Marine Ply ok for Rear Drawers.

[Russell1974]

I have built 4 sets of drawers for mates all I used was 12mm mdf board cheap as chips to buy most places have these as cover sheets they are now 3 years old and are still as strong as the day I made them

[ilikedonuts_10]

Hi I was looking at building a set of drawers for my GQ to fit in a fridge as well, what material have you used for the fridge slide? is marine ply strong enough or have you had to reinforce it with metal?

[ilikedonuts_10]

Also what specifications have you built it to?

[bsax]

yeah marine ply is a little overkill if it's going inside the car.
just get the lower grade stuff and coat it with something to water proof it.
another way for the draws to slide easy is rubbing wax on the surfaces that the draws will come into contact with.
in this case it shouldn't matter how rough the timber you use is it just means you'll need to put on a little more wax.

as for ilikedonuts_10:
it depends on some factors as in, how thick you want the ply to be and how heavy the fridge is, and also how far out do you intend for the fridge to be able to slide out.
i have seen actual sliders that you can buy intended for car fridges.
or you can just make your own.
what you need to worry about is just the bending moment (rotational force) that's acting on the ply at the edge of where the drawer hangs out.
reinforcements are always helpful though but you may not need it when the ply is 19mm thick and you only want it to just slide out such that you can reach it with ease.

[MudRunnerTD]

Hey guys,

I am a cabinet Maker in a previous life and have made a couple of decent sets of drawers for the back of the 4B and 19mm Marine Ply would be fine if you were BUILDING A BOAT! or wanted to park your 4B on whatever you built!

The stuff is Really heavy and very very over kill for what we want. With regards to i t being water proof? it is going INSIDE the car! Give it a coat of paint when your finished and they will be fine.

I have used both ply and MDF and both work fine.

For strength i have used 12mm for the body of each the drawers to save a bit of weight and the base plate and 15mm board for the bottom of each drawer and the top lid of the whole unit.

15mm drawer bottoms gives you something to screw into as you should be fitting the drawer bottoms inside the drawer sides rather than just screwing them to the bottom of the drawers.

I lined them with carpet from Bunnings and painted the outside of each drawer black and they look great when open and closed.

I carry 30kg+ in each drawer regularly and over tough ground with No Problems ever.

As someone said earlier, Glue and Screw everything and they will NEVER let you down.

[AB]

Good advice MR, cheers!

[big_fletch]

Thanks for that MR, answered a lot of my questions Haha.. I will hopefully start a set of drawers soon, hope to have them done before vic meetup

[big_fletch]

Looking forward to seeing them Fletch. I love home made stuff.

ill make sure i do a good job then for you plassy haha

[szaf]

Hi When I purchased ply for repairs to my boat the marine ply was for the transom and for the floor I used a ply that was a lower grade of marine ply Marine ply has no voids and the lower grade does - even for your project the lower grade will be more than ample - I would stay away from MDF and weetbix boards no matter how well they are sealed unless you use fiberglass. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Finly Owner]

I say again cover sheets off ply wood packs at Bunnings, cheapest best buy.