a different approach to a power cabinet

[a52-830]

first of all, before i get started, i would like to thank BreeStephany, whose thread:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346953

caused me to really think thru some ideas i had concerning storage of my cordless power tools. while i came to different decisions about what i was looking for, reading through her experience (several times!) both helped me see solutions to some issues i had been thrashing about (dealing with power cords and movable shelves, as an example), and got me motivated to get started.

if you haven’t read her thread, you really should. she has “mad skills”, as we used to say. my solution is a lot simpler, and a lot less customized, but fits my needs. her solution was temping, but i told myself that i dont have the patience to do all that work (while ignoring my probable lack of necessary skill).

up until a few months ago, i was using a craftsman c3 (19.2V) collection of cordless tools. in the past, i have stored them in a floor cabinet, but never really liked that solution. they took up a lot of space on the shelves, and it was hard to keep track of what was where. recently, i decided to use one of the deep drawers in one of the tool stacks to store the drivers and such.

this introduced a similar problem. i couldn’t use one of the shallower drawers because everything was too thick or too tall (the batteries have a stalk on the top: http://www.sears.com/craftsman-19.2-volt-c3-replacement-battery-pack/p-00911375000P), but they sank to the bottom of the really deep drawer, and there was a lot of wasted space on the top. it also didnt allow me to charge batteries where i was storing them.

recently i decided that some of it needed replacing, and some of it needed upgrading. looking at what craftsman was currently offering was not encouraging: it didnt look even close to state of the art, and it was no cheaper than things that looked a lot better. the new l-ion batteries won’t work with my existing chargers, and “might have issues” with some of the older tools i have, according to the guy at sears. maybe they are told that to encourage people to buy all new tools, but it just pissed me off. so, after much thrashing (one of my specialties) i decided to change over to what the locals here call “the milwaukee addiction”:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=244666

all this has done is force my hand into dealing with storing the cordless power tools. following are several posts detailing what i bought, how it went together, and how it ended up.

were it not for the assistance i got from BreeStephany’s posts, i doubt i would have posted any of this (assuming i ever got it done), but i decided that the best way to show my appreciation for the help i got was to pay it forward.

 

[a52-830]

i had decided that i wanted something that would allow me to store a bunch of different tools in a manner that would allow me to easily see what was there (and what was missing), store batteries, charge batteries, and also have a drawer for the various manuals (such as they are) that accompany these tools.

originally, i was thinking of using a standing cabinet, something like this:

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-32inch-wide-floor-cabinet-gray-black/p-00910140000P

i thought about taking the shelves out, mounting some metal “peg board” on the doors and the back wall. it would offer plenty of space, although the idea did not please me enough to motivate me to deal with it.

after reading BreeStephany’s thread, i took a look at the harbor freight side box she used as the basis of her project. while she effectively used the space, i didnt see how i would get the sawzall into it along with the other things i had and anticipated getting. but it cause me to look at the other side box hf offers, which is more of a locker:

http://www.harborfreight.com/tool-s...-end-cabinet-for-roller-tool-chest-62661.html



this could hang on the side of one of the toolbox stacks that i already had, and looked to be large enough, but not cavernous. while it never seems to “go on coupon”, the price has dropped sometime recently, though, from 189$ to 169$.

the shelf in the middle is removable, the door opening is 13.5” by 38.5”, and the usable depth is about 16.5 inches.

i had seen references to something called “wall control” metal peg boards. they are available at amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J7GKE8/?tag=atomicindus08-20

(i paid 34$ for this pair of panels, they are 49$ now)

this is a set of two 16”X32” panels “colored red” (i assume powder coated, but i dont know).

these are shorter than the doorway is tall, but at 16” wide, they will fit nicely inside the box. the height wasn’t an issue for me, since i was interested in hanging tools on these boards, and wanted to put some kind of power station at the top.

while there is nowhere around here (that i could find) with wall control products, there is a harbor freight, so i went over there to check things out.

i found that there were shelf supports running up the front and back of the box. they had horizontal rectangular slots for use by the shelf supports, but also seemed to have round holes every 12 inches, i assume for using the part in a different application that required screwing it in. it occurred to me that i could use these holes as mount points for some angle steel, which would give me surfaces to mount the slides i wanted to use so i could pull the peg boards out. after some thrashing around, i found these:

http://www.harborfreight.com/170-piece-u-clip-and-screw-assortment-67588.html



they are available under a variety of brand names (using the same images for the internal box shots). cheapest on amazon was 11$. hf had it for 5$, and i could get a free tarp too (if you dont understand that, read http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85668).

i also found some full extension “soft close” drawer slides from home depot:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/205171290

i chose those because i wanted the walls to slide in without bouncing back out, and interfering with closing and locking the door. 16” slides are perfect. the “drawer” part fits the wall control panels exactly, and the “case” side fits inside the box, but more on that later.

i also bought a selection of lengths of #8 bolts, lock nuts, and 1” fender washers. buy the big packages of nuts and washers, you are going to go through quite a few of them.

i had almost everything i needed for the initial work, so i found the last thing i thought i needed: 48” punched steel angle:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/204225757

at this point, my thoughts have jelled around what i think i want to do. i thought i had a good handle on how it would all go together, and although the top “charging station” was still kind of vague, i felt that i would have enough space at the top to do what i wanted.

so, i started collecting all this stuff. at this point, i am just under 300$ into it.

ok, now onto the initial construction.

