Ultimate DIY Camp Kitchen (Chuck Box)

hi i'm justin and today i'll be going over how i put together my own diy check box also known as a camp kitchen hope you enjoy like every build i started off by cutting my pieces down to dimension i used a bunch of scrap wood that i had laying around i didn't have to buy any lumber for this project which was really nice because it was just kind of a little side project what you see me working on here is one of the side panels i am doing dados to fit the shelves so that i don't have to use any screws or nails i can just slide the shelves together and make it a tight fit secured together with wood glue i don't currently have a dado stack you could use that i just do short passes and move it over eighth of an inch the fence so that i get the correct thickness of uh dado if you can't do it on a table saw you can also do it with a half inch router bit so that's what i'm doing here the overall dimensions of the box are 24 by 24 by 18. so it's pretty much a big square with a 18 inch depth with the doors put on i secured the interior of the boxes with pocket screws you can't see these from the outside and a little bit of wood glue keep it all together i am using half inch material all around to try to keep the weight down on the box and to do that with pocket screws i used one inch pocket screws but i set the depth of my kreg jig to 5 8 inch material so that the pocket screw wouldn't protrude all the way through the other side of the lumber this kept it right on the inside so it didn't poke out for the sides and the shelves i'm using half inch birch plywood unfinished so that i can stain it down the road and for the top and bottom pieces i did have some pre-finish half inch left over from my camper build that i used for that just to keep it a little bit nicer and a little bit more durable for the surfaces that i'm going to have the stove on and stuff like that it worked out really nice and the the color ended up matching the camper perfectly so i'm really happy with the end result with the half inch dados it does make a really strong tight fit and with a little bit of wood glue this box should be really secure once it's all put together get the measurements for all of my shelves what i did was i measured all of the camping gear that i currently use for my camp kitchen and i built it based on that so it perfectly fit my camp stove my coffee pots dishes and our all of our cooking gear that we have and take with us when we go camping i used my x-carve to do a little design for the front doors i found this image on google it's just a little drawing of like a campground with some mountains in the background trees and a tent i just thought it was cool and i wanted to add a little bit of flare to the front of the camp kitchen make it a little unique so i cut a piece that was perfectly sized to fit the front for both doors and then i had the x-carve cut that out and then to make the doors even i split it down the middle on the table saw so that the image was exactly the same and met up when the doors were closed to put the doors together i did just use those panels that you saw me just make and i did some sidewalls out of more half inch material and glued them all together and set them with a few uh pin nails to hold it together uh so i wouldn't have to fill those later they're real small 23 gauge so you don't really see them when the finish is all done i use piano hinges to hold the doors onto the body of the camp kitchen as well as for the table top surface on the top they can fold all the way up and it's a nice discreet hinge that's very strong installation of these hinges can be a little tricky but i had my wife's help to hold it in place while i screwed in the piano hinges on the body of the cabinet [Music] for the folding top i just made the same dimension as the top piece that i installed on the body of cabinet earlier and then cut that down the middle so that each side can fold out evenly and they are supported by the front doors of the box when they're opened up next was working on the legs so this will bring the cabinet up to 36 inches which is average counter height the legs are also made out of half inch plywood i took off quite a bit of material trying to reduce the weight of this cabinet as best i could but they are very strong once it's all together i had to do these cuts with the jigsaw so that i can get the the cool angles that you see here like with the doors i use glue and pin nails to hold it all together this is the the main legs i'm also going to be doing an interior frame that will act as the shelf that'll hold the whole cabinet up and that will be secured with pocket screws and that will really give the whole bottom piece its strength with glue and pocket screws all together i wanted this shelf to sit just above half an inch above the top of the leg so that the cabinet would have a good secure spot to rest and it would lock in place when it's set on top and to do this i propped the leg portion up with popsicle sticks they're about an eighth of an inch thick and then i put half inch material under the portion that i'm screwing in the the flat piece and that gave me about 3 8 of a pocket for the cabinet to sit in just enough for the doors to be able to open when it's in there and secure it's not going to slide off of the legs and for the finish on the cabinet i did use verithane early american stain this is the same stain that i use on the exterior of the camper i thought it would look nice if they matched uh then after that i used a triple thick water-based polyurethane on the exterior and the shelves of the box to keep it nice and safe it's not something that's going to sit out in the rain i will have a canopy over it when we go camping just for a little bit of protection and for easier cleanup i i covered it in the polyurethane to keep it from getting too much wear and tear and here you see the finished product once it was all done the legs slide over the top to keep the box locked together for travel and then for assembly and setup it does go pretty quick you just pop the legs down and then you set the cabinet on top uh it is pretty heavy so i would recommend using two people when it's fully loaded i tried to keep it as light as possible but i didn't make this for backpacking this is for car camping so you're not gonna be carrying it all over the place the setup goes up pretty easy all you have to do is unlock the cabinet open up those doors and flip out the top table something that i didn't show during the build process was me making this external utility shelf that can be used for spices cooking utensils while you're cooking as well as holding the lanterns up so that you have some light at night they're just made out of three-quarter inch pvc pipe that i painted black and they have a nice little utility shelf that floats right above the top of the camp stove i plan to use this for maybe like a paper towel holder to hold the utensils while you're cooking spices on the shelf while you're cooking maybe a beer who knows and to hold my lantern so that i have some light when cooking i think it'll be really nice but i'll let you know like i said i plan to make another video and give a full tour of what i have in my camp kitchen but i'd like to get out there and use it first so i will be going on a trip in a couple of weeks excited to use it and see if there's any changes i would make how it works out and i'll go over that with you in a different video feel free to leave any questions in the comments below if you like my video want to see more please subscribe like this video share it with your friends and i'll see you on the next one you

Channel: Justin Built

Views: 9,349

Rating: 4.9590445 out of 5

Keywords: camping kitchen, chuck box, camp kitchen, tent camping, camping, camp cooking, how to build, diy, kitchen hacks, camping hacks, camp kitchen setup, build kitchen, van build, camper, homemade camp kitchen, diy chuck box, camping setup, justin built

Id: 9XDjmrDHvdI

Length: 10min 24sec (624 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021