Patent ID: 8636327

Claim:
A storage chest comprising: a frame comprising a base, a frame wall structure projecting upward from the base, a cover disposed atop the frame wall structure and an open face left between the base and the cover between sections of the frame wall structure; and a plurality of metal drawers carried on the frame between the base and the cover thereof, each drawer comprising a bottom drawer wall and a plurality of upright drawer walls projecting upward from the bottom drawer wall toward an opposing top end of the drawer and forming boundaries of a storage space area atop the bottom drawer wall; and each drawer having a pivotal connection to the base of the frame, by which the drawer is pivotable about an upright axis projecting upward from the base between a closed position, in which a front face of the drawer defined by a front drawer wall of the upright drawer walls aligns with the open face of the frame to situate the storage space area of the drawer behind the open face of the frame between sections of the frame wall structure, and an open position, in which the storage space of the drawer is situated at least partly in front of the open face of the frame outward from between the sections of the frame wall structure; wherein the pivotal connection of each drawer comprises an upright sleeve fixed to the drawer with a wall of the sleeve closing around an upright shaft that extends along a bore of the sleeve to define the upright axis about which the drawer is pivotable, the upright sleeve has a lubrication passage in the form of a hole extending radially into the bore through the wall of the sleeve to enable introduction of lubricant between the wall of the sleeve and the upright shaft received therein, a top end of the sleeve of each drawer is flush with a top end of the upright drawer walls of said drawer, and a bottom end of the sleeve of each drawer is flush with a bottom end of the front face of each drawer; and wherein the plurality of drawers includes a column of drawers disposed one over another to define at least one pair of vertically adjacent drawers that reside in the open face of the frame when each in the closed position, the sleeves of the column of drawers closing around the same shaft and a respective thin flat washer disposed around the shaft at a position between the sleeves of each pair of vertically adjacent drawers in said column to define an only spacer between said vertically adjacent drawers of each pair; wherein the front drawer wall of each drawer is defined by a member of channel-shaped vertical cross section having a vertically oriented center portion and horizontally oriented upper and lower portions projecting therefrom; wherein, for each drawer, the vertically oriented center portion of the channel-shaped vertical cross-section defines the front face of the drawer, and the horizontally oriented portions of the channel-shaped vertical cross-section define top and bottom flanges of the front wall.