So one morning I opened my toolbox and noticed the plastic tray that hold all my screw drivers and combo wrenches was cracked and hanging down. So I decided to start a new project in class, to give me something to do.

I had only hand plasma cut aluminum once before, and figured making a new tray that way would take too long with filing and sanding to look good. So I plugged in my tray frame into CAD and made it 2in wider than the tray that was in there and about 1/2in deeper. Then put a chamfer on the front of it to compensate for the lock and rod mechanism on the front of the toolbox on the inside. After I did that, I fully welded the whole inside and sanded it down. What do you guys think?

Before:





Middle point:







After:







What do you guys think?

And our hookah base busted, so I made a new one. Old school GLASS Crystal Srpings water jug. Holds 4 gallons of smoke!

 

do you ever hear all that stuff ratting around in there when driving?

def looks stronger tho

 

Actually, I don't think I've ever heard it.. Other than on trails where the tools bounce in the tray haha. Everything stays really quiet! Even the compressors, for the most part.

 

Looks good man!

 

You do know they make tool bags right? they're pretty useful

jk man, Looks good. I wish i still had access to a TIG welder, there's a bunch of stuff I want to make.

 

Much better, those plastic things always break on me too.

 

huge improvement

 

how do you keep your sockets from falling off when you off road? i like your idea i just can always seeing my self digging around the bottom of my box to find the sockets.

 

Who needs tool bags when you can use cottage cheese and cool whip containers haha

I don't know what I'm gonna do when I'm done with school and don't have driving distance access to the shop (15mins from my house right now). Unless I can get myself into a shop back home as a TIG welder. Only thing I'm not certified in is alum, but I sure can weld it. It's almost impossible to cert on alum.

Yup! Had to do something about it.

It really is!

They're almost like a spring. You push them on the rail and the thing flexes for the socket to go around it then it springs back. IDK, they just stay there.

 

looks good. im surprised you can haul any of that while wheeling. I leave all my stuff back at the truck/trailer.

 

I don't know if you've noticed Zach, but I don't exactly "wheel"..... If there's snow, I play. haha

 

i'd like to see more of your on board air setup... what are the components and such...

 

Compressor, air tanks, and associated wiring and plumbing of air hose. what more do you need to know?

 

man my little items....like screwdrivers, pliers, and other little stuff somehow find a way to hop over a 4inch wall and squeeze through the small gap between it and the lid when i wheel.....i could never keep those in there....u should make some sort of tether between the tray and the sides that way u can pull it to either side when u need to and u dont have to get in ur truck to get ur tools...that would be sick..

 

thank you for the incredibly generic answer...

to expand on my question,

what is the make and model of the compressors (looks like you run two)

CFM and pressure output.

recovery time and tank capacity

amp draw

how quick can you air up a 33 from 15 to 30 psi?

are you happy with this setup, what would you change?

 

You're welcome for the answer to your incredibly generic question.

 

looks good. why didn't you go wider? you could make another and put it on the other side.

 

quite apparently i could already tell that he had the compressor, tanks and related hardware, so i fail to see why you even bothered with your initial response.

do you actually know anything in detail about his onboard air setup? perhaps you could give some specific answers.

 

Yeah mang, i've seen it it person. He has two 5-gallon tanks (10-gallons of air total). A Viair 380 compressor if i remember right. It takes like 5 minutes for it to fully filly the tanks up to 150psi. Just run a 30Amp relay to control the compressor and an according pressure switch (which turns on and off the compressor according to the pressure inside the tank).

Basically, it is just small mini-truckers set up, powering a horn and having a output for "on board air."

hope that helps, guy.

 

I can't make one for the other side, because if I did, I wouldn't be able to shut the lid, the sockets are on that side of the toolbox. I didn't want one that took up the whole tray area, just one big enough so my tools aren't piling up on that dinky plastic tray. Right now, it's perfect and they sit just about level with the top of the tray. Plus, TIG-ing that much aluminum on the same part, gets rather frustrating, making sure to rotate sides and back step all welds to make sure you don't distort the metal and make it look like ****. lol

That was close Grant, from memory, that was dang close!

The specs are actually two 3 gallon 200psi air tanks connected at the ends with a "T" fitting and a quick disconnect to run my 25ft 1/2" air line with tire inflator on it, two ViAir 380c (16a/comp) 100% duty cycle (100% at 100psi and 55% at 200psi) compressors running 1/2" hard line tubing and compression fittings, 1/4" hard line tubing to the 200psi 7-color LED pressure gauge, and a 200psi adjustable pressure switch that's set at 195psi off and 150psi on. I'm using a 40a relay on a 40a mega fuse and holder using 10-12g wiring. This is all mainly to power my Nathan P3 Locomotive horn :)

Is that specific enough? lol

 

It's beefy and nicely made....just saw it in person a few hours ago. I totally dig it!

 

I'm not knocking the cool whip containers, I mean you could put all the stuff in that tray in a bag, or...... a cool whip container

and put other stuff in the tray.

I normally carried my spare axles/hubs and the tools I needed to change them, the rest of my tools I left at camp.

 

I think next week I'm gonna work something up to hold the fluids in a small alum box. Same goes for Shane, gonna make somethin I think for him too.

 

I'm gonna build some sort of box too, I don't want to put many fluids in my box until I have a way to contain them if something leaks.

 

That's exactly my problem... They just roll around in my box right now. There's already brake fluid residue on the bottom of the box on the inside... Yet the bottle is well sealed... Hmmmm lol