbox', aligned to cross over the horizontal bar in the floor which the 3rd row seat locks down into. Fish my 'J' bolt down into the slot, hook the horizontal bar, a couple fender washers to bridge the slot and spread the load and a nut to draw things tight, then cut most of the excess bolt end free. No more platform shifting about.

I'm In a couple months I'll be pulling everything back out again to add some wiring infrastructure for my rooftop solar, a constant hot rheostat switch by the cargo factory PowerPort, powered off my Aux power setup, which will allow me to turn on the vehicle's factory rear vent setup and circulate air when sleeping in the rear of the vehicle. I'm also re-wiring the other factory PowerPorts in the central console and my radio stack so they are all powered by my Aux battery. Which gets charged when the vehicle is running but also by the rooftop solar setup.

I still haven't found a better piece of hardwood for the rear face of the drawers. Been busy with too many other things and still making electrical mods to the Power box. But I'm about to enter a series of furniture building projects for myself and others and expect that I'll roll right into a fancier piece of hardwood late in this Summer.

I'm still on the first set of edge trim mouldings, they're getting beat up as expected. This was just today, picking up some 6x6 redwood posts for an outdoor grill counter project I'm kicking off this memorial weekend.

 

[dstock]

Great build thread! Thanks for taking the time to post it all.

 

[rayra]

You're welcome. I put it all up hopefully to spark other ideas or solve problems for other folks and maybe avoid some of my mistakes. I enjoy building all sorts of things, all sorts of materials and purposes, but I like working with wood the most. I've got about another week of fiddling around to finish up this grill counter -

 

[rayra]

Just a late 'payoff' on that grill build. I finished it Jun27, just in time for July 4th cookouts.

 

[Overlandtowater]

thanks rayra for this, I will read over it a few more times but this helps a bunch.