Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Stuart Johnson
I would like to turn this drawer into a pull out step for reaching cabinets above the oven. It will need to be rebuilt but what type of slides can be used that will hold enough weight to allow standing?
Slides are rated at 250 or more pounds does that mean they would hold that any much weight? I've also thought about making some sort of drop down legs that can be swung down when opened. Any other ideas would be appreciated.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Mark Salomon
While the drawer hardware may theoretically bear this weight, keep in mind that there is nothing to keep the drawer from moving in our out when you stand on it thereby making it very very dangerous.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step *LINK*
Keith Newton
Another idea would be to forget about modifications to the drawer, and just buy a step that will fit inside it. There are a number of good small folding stool, like the one it this link.
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Strong-Folding-Step-Stool/dp/B01M1ANK5A
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
fred in ct
I have have this step stool and it's sturdy enough for my 206 lbs, get it with the 20% coupon for $8.
https://www.harborfreight.com/one-step-folding-stool-56185.html
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Yonak
Stuart, I think the most robust way to do it is that it must contact the floor. Maybe you could make the entire drawer slide on the floor or rails that would extend down from the bottom of the drawer.
Please understand I'm talking about remaking the entire drawer and housing not just trying to modify that one. The drawer could have a top that could slide into place when you want to step on it and then slide back out of the way when you want to get something out of the drawer. It wouldn't necessarily have to slide out on guides as long as it had a firm place to nest when closed.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Ralph Lipeles
I would use wooden cleats screwed to the sides of the cabinet. Next, reinforce the bottom of the drawer with a piece of 3/4" plywood. Lastly, extend the bottom of the drawer face so that it just touches the floor. Maybe you should also reinforce the bottom of the drawer sides so that your weight does not rip the drawer bottom off the sides.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
paul in AZ
Seems like an awful lot of engineering and construction for this.
Why not just build her a step stool that can be moved around where needed?
Little Stool
Stuart Johnson
I'm going to try the stool Keith linked above. It folds and is out of the way. The problem with building something that can be moved around is it will always be in the way when not in use. If the folding one doesn't do the trick I'll try to come up with something that will slide but rest on the floor when extended.
Thanks all for the input.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Walter Ahlgrim
My wife brought home this Ikea stool looked a little strange but I have grown to like them. I have stood on the top step 230 pounds it flexed a little. I fine the first step very firm.
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/maesterby-step-stool-brown-red-50402325/
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
AZ in Colorado Springs
Pull the drawer out (full extension slides) and you an 18" or 20" lever. Stand on the front part of the drawer/step, and how many door pounds of force is that? The drawer/step has to be very robust, and so does whatever it's mounted to -- the inside of the cabinet? That needs to be pretty beefy.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Jason Roehl in Lafayette, IN
Rather than some sort of full-extension slide, perhaps you want one that allows the front of the drawer to drop down and contact the floor when open, thus giving it good weight-bearing capacity, and helps prevent accidental closing whilst aboard.
Jason
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
Barry Irby
I tend to agree with Jason.
Trying to convert a drawer into a step looks like a neck breaker to me. To many failure points. Drawer slides out from under you, bottom fails in drawer, rip the sides out of the cabinet, and you get the picture.
Someone posted a picture of the Ikea stool above. Oddly, I watch a guy called Peter Millard on Youtube and the other day he built such a stool, copying it from Ikea.
I would consider installing a stool into the kick space. If you could cut it open you could put a folding stool under the bottom of the cabinet. OTOH I have reached the age that if I drop something I think about whether I need enough to warrant bending down to get it or just kick it out of the way and leave it.
Re: Turn A Drawer Into A Step
William Duffield
I would build a platform supported by spring loaded casters. The casters would only need to move about an eighth to a quarter of an inch (depending on how flat your floor is) for the frame of the cabinet to come to rest solidly on the floor when stepped on. The front of the platform would include the drawer front, bottom rail of the face frame and a section of the kick plate. The casters would only need to be strong enough to support the unloaded platform. Use the drawer slides only to control the direction of motion and the extended and retracted stop positions. Note that the platform would probably usually be extended by putting a toe under the face frame rail, and retracted by kicking the kick plate.
Re: Little Stool
Keith Newton
Glad to hear that Stuart. I didn't know anybody ever listened to me here. ;-)
I failed to mention above that I had actually made a drawer into a step years ago. I don't recall what I did for the underneath support, but it did have a shelf that rested on the sides and could slide all the way to the back out of the way, then out when needed, but I still didn't think this was a good idea.
But as luck would have it, I visited my sister today, after I had commented on how handy hers was, she bought me one. I think its a neat little stool that opens and folds quickly yet is sturdy.
Don't stand on a movable drawer
Tim Greif - West of Chicago
Standing on a movable object like a drawer on slides is an accident waiting to happen. Don't believe me? Try standing on a swiveling chair to reach something.
Re: Don't stand on a movable drawer
William Duffield
Why not? These things have been around since the Late Stone Age. Surely someone here is clever enough to devise an equivalent mechanism to make something that looks like a cabinet drawer stop sliding as soon as it is stepped on.