Modifying Harbor Freight Workbench for Full Drawer Access

[SkerryAmp]

Hey All,

 

So one thing that I managed to accomplish while being out of pocket and away from the shipyard for so long was to tackle a problem with my workbench that had always bugged me.

 

The bench I had picked up was this one from harbor freight

 

 

It is a great bench if you are not familiar with it and probably one of the best purchases I have made.  The trouble I had with it was the drawers.  They don't open up quite all the way.  This leaves a very shallow access to the drawer and with small tools or fiddly bits it was too easy for things to get hung up in the back.  My hands just didn't like trying to dig around back there so it limited my use of the drawers.

 

This is a pic of the drawer as it comes

 

 

However, after looking over the bench and consulting with my father who I had gotten the same bench for and had the same issue, he came up with an idea that was far to simple in it's concept we both couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before.

 

Replace the runners.

 

So we purchased some runners from amazon,  these runners to be precise

10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating

 

And when we replaced the stock runners with the above sliders...walla!!

 

 

We had full extension drawers.

 

They handle a nice load on the drawer, slide in and out quite smoothly and make the drawer 100% useful.  Now, there were some minor (very minor) modifications that had to be made to the drawers due to the depth difference of the runners, but a quick shave on the drawers and we were in business.

 

Here is a side by side for ya

 

 

 

Granted, not a huge discovery but I thought it neat enough and useful enough to share with ya all, maybe someone else can make use of it.

 

 

Enjoy!!

[thibaultron]

What did you have to trim?

[SkerryAmp]

Using the sliders I linked we found they were a hair wide, so we had to take down each drawer and modify the back front and bottom just a hair to bring the sides in a smidgen to make up for the width.

 

Other versions or brands of runners may be different of course.

[riverboat]

I've got that same bench and love it....one of my best purchases also.....good thinking on the drawers!!

 

frank

[Maury S]

I bought the same bench and left the lower drawers and the shelf off the assembly so my knees can fit under when I work.

Maury

[tasmanian]

i have the same  workbench and i am happy with it. also the price was great 

[Bob Nicora]

How are drawers removed once in place in the workbench?

[thibaultron]

I never installed them. I removed the slides from the leg pieces, before I installed them. The drawers and the center slide section are stored for possible use in the future.

[Todd Wallace]

I found this article by google searching as I was having a lot of problems with my drawers on my 2 Harbor Freight work benches.  The slides and tiny wood screws are definitely a problem from long term usage.  I ordered these exact drawer slides from the original post but unfortunately did not read it far enough to see the drawers needed modifications.  Installed the slides and had the exact problem as original post.  Instead of trimming each drawer, I used a Craftsman V20 Cordless Fixed Base Router and trimmed down the sides of the drawer a tiny bit on each side allowing the slides on the drawers to recess in just a bit.  Worked like a champ.  Definitely more work than I wanted to do but the end result was a much better drawer than slides all the way out.  I have 2 benches for my leather work so 8 drawers in total had to be modified.  I personally think routing down the sides was easier than cutting the drawers but thats just me.