This Week's Project, Tool Cart

This is one of those projects where you may have to bend some 14 or 16 gauge sheet metal, but don't let that scare you away from a custom tool cart!

6 - 90 degree bends required so far,...

                                                                   This beefy 1/8 x 1" x 2" frame will feature 2 sturdy full length pull out tool drawers to keep your assortment of fixtures organized and easy to access.

Who among us hasn"t plotted out our bend lines and set out to pick up a hammer & commenced on our best attempt to beat that steel into submission?

Some call it the art of cold forming like the caveman, because the process tends to lend itself to brute force thinking, versus controlling the hammer with care to avoid stretching and distorting the surface.

Some have successfully scored the brake line with a wide concrete chisel, to focus the impact by pinching the steel to a weaker thickness, allowing it to fold along the intended fault line in the grain of the steel. My experience has been when you create micro cracks in folding the steel you greatly reduce its strength.

I am fortunate to have a heavy 3/4" X 24" X 48" table top from which could build a simple press to bend steel up to 14 gauge. I had been contemplating it for a while now. The picture shows the results. click to enlarge it and you can see there is still more radius than I wanted but then again this is a proto-type I threw together to get this job done over the week end.

I made the bending press by hinging a length of 3" X 3" angle iron over the edge of the table top. There's too much to describe tonight without a reference picture to go with that project story. I couldn't believe I pulled out the hold down bolts! I'll get a post up as soon as possible, it is an easy project for "make your own'ers" like us!