Repurposing a Truck Box as a Prep Table

I threw together a quick project over the past two weekends and a buddy asked me how I did it. I figured it would be better to write it up this way so others can emulate (and most likely improve) on my build.

I have a tonneau cover that I use on my truck and that means I don’t have space for a truck box up against the cab, but that left me with a truck box just sitting doing nothing. Normally, I’m ok with that, but the missus thought it would be great as storage for our grill stuff outside. This was an excellent idea, but I didn’t want to bend to the ground to access the contents, so that meant it needed a stand of some kind.

Before we get started, this is the final result. If you’re interested in the way I did this, then feel free to continue reading.

The rest of this assumes that you are working with a crossover style truck box (the ones with “ears” that go up and over the sides of the truck bed). I’m sure this process could be adapted to work with other styles, but I won’t cover those here.

Upper Frame

Let’s start with building the upper frame in which the truck box sits. Start by measuring the length and depth of the lower portion of your truck box. In my scenario, the dimensions were 17¼” in depth and 68” in length. For the time being, I didn’t care about the height.

Note: if you can flip your truck box upside down and put it on a reasonable working surface the initial assembly will be a easier.

Working from my 68″ length, I added 3¼” for the side supports and a little wiggle room. I included the wiggle room so that I can easily remove the box if necessary. My fit was incredibly tight, so should change my 3¼ to 3½”. Cut two of those. Those are the front and back of your upper frame.

For the depth, we’ll do the same thing, but without adding the 3″ for the dimensional lumber. I cut two pieces at 17½” (though you might want to go to 17¾”) and those were the sides.

Place the cut pieces around your truck box and validate that they fit. Assuming the fit is good, and you have the necessary wiggle room to remove the box as needed, we’re ready to move on. If the fit isn’t good, you can always trim down little bits as needed.

For the legs, I could have gone with pocket holes, but I decided that I wanted to try some simple joinery. I took the front and back pieces, marked the center, and then marked an equal length from each side for the legs. Using a chunk of 2”×4” I marked the size off those positions. You should end up with something like this. The distance from the ends doesn’t matter as long as it’s the same on each side and close enough to the ends for stability.

I built this using a lap joint. I’m not an expert on joinery, but I figured I could try it out here and if I failed, I’d figure something else out. I set my circular saw depth at ¾” and started cutting slits where each of the legs go. I’m making repeated cuts with my circular saw to create a dado. Before you move on to the next dado, check to see a scrap of 2”×4” fits snuggly. I overcut in a few places because I was rushing – avoid my mistake. When you are done the three cuts it should look something like this.

Repeat the same process for the board that goes along the back. You should use the board that’s complete as a template for where you are putting the cutouts.

Now the top frame cutting is complete. Assemble it using your truck box as a template, making sure that the non-cut sides are facing outwards. Drill pilot holes and loosely put in two long screws at each join on the end. Do not add glue. The goal is to tuck the joins behind the wood and make the front as seamless as possible.

Legs

For the legs, I went with a full lap joint at the top and a half-lap joint for the lower support/shelves. For the leg cuts, we are doing pretty much the same thing as with the upper box, except that our final profile should look like this. The total length of this board is up to you based on your height and your needs. I made mine about 37″ in total and the lower slot starts 3″ from where the leg will be on the ground.

The upper portion should be cut out so that it slots easily behind the cuts from the top frame and the lowers should snugly fit a 2”×4”. You’ll need to make six of these.

Assembly

Slide the upper frame off of the truck box and disassemble the front and back from the sides. Place the upper frame pieces on a flat surface with the flat side facing the ground. Set each leg in position. They should fit snugly without too much gapping. Pre-drill holes through the leg and into the frame in a rough square shape – do not go all the way through! Put some wood glue on the surfaces, clamp them tight, and run in 4 short screws for each leg.

In my garage, I was short on space, so I reassembled mine and left the glue to dry. The board on top the frame are not attached – this was just a convenient place to throw the scrap quickly.

Once the glue was dry, all I needed to do was measure out and cut the lower frame. I wanted mine just at the edge of my legs, so I measured the space from one leg to the other and added 3″ for joint. I made two the same size and attached them to the front and back using glue and the short screws. In retrospect, I should have drilled in from the “inside,” but I wasn’t thinking clearly. You should totally drill and screw from the inside to hide the screw heads.

Then I measured and added end boards and a center support board just for some rigidity. The end boards on the lower frame should be the same length so you can try and be as square as possible.

For the lower shelf you can use plywood or whatever scrap you have lying around. We recently junked an Ikea bed and it same with these slats to support the mattress. I kept them and have been using them for odds and ends projects.

For a cleaner finish, I used my router to put a quarter-round taper on the top of the upper frame. I used a different bit (can’t remember what it’s called) to do the same for the inside of the upper frame so that the box slides in and out easier.

There are things I would have done differently if I were doing this professionally – I would have hidden as many of the screws as possible or possibly changed the length of the legs to accommodate locking casters or made “sliders” for the wooden crates so they behaved more like drawers. All in all, I’m rather pleased since this is truly the first project like this I’ve done solo.

I’ll speak at you next time ramblers!