LAHD Drawer Slides

...Now what I am looking for are LONG ASS HEAVY DUTY drawer slides for the wing benches. I think 60 inch is a minimum, and 72 would be better. I've found a fair number of 60 inchers. The good news is every set I've found is rated for 500lbs. The bad news is every set I've found is relatively expensive. I may not do all the wings that way, but I hate to create dead space in the middle of all this investment either. I'd like to setup at least one 6foot wing with slide out drawers/trays for storing six foot stock. Long stock will probably still have be stored outside for now.

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The lowest "drawer" could be a separate bin or stock rack on casters.

That is a good idea. I have considered something along those lines. Also the upper drawers do not necessarily need to be full extension if I just want to be able to use the space. They can be half extension with a roller support or reversed drawer slide on the back half. The back portion could be open to one or both sides.

That is a good idea. I have considered something along those lines. Also the upper drawers do not necessarily need to be full extension if I just want to be able to use the space. They can be half extension with a roller support or reversed drawer slide on the back half. The back portion could be open to one or both sides.

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A drawer for small items may not need roller slides, just rails. I initially set up my shop bench on cut-down wooden bureaus for tool storage and haven't needed to change them, although they accumulated heavy loads of tools and pipe fittings.

I have both wooden and metal roller-slide machinists' tool chests. There isn't much difference, except that the rollers are more trouble to re-engage if pulled out too far.

The trade school where I'm taking evening adult-ed Auto Repair has magnificent tool cabinets. I'll try to remember to write down the brand.

I know how to fix the vehicles I have now but they are 20+ year old tech that could have to be replaced any time now. Thanks to road salt cars age quickly in New England. The spray from the tires and the car ahead gets into and corrodes everything. My BIL was an Audi mechanic and sufficiently familiar - and frustrated - with the new stuff that he also drives

I'm working (in stages) on a big work bench and storage unit to go the full length of the back wall of my shop. I originally planned a single monolithic steel top bench 56 feet long. I've since decided to make it semi modular because somebody will want to disassemble and sell it. Probably at the estate sale after I die.

I also asked my wife if she had any ideas about how to get more out of it. She made what is actually a fantastic suggestion. Put 6 or 8 foot long wing benches in every 8 feet. This allows me to my 8 foot modules with drawers one at a time, and in the long run will increase the bench top surface by nearly 1.5-1.8 times. Sure that's more surface are to suffer from HSD (horizontal surface disease), but it means its also more space to pile up things out of the way to make room for the current project.

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The trade school auto shop has 6-caster 6' x 2' Husky tool chests with wood tops, ~$1000 each. Although I'd choke on the price (which came from my taxes) they are very nice and strong enough to support the instructor's son sitting on a drawer.

Several of them were damaged in shipping. When I've taken the time to track such things down to the salvage dealer I've gotten very good deals on them, like a 60 gallon air compressor minus the pump for $75. The trick is knowing what I can or can't fix.

Trust me. I've looked at a lot of different "tool boxes" as bench drawers. They won't cut it. I own Old Craftsman, new Craftsman, Husky (Home Depot brand), Waterloo, and Harbor Freight boxes. I even have a great big stainless steel roll around box I bought at Max Club back in the day. My goal is to eliminate most of them saving only a couple bottom boxes or carts for tool carts for individual machines in the shop. The rest will make some cheap dumpster diver very happy when I list them on cragislist or market place... or YEESH! have a driveway sale. I also have several quite decent work benches. One I think will get moved outside under a shade for work I'd rather do outside, and the others will probably go upstairs above my office for stuff I projects I'd like to leave setup, but rarely use like reloading shotgun shells you can't buy anymore.

They even make big long steel benches with banks of drawers that will "almost" work. In my last house I had a laboratory bench in the garage that would have been great if my wife hadn't used it as a dumping ground for every little thing. The biggest problem with the lab bench is most of the drawers were pretty small. I like shallow drawers for some things, but they were also very narrow.

For the most part every main bench drawer will be "about" 44 inches wide outside dimension and 30 inches deep. Every bay will be built the same with six sets of slides. For deeper drawers I'll utilize more than one set of slides on the same drawer. This will allow me to make drawers for "almost" any application. Shallow drawers for hand tools, medium drawers for some power tools, and deeper drawers for bulky/heavy things.