How To Build Truck Bed Drawers // SUV Drawer // DIY

hey everybody my name is Chris and this is my shop partner and in this video I'm gonna be building a set of truck bed drawers now I built this same set over five years ago now it's in the back of my truck still works perfectly fine but I really wanted to make a nice quality video and instead of plans to share with you all you can find only two those plans which are on my website down in the description they'll let you build the drawers to fit any size truck bed you have or even SUVs and since it's November which means it's Men's Health Awareness Month I thought I'd have a little bit of fun support the whole Movember thing and rack a moustache for this video so if you want to see me shave my beard with the plane blade stick around to the end we have a lot of fun with that it's pretty crazy don't try that at home and a big THANK YOU to Lowe's for sponsoring this video let's get started with the building so I have a standard six and a half foot bed in my truck and I'm gonna make my drawers around six foot three inches to give me a little bit of room for the T handles that I'll put on at the end now I made a straight line guide for my circular saw and I'll clamp it down to the sheet of plywood on my line and I'll get a really nice straight cut that way now this is the bottom piece and I'm using half inch plywood for both the top and the bottom and if you plan on putting super heavy stuff on top you might want to go with the 3/4 inch piece next I'm gonna lay out and countersink screw holes for the frame I'll be using two by eights to make my frame but you can make the drawers taller by using two by ten or even two by twelve that's gonna be up to you and what you plan on keeping in the drawers as well as how much room you want on top of the cooler and I'm going to put a screw about every six inches then I'm going to cut my two by eights to make the frame a full four-foot piece we'll go all out on the back and then I'll just place my longer pieces in place to get my mark that way I use my speed square to give myself a nice square cut now you will see me use a variety of tools in this video and that's because I wanted to show to you that this can be made with pretty much whatever you have you don't necessarily need to have a table saw or am on your side to build these use whatever you have and feel most comfortable with there's always a way to get it done and then I just screw the frame in place now I'm gonna make the drawer bottoms I'm using quarter inch ply for these and I'll set the sheet on top of the frame to get my layout I'm gonna cut these about a quarter inch shorter than the frame because later on I'll add stop boxes to the back of the inside of those doors for the drawer width I measure the frame opening and then subtract half an inch that's going to give me a quarter inch gap on each side which is what we want and you'll see why a little bit later on now I'll use my table saw to rip some 1 by 8 pieces of pine down to 6 inches wide to make my drawer sides if you don't have a table saw you could just use your circular saw but I wanted to show some different methods using the drawer bottom as reference I'm mark and cut the long sides then I'll measure the inside distance and cut the front and back now a lot of plywood comes with a good and bad side and I wanted the good side which is also the smoother side down on these drawers as they'll be sliding on glides so I'll flip the drawer bottom over and countersink all the holes from the underside but before I attach the sides I'm gonna put down some carpet this stuff is really cheap indoor/outdoor carpet that works perfect for this and it keeps your stuff from banging all around so I rough cut the carpet to shape then spray some spray adhesive to keep it from moving around while I screw down the sides I also got a really good tip over in my Instagram page where a follower told me that I could just use short staples to hold the carpet in place and while we're on the topic of Instagram I have a link down in the description feel free to go check me out there and keep up to date with what I'm doing in between these project videos and if you end up liking this video and you haven't already please consider hitting that subscribe button and the bell icon so you get notified when I post new videos with the size attached it's really easy to trim the carpet now I want to strengthen the doors a little bit and I'm going to do this by taking a four by four and cutting it diagonally and then screwing that into the corners this will also add some extra material that I'll need for my locking mechanism that I'll make later on and again there are several different ways to get any process done then I like to take a sander and round over all the edges this will ensure the drawers slide in and out really nicely now to make the drawer glides I ordered a one foot by four foot sheet of 3/16 UHMW plastic to make the glides I cut the sheet into 1-inch strips that I'll use for the glides UHMW has very low friction is very wear resistant and it's self lubricant it's the perfect material for this application then I use a drill press to get the exact depth on some countersunk screw holes you can use a handheld drill here but since these are such thin strips it can be really easy to accidentally drill straight through them since the drawers we'll be writing on these you definitely need the screw heads to do below the surface I like 3/16 because it's thick enough that I could still get a small half-inch screw into but it's not too thick where I loose drawer space then help the drawer slide even better I add some wax to the underside of the drawer and then give them a little weight test with oats then I add a couple guides to the sides of the frame and the back of the drawers this is why I made the drawers a half