Roller drawer help - WTF does this bit do?

[coxy321]

Hi all,

I'm finally getting my drawers organised for a few trips coming up this year. I have replaced all of the dodgy Sylon rollers with some 6300's, and fixed up 1-2 cracked welds too.

The drawers are not "branded", however they do appear to be manfactured as opposed to a backyard job. All folded and seam welded, all gal steel. The top was 12mm marine ply with marine carpet, much the same as most other drawers you see on the market.

At present, there is no drawer retaining system in place, ie. if you were to open a drawer with the car pointing up hill, they would just fly out completely. While i have thought of a few different ways of retaining the drawers, i thought that this might have something to do with it (items labelled "WTF?")



There is a 3mm plate on the butt of the box section (which the rollers run on), which also has two threaded holes in it. The actual drawer chassis also has two holes cut in it to allow access to these threaded holes.

Does anybody know what they're for?

Cheers!

[-Scott-]

Looks to me like they're some kind of eccentric device, arranged to allow the rear of the drawers to wedge on something, and stop rattling.

What's the material?

[coxy321]

The chassis is made of folded steel, maybe 1-2mm thick, and the chassis base is made of 20x75mm steel. The drawers are made of the same folded steel, with 20x75mm roller runners.

In the picture where the two circles are, the darker section you can see through the round holes is actually the butt of the 20x75mm roller runner on the drawer.

[-Scott-]

Sorry - they're holes? Then I'm wrong.

Can you post a 3D photo without the "enhancements"?

[coxy321]

I might get a photo of the drawer outside of the chassis - i thought that pic might have been confusing!

I'll post up some more tomorrow night.

Cheers!

[bogged]

maybe an overall pic of the unit too.
is that on the front/side/back?

[coxy321]

That pic is of the back end, and it would be the passenger's side if t was fitted in the car.

[grundomat]

looks like bump stops bolt on with bolts through the holes pictured.

[Cyrel]

On mine they had plates screwed onto the end of the runner to stop the draw from sliding all the way out. you unscrew these to remove the draw from the frame.

Cheers

[coxy321]

On mine they had plates screwed onto the end of the runner to stop the draw from sliding all the way out. you unscrew these to remove the draw from the frame.

Cheers

Bingo! We have a winner!

That makes perfect sense. I'll bolt some 3x25 flat bar on there using the threaded holes (the plate will be mounted from the base of the roller-runner, and extend about 50mm above the top edge of the roller-runner), and when i open the drawers, the flat bar will stop the end of the drawers going any further than the first upper roller bearing.

I could even go all-out and put some camping mattress foam on the plates so the drawers dont slam shut.

[Dane]

You may want to use something a bit heavier. When you load up drawers with heavy stuff they can get quite a bit of momentum up and the 3mm may bend. Use 6 or 10mm if it will fit and never think about it again.

[droopypete]

You may want to use something a bit heavier. When you load up drawers with heavy stuff they can get quite a bit of momentum up and the 3mm may bend. Use 6 or 10mm if it will fit and never think about it again.

no point using 10 or even 6mm if the flange is only 3mm, but I agree with Dane on the momentum, maybe use some angle instead of flat so it picks up a mount on the side as well as the front.
Peter.

[coxy321]

You may want to use something a bit heavier. When you load up drawers with heavy stuff they can get quite a bit of momentum up and the 3mm may bend. Use 6 or 10mm if it will fit and never think about it again.

no point using 10 or even 6mm if the flange is only 3mm, but I agree with Dane on the momentum, maybe use some angle instead of flat so it picks up a mount on the side as well as the front.
Peter.

I've got some spare 5mm sitting around, so i might use that. I reckon that if i ever happened to go past the limit of some 5mm plate, i'd have more to worry about than just the plate bending (i think the bearing/bolt would bend or tear out of the chassis). I suppose i'll have to check what has been welded onto the butt of the roller-runner and just match that thickness (as pete pointed out).

Cyrel, what brand are the drawers that you have? I'd be keen to find out if they're the same as mine, and what brand they are.

[droopypete]

post up a front on pick of them assembled, we should be able to work it out.
Peter.