Needing Ideas To Make A Slide Out Work Surface/Shelf

[Spencer Was Here]

I made a heavy duty shelving unit out of Unistrut-type channel for my tool trailer.

I don't have the exact dimensions of it at the moment, but it is approximately 6' long by 30" deep by 6' high and has 3 shelves.

I store tools and equipment below it and on the lowest and highest shelves. I try to keep the middle shelf fairly empty, as it is one of the few surfaces in the trailer that I can use as a workbench.

If I can find a way to make that middle shelf a slide out work surface, it would increase its usefulness 10-fold.

I've searched for things like RV slide out generator trays, pickup truck bed slides, etc., but have found nothing that seems ideal yet.

I'd prefer the slide out mechanism to be able to lock in place and to be able to hold upwards of 500 pounds, but realistically 300 pounds would be more than sufficient.

I'll update this thread with a few photos once I get to the jobsite in a few hours.

 

[mogandave]

Slide out sounds like it may be a little more complex and costly than necessary.

Why not use a heavy duty piano hinge and a door that encloses the top shelf and folds down into a bench?

 

[jack stand]

I've bought drawer slides (on line) that extended about 3' and had a 300# capacity per slide. They may have been "around" $100 each but.... what cha gonna do?
Poke around online, I found them without much effort.

 

[beemerphile]

Using a lighter duty shelf slide and deploying a couple of collapsible front support legs when extended might be easier to imagineer.

 

[Spencer Was Here]

A couple of quick photos

 

[mogandave]

I'd prefer the slide out mechanism to be able to lock in place and to be able to hold upwards of 500 pounds, but realistically 300 pounds would be more than sufficient.

You just want to support the weight, or are you going to using it as a work-bench with pounding and whatnot?

Vice?

Six-feet is a pretty good span to support by the ends.

 

[jonshonda]

*In my garage* I built a fold up work bench with legs that folded into the bench. It's a little over 5" thick when folded up. Just uses 2x4's, ply top, and door hinges. I am 250lbs and have no issue with standing on it.

The clamp holding it up has been replaced by sliding bolt locks

 

[gahrajmahal]

If you do what you are proposing your shelves will fall over onto yourself. How do I know?



in the Gahraj I added an IKEA kitchen cabinet shelf kit under my Menards heavy duty welded shelf. It is full extension and the sides are the roller guides. It comes with a 3/8 particle board bottom. It just seemed like a good place to store my collection of fasteners and screws.

It was free standing for many years with no problem. My first grandson was on the way and I was helping his dad put new struts all around his car in the stall. Well my son fell back against the shelves while getting up and they slid 6” back. The heavy drawer opened up and the shelves decided to tip a bit before standing back. We both looked at each other thinking the same thing. My new grandson might climb up, the drawer would open up, and the whole thing would come down on him. AHHH!

I think what some of the GJ members are suggesting is to make a roll out table similar to my table saw storage to the right of my hardware drawer. On rare occasion I do use that as a bench, pulling it out and putting a piece of plywood on top and locking the wheels. Your version might have legs that do the same thing and the slides on top of the shelf so when you pull the “bench” out, any work on it could then retract back towards the shelf at the end of the day.

 

[HUSTLESTUFF]

Get a couple of pieces of unistrut and place them sideways and use some unistrut trolleys bolted under the shelf or weld them an angle iron frame with wood in it.