How to Make a Metal Drawer!

In this Instructable, I will be showing you how to make a metal drawer for whatever you need. Mine is a little different because it is all metal. I needed to put a drawer on my welding cart and thought what better thing to make as my first Instructable. So, that being said, I will now walk you through the building of a metal drawer!

For this project you will need the following:

• Clamps (I used vise grips to make it easier)
• Steel sheet
  • Mine was 12"x24", but yours can be as big or as small as you like
• Angle iron for mounts
• Flat bar to attach the sliders
• Tap and die set
  • I used an M8x32 for the machine screws
    • 5/32" drill bit
  • 1/4"x20 for the main bolts
    • 7/32" drill bit will do fine
• Drill
• Screw driver
• Box of screws
• Something to cut the sheet and angle iron
• Something to mount the drawer on!
  • Optional: welder and angle grinder
    • Instead of drilling and tapping holes, you could also use Tek Screws or self tapping screws!

From here on I'm going to leave the dimensions to you because they will most likely vary.

The first thing you want to do is cut out your four corners of the flat sheet.

Since I do not have a real metal brake and it is not a common tool, I made a makeshift one. Just take any metal or wood scrap laying around and clamp it to a workbench as shown.

• Then you'll need another scrap to clamp onto the edge to make folding easier.
• Fold your edge until it is roughly 90 degrees
  • Repeat for the other side

The other two sides could be a bit tricky.

• I found a smaller section of steel that was almost a perfect match for length.
• Again, attach with clamps or vise grips and bend

This step is also dependent if you have a welder or not. If you do not, simply replace the welded plugs with rivets

1. Find those scraps from the corners
2. Mark the center line for each
3. Bend them either using that same concept of the metal brake, or on a vise
4. Mark and drill 4 holes on each corner
5. As I said above, I welded the holes, you could easily rivet them
6. Then clean them up with the grinding wheel
7. Repeat for the other 3 sides

To make the slides and drawer easily mount underneath my welding cart I came up with a different design than most.

1. Mark and drill 3 holes for the slide to mount on the angle steel.
2. Tap these ( Or use self tapping screws )
3. Attach the slider with (3) m8 Machine screws

For the flat bar I have shown, I drilled and tapped the holes to lower my drawer to the correct height I needed. That step is optional. To do that, of course: mark, drill, tap, and secure.

Repeat all steps for the other slide

Do not make the same mistake I did... Make sure the slides are made for each side. Do not make two identical slides...

Next we are going to attach the box to the sliders.

1. Drill 4 holes on each side of the box for strength ( you really only need two but I wanted it to be stronger )
2. Secure with m8 machine screws

This could also be done with rivets if you did not use the flat bar to lower the height of the drawer.

To attach your drawer to whatever surface you'll need to drill four holes in the angle iron.

• Mark and drill four corner holes
• Transfer your mark to the mounting surface, this is one of the most important steps.
• Tap these holes with 1/4"x20 tap or use self tapping screws

This is the final step, attach your drawer to the surface and you are done!