inch narrower than the opening and then I'll add spacer blocks for the back of the drawers so that the drawers will push in flush now using the plywood cut-offs from the bottom I'm gonna make the drawer fronts I want these to be slightly shorter than the full height of the drawer so that they'll slide under the overhang that I create when I put the top on and also not too low that they catch on the tailgate when you extend them I line them up and hold them in place with clamps and then just screw them to the door next I'm gonna work on the locking mechanism now I just went down to my local truck topper shop and was able to buy T handles with matching keys to the T handles that are already on my topper then I just use this little extra part that it had to mark out the hole locations and then I'll drill those so these little t handles come with these little arms for locking your topper windows but they're not very strong so I'm gonna fabricate something just a little bit better I make these little marks every one inch to tell me where I want to bend then I'm going to drill a hole in the center and then out on each wing and you'll see why in a second then I'm gonna file the center hole square so that it fits over the square shank of that t-handle [Music] then I'm gonna cut off the arm of that little locking piece that comes with the t-handle and use it to secure that new fabricated piece in place now I want to attach some quarter-inch steel rod to that piece that I made so let it extend through the drawers and into the sides of the frame for a super strong method of locking now I'm going to put a 90 degree bend in one end drill a small hole through it and then add a cotter pin to secure it in place this is the exact thing that I did to my original set of drawers that I built nearly six years ago and I've never had a single problem with this mechanism next I lined up where I want the rod to come through the sides of the drawer to line up with the t-handle now first drill hold that's the next size up from quarter inch and go all the way through the drawer then from the inside of the drawer I'll drill a half-inch hole about halfway through the rod doesn't travel in a straight line in order to lock so you have to enlarge that inside to give it room to pivot as it extends it also requires a little bit of filing and bending of the rod to get it tuned up just right but once it is you'll never have to mess with it again and someone will have to take an ax to the drawers to get them open then I'll cut the rod flush with the side of the drawer when it's in the unlocked position okay so now I need to drill a hole in the frame that matches up with this rod and I'm gonna show you a little trick that my grandpa showed me but it involves some lipstick so how many people get some of that real quick [Music] so you take some lipstick put it on the surface that you want to transfer the mark bring this in shut the drawer and push it out and there you can see it made a really nice mark where I need to drill that hole now all I need to do is sneak that lipstick back my wife's drawer and everything will be good then I just add the cotter pins and the locking mechanism is all done then I'm gonna lay out and install a bunch of different drawer dividers based on what I plan on keeping in my drawers the way you layout your drawers is totally gonna be up to you I do recommend putting a board across the front to block items from interfering and jamming up that locking mechanism then I just at the top I'll cut the top about three-quarter inches longer than the frame to give it a nice overhang over the door and again I'm gonna add a screw about every six inches now the front edge of these drawers get a lot of abuse from stuff getting thrown in all the time so I'm going to add a small half inch aluminum angle to the front edge now I decided to route a small channel so little sit flush and I experimented using rivets to secure it and surprisingly they worked really well for the top I'm going to be using that rubberized coating called flex seal it's basically like tar and I'll give it a really durable waterproof coating I have also used patio and walkway paint before that worked really good and you can even go and get it coated with professional truck bed rhinoliner if you want then I add a couple of heavy duty handles because you really don't want to be pulling this thing out and pushing it in by the t-handle lock now I'm going to add a couple metal brackets to the sides so that I can add some extra pieces of painted plywood to give it a nice flush front once it's sitting in the bed of the truck the other nice thing is that now it gives me four nice little cubbies in front of and behind each wheel I don't understand why this is but the tailgate on my newer truck angles up higher than the bed it's not on the same plane so I have to add these half inch spacers to the bed so that the drawers have enough clearance to clear the tailgate my older truck didn't have this problem so you may or may not have to do this then to keep the drawers from sliding around I use four screws through the bottom of the drawer into the bed of the truck now make sure there aren't any wires where you're screwing and also use a screw that's just barely long enough to make it through and here you can see that the tailgate of the truck will actually support the way [Music] Oh then I mentioned don't do this at home oh my gosh all right

Channel: Third Coast Craftsman

Views: 2,619,722

Keywords: truck bed drawers, how to build truck bed drawers, truck drawers, truck bed, drawers, how to make, make, diy truck drawers, suv drawers, woodworking, woodwork, truck upgrade, vehicle drawers, camper van, truck camper, craftsman, hand made, do it yourself

Id: d-BWmPaBfjQ

Length: 16min 52sec (1012 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 06 2018