Making a Rolling Storage Drawer for Under the Bed

It has been quite some time since my last blog. Over the previous 3 weekends, I have been making a storage drawer that rolls under the bed. This is a continuation of completing a bedroom set for a tiny bedroom. Storage is a premium in this small space. The closet is not big enough to store all clothing items, and there is a chest of drawers in the closet for clothes that cannot be hung. I want to get rid of the chest of drawers and add another hanging rod for more clothes. So this is the solution to aid in this dilemma.

The rolling storage drawer is 44 inches wide and 38 inches long and 10 inches deep, which is 9.5 cubic feet of storage. The carcass is 3/4 inch maple plywood with a 1/2 inch bottom. The front of the drawer, sliding door frames and trim are white oak. Sliding door panels are 1/2 inch maple plywood, and the handle is hard maple. This is a simple construction using butt joints connected with 6 mm dominoes. This can be done in many different manners to include pocket hole joints or even dovetails, through dovetails in plywood can be complicated due to excessive chip out.

The picture above shows the carcass in glue up. The open areas in the 4 corners are the location for the wheels. There are Dominoes in the bottom right corner which are being used to plug mortises that I routed by mistake. It can get somewhat confusing using the Festool Domino, especially when you have large objects. I made efforts to mark my locations and matching panels to avoid this, but I still made a mistake. I did this during a weeknight after work, so I am chalking this up to fatigue.

I kept the wheel wells simple and constructed this from 3/4 inch plywood. I chose to use one long strip on the inside bottom of the case to add strength to the carcass and supply the first cut out for the wheel well. Then I made 1 small well cut out to stack on top of the first.

Then I created a cover. I used 1/4 - 20 x 2 1/2 inch bolts for the axels with fender washers on each side of the wheel and under the bolt head. I tapped 1/4 - 20 threads into the inside well cover to secure the axel.

I have practiced threading wood for quite some time it simplifies processes and eliminates extra hardware like threaded inserts and threaded t-nuts. There are numerous how-to videos on YouTube covering this technique if you are interested. I like using thin CA glue to dowse the thread to add strength and durability. You will be amazed how strong and tight you can screw a bolt into wooden threads.

I covered the edge of the plywood with 1/8 inch white oak edge banding. I used the white oak cut-offs from the milling process. Made the strips on the band saw. The band saw doesn't leave the best surface for gluing. So a tip that I like to share is; keep one edge of the board you are using for the straight and square for use on the tablesaw. Set your band saw to cut 1/8 inch on the opposite edge. When you have cut that strip take your board back to the tables saw and move your fence over just enough to skim the rough saw marks left by the band saw. Then repeat after each strip cut. This will give you a clean, flat, and, smooth surface to glue on edge. Then use a hand plane to smooth the rough edge after the glue dries. Unless you have a drum sander that is the best and least labor-intensive method I know to DIY edge banding.

The most technical aspect of this build is the sliding doors. Though the doors are simple shaker style doors, the top and bottom edges needed a lip milled. The top door received a lip that was on center, but the bottom door needed an offset lip to allow both doors to slide past each other in the slide and leaving space that was about 1/32 inches. The slide was straight forward milling on the table saw and below you can watch a quick video of this on my Instagram feed.

Door Construction is a very straight forward shaker style. I used Dominoes to join the rails and stiles. The panel is 1/2 inch maple ply with a 1/4 inch rebate around the edges which set the panel back a 1/4 inch on the front and flush on the back of the door. I considered using traditional mortise and tenon construction, but I needed this and since I do most of my work on the weekends at nights I went with easy and quick.

You can see the off set lip on the bottom door on the very close up shot below. When you take a picture this close it sure looks like I have huge gaps.

If you want to see the process to creating the doors please check out my Instagram feed.

The final thing I did was make the handle and create the door pulls. I achieved this on the CNC router. Modeled in Fusion 360 and imported the G-Code into Easel. The handle is hard Maple and has a tenon that will fit in a mortise on the face of the drawer. Below is a quick video of the process.

I sanded to 220 and finished the interior with shellac and all exterior surfaces with Osmo Poly-X and Fiddes hard wax oil. I like a natural look and feel to my furniture, and hard wax oil gives wood a beautiful natural look and feel. I ran out of Osmo when finishing the doors and used the Fiddes for the rest. The Fiddes is like honey and dries rather quickly and can get tacky during the finishing process. Osmo has more open time but is relatively thin so it can puddle and run if you are not careful I use a white scrubbing pad to rub the oil deep into the pores. The best thing about hard wax oil is the Low VOC emission, so I don’t have to wear a mask. The biggest downside to hard wax oil is cost. It is costly with 1.5 liters costing over 200 dollars, but a lot goes a long way.

Like I said, in the beginning, this bedroom is small. With a queen size bed, there are approximately 22 inches on the right, left, and foot of the bed. The closet has a chest of drawers and a hanging rod, and that is all the room there is. I plan to make a smaller roll-out storage drawer on the other side of the bed and 2 bedside tables with 2 or 3 drawers a piece. I am trying to utilize all the real estate I can with furniture that can double as storage. Since the house, if from the ’40s, it doesn’t have a lot of storage space, and most of what I build this year will address these issues.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog. If you have any question please leave remarks below and I will be more than happy to answer them Please visit my Instagram feed to follow what I am doing in the shop my handle is @sergeantmaker.