Has anyone built a tool chest / roll cab?

[J.F]

Looking at building my own roll cab, my current ones are falling apart, Clarke ones which have split it the corners from to much flex. Ball bearing fallen out the runners etc. Total was about £800 about 7yrs ago.
Looking at them earlier thought to myself they are so flimsy from such thin steel and wouldn't resist any theif.
At the end of the day its a box wheels, I'm thinking building something that is extremely heavy duty A) to last forever & B) to actually provide a bit of protection against theft.
I'm thinking a skeleton frame built from 40mm x 20mm box section clad in 2.5mm possibly 3mm laser cut steel panels. Draws made from 2mm laser cut steel sheet.
Roll cab 2m long 0.6 wide with a 40mm solid oak work top all powder coated.
I reckon could be done for less than £1000, it would be a about 5 times the weight of any normal box, so just picking it up and dropping in the back a van would be issue 1 for any theif plus the fact it 3mn thick. But it would also last and still cost a fraction the cost of a snap on box.

Has anyone built there own roll cab?

 

[Parm]

Looking at building my own roll cab, my current ones are falling apart, Clarke ones which have split it the corners from to much flex. Ball bearing fallen out the runners etc. Total was about £800 about 7yrs ago.
Looking at them earlier thought to myself they are so flimsy from such thin steel and wouldn't resist any theif.
At the end of the day its a box wheels, I'm thinking building something that is extremely heavy duty A) to last forever & B) to actually provide a bit of protection against theft.
I'm thinking a skeleton frame built from 40mm x 20mm box section clad in 2.5mm possibly 3mm laser cut steel panels. Draws made from 2mm laser cut steel sheet.
Roll cab 2m long 0.6 wide with a 40mm solid oak work top all powder coated.
I reckon could be done for less than £1000, it would be a about 5 times the weight of any normal box, so just picking it up and dropping in the back a van would be issue 1 for any theif plus the fact it 3mn thick. But it would also last and still cost a fraction the cost of a snap on box.

Has anyone built there own roll cab?

This sounds very interesting

Please post pics when and if you build this

 

[cianh91]

Gonna build my own when iv a bit more free time .
We have built them for customers usually a specific job but we didn’t use box for the frame we laser cut and folded the shell then only used box internally for the runners to come in enough (hard explained ) . They do work out cheaper and stronger than a lot of bought ones . Just make sure you get decent castors and runners . Customer supplied runners for first one we made they fell apart after a few days

 

[ukracer]

Gonna build my own when iv a bit more free time .
We have built them for customers usually a specific job but we didn’t use box for the frame we laser cut and folded the shell then only used box internally for the runners to come in enough (hard explained ) . They do work out cheaper and stronger than a lot of bought ones . Just make sure you get decent castors and runners . Customer supplied runners for first one we made they fell apart after a few days

where do you get decent runners?

 

[winchman]

When I was an apprentice in the 80's one of the lads bought a big flash Snap on box, another lad measured it up and made an identical one from Ally, its not difficult and I am certain you could make a good one for less money

 

[sako243]

where do you get decent runners?

If you want massively specced ones then looking for 19" server rack ones would be worthwhile. I've got a bunch that were thrown in a skip at my previous job. The downside is they tend to be specific to each server because each manufacturer uses their own however the benefit is that they are often designed for tool-less server removal. So if you had your trays built to accommodate this then you can quickly with two hands remove a tray if you needed to.

In fact some manufacturers offer empty trays for server rack storage so you might be able to repurpose those into your own custom cabinet.

Edit:
Quite a lot of the rails that we had in the server room at my previous job were rated for >250kg often 500kg.

I did laugh when a friend who was running a project building something around 19" racks had an unforeseen expense on the project when they had to get a cleared structural engineer in to evaluate how strong the floor was. He whimsically one evening started working out how much the kit was going to weigh when they were going into production with these and between all the bits they'd have to store there was something like an additional 8t going into these two rooms what with all the safes to store it.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I'd be looking at adapting ammo boxes for an economy version

 

[hotponyshoes]

The snap on (or that type) of box with drawers work great.
Snap on either make the runners in house or use a decent brand. The other makes, you get what you pay for.
Decent runners are a load of money.

Personally, for that style of box I think you would be better off either buying a cheap one and beefing it up if required/making a tougher worktop/better wheels/etc.
Or buy a used snap-on/mac and have good resell value in it.

If you have a load of spare time and materials on your hands at the moment it would be a nice project though.
If I was making my own I would make something the same sort of size as the op but maybe only 1.5m long (2m is hard to manoeuvre with one person, 1m is easy, 1.5 is the limit)
Make a couple with some sort of connection system so they could be stored along the walls like a kitchen worktop but pulled out and joined togeather to give a nice big (either square or long or tee shape) work surface.

I would only fit a shallow drawer directly under the top (rulers, squares etc) under that I would have a couple of shelves and fill it with the modular euro containers so I could rearrange everything when ever I wanted and empty the dust/rubbish out of the boxes easily.
Unless it was a dedicated bench for one particular use it would be nice to have a load of containers with sets of tools on a rack somewhere and just slot the necessary ones into the bench when I had a project on.
Unless you have a smooth floor a pull-up handle at the end for pulling it about could also raise up some bars to lock the boxes in place but let you access them easily when stationary.

If you just want a one-off unit have a look at used catering equipment. If you buy a faulty fridge or oven it will be less than scrap value and the decent stuff is thick stainless. The one on the right in the photo below is 2mm thick stainless (although the back panel facing you in the photo is galv). That's about 1.5m, 2 really heavy duty drawers and 2 big doors.
Somethjng like that needs a bit of messing but I bet it would cost you £400 odd just for the sheet metal
Commercial kitchen tables would make a good starting point as well.
Main problem is trying to find matching units if you want more than one.

 

[earthman]

I'd love to see what you make too. Regarding the theft aspect, I once delivered parts to a guy working from a small unit in a rough area shall we say, he had built a box section steel 'cage' around his tool box against the wall.
Obviously there were a couple of padlocks and beams to remove before you could open the drawers etc but what a good idea I thought.

 

[armalites]

It’s easy to assume that weight will make it difficult to steal but if look at the specs of Snap On boxes a 54” is around 500kg empty. The fact it’s a one off will make more of a difference.

I fully understand the potential saving and it would be a cool project but the reality is from an investment point of view you'd be better to buy a secondhand Snap On box, this is not an argument as to whether they are better or not but they will always be worth something. A home made box will never hold value the same no matter how good it is. If you had put the £800 you spent on Clarke 7 years ago box into a secondhand Snap On you wouldn't be starting this post.

I thought about making one too, I built these two trolleys, they have 8” wheels so they can go on rough ground and they are built to accept euro crates. It would be easy to scale something like this to make a box

.

 

[mtt.tr]

Ive wanted for a longtime build one using ali box section round the top corner.

Soft close runners, but for the draw boxes use the small euro crates as i can then lift out the tray of socket or whatever that i need when im mobile also easy to replace if they get damaged

I would myself use ply polished for the fronts and and sides inset to the ali frame.

 

[arther dailey]

look forward to see how this works out , re runners buy best quality and double up on all but the thinnest draws.

 

[seriesonewelder]

Looking at building my own roll cab, my current ones are falling apart, Clarke ones which have split it the corners from to much flex. Ball bearing fallen out the runners etc. Total was about £800 about 7yrs ago.

Which range of the Clarke gear do you have?

 

[Wallace]

I rarely have to move my rollcab but if I had to on a regular basis I would ditch the castors and make a trolley to remove the flex.

Have you considered sealed ball races for runners on the drawers? It depends if you need the drawers to open fully or not as that’s where the runners score over ball races.

 

[stuvy]

3mm thick is gonna be some serious weight!

 

[colnerov]

Hi, Try filing cabinet and office drawer runners, I found and liberated some discarded metal drawer trays and runners at work for my heavy stuff.

Colin

 

[winchman]

I find the Bisley A4 draws are best at keeping things easy to find

 

[8ob]

Some of the ex service van Bott draws/shelves etc are good value for money. Made to be rattled about and sliding gear comes with latches on the fronts to stop them sliding out when on the move. Always on the bay of thieves.https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bott&_sacat=131090

Bob

Nice

 

[stuvy]

Some of the ex service van Bott draws/shelves etc are good value for money. Made to be rattled about and sliding gear comes with latches on the fronts to stop them sliding out when on the move. Always on the bay of thieves.https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=bott&_sacat=131090

Bob

Nice

where i used to work there was 3 van kits of these rusting behind the building they ended up getting skipped

 

[ukracer]

It’s easy to assume that weight will make it difficult to steal but if look at the specs of Snap On boxes a 54” is around 500kg empty. The fact it’s a one off will make more of a difference.

I fully understand the potential saving and it would be a cool project but the reality is from an investment point of view you'd be better to buy a secondhand Snap On box, this is not an argument as to whether they are better or not but they will always be worth something. A home made box will never hold value the same no matter how good it is. If you had put the £800 you spent on Clarke 7 years ago box into a secondhand Snap On you wouldn't be starting this post.

I thought about making one too, I built these two trolleys, they have 8” wheels so they can go on rough ground and they are built to accept euro crates. It would be easy to scale something like this to make a box



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What's a Eurobox. Open or lidded?