 

[a52-830]

there was really not a lot of prep for the cabinet. the shelf is easily removable, and the hanger bar is not installed.

after taking some measurements, i went to cut down the punched angle to the height i needed for installing it in the cabinet.

[NOTE: i am going to tend to include measurements here. i strongly suggest you do your own if you decide to go down this path, though. some things i assumed didnt work out, as you will see, and your careful consideration might provide you with a better solution.]

i wanted to cut the punched angle iron so that one of the holes was 2” inches from the bottom. this would allow it to line up with one of the holes in the track, but still provide maximum flexibility in the length of the resulting mounting surface. the total length was set at 38 1/2 inches, which made it just fit inside the cabinet. after cutting the four pieces down, and smoothing out the cuts [NOTE: always do this, it cuts down on the cursing, since you won’t be ripping up your hands and clothes as much], i took them, and about 25 1” fender washers and painted them red. i used the rustoleum sunrise red that gj’rs seem to like for painting snap-on boxes. it is both a pretty close match for the cabinet i have and also happens to be what i had on hand.

at this point, there is nothing stopping me from starting to put it all together, right?

so, i started installing clips on the left side of the box, front and back:




then, i installed two of the punched angles. at the door end of the cabinet, i pulled it towards the center enough so that it was flush with the opening, and attached it to one clip to hold it in place. i used the #6 screws that were included with the clip set i bought, and used one of the painted fender washers so that the screw would hold the entire piece, since the screw head was substantially smaller than the holes on the angle iron. then, i centered the piece on the back left side. . . .

and ran into my first problem. from my measurements, it appeared that the holes along the tracks in the box were centered 12” apart. the holes in the punched angle were centered 1” apart. this lead me to *assume* that there would be holes that lined up, right? i mean, that is completely reasonable.

as we used to say when i worked for the Big Company, “in theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they aren’t.”

line up any of the holes, and none of the other three clips line up with another hole. one comes close, but not close enough. so, i had to take each of the four punched angles, and mark where the hols in the clips would be on them. i did each one individually so that if there was any variation on the tracks isn the cabinet, i wouldn’t get caught with new holes in the wrong places. fortunately, i only did the two for the side i was working on.

so, i drilled some new holes:



i installed two of the sliders i bought on the left hand side, carefully counting holes for the initial mounting, and using a level to make sure that things were right for the final tighten. again, i used fender washers on the back, because the holes are a lot bigger than the #8 nuts i was using.i spaced one on the second hole from the bottom of the inside, and the other 29” above. remember that the nuts have to be on the “outside” of the slide. there is not room for the nut, especially a lock nut, along the inside where the parts travel.

at this point, after all the drilling and contorting myself getting the punched angles and slides installed and leveled, i found that i had been careless, and made a mistake. i had assumed that the front and rear tracks were directly across from each other. but this was not necessary for the application the builder intended, and for some reason, the rear tracks are further towards the middle of the box that the front ones are. as i stood looking down at it, the slides clearly angled towards the middle of the box as they went back.

remember i mentioned “cuts down on the cursing”? this is why i didnt say “cuts out”. i took the slides off. i took the back punched angle off, and rotated it 90 degrees. this moved the mounting surface back until it pretty well lined up with the front.

remember when i drilled holes for the clips? they are now on the side, not on the part attaching to the back. [more cursing] i wasn’t going to be happy with those spare holes. even though no one would ever see them, i would *know* they were there. then, it occurred to me that maybe i could just return it to it’s original orientation, and use it *on the other side*. so, i added the clips there, and found that it would fit with on problem. so i took another punched angle, and measured and drilled new holes for it, and installed it.

here is an image of the right side, mounted correctly, so you can see what i am talking about:



and here is the right side with the slides mounted:



so, once i got all that mess put back together, i started on the peg board. this part was relatively easy, because i didnt have to contort myself to get the parts mounted inside the box.

here i leave the reservation for the parts i used. like a lot (ok, some) of you, i tend to keep the left over screws and whatnot from things i put together. as you can see from the image, i needed some shims to go between the peg boards and the slide runner. the boards have a lip to give them some rigidity, but there are only corner mounting holes in those areas. since i wanted the slides inside a bit, i needed some longer screws, and i needed shims so that i could tighten it all up, without bending the peg boards, of having the stress deform them over time, loosening up the slides.




and, a closeup of an assembled slide:



all those spacers and washers came from a flat panel wall mounting kit that i used several years ago. those things have a **** load of screws, spacers, brackets, and washers left over. i am sure the local hardware store can help you with spacers, but being able to stand there and foozle with different solutions until i was happy with what i had was pretty easy.

so, after mounting the drawer half of the slide on the back f the peg board, i tested it. i pulled out the bottom slide all the way, and the top slide about half way, on the cabinet. i slid the bottom in, and when i got to putting the top in, it was just barely off.

so, i left the board sitting on the bottom slide, pulled all the way out. i loosened the “drawer” part, on the peg board a quarter turn, so that i could move it a bit. i then started moving the top slide out from inside the box, which engaged the drawer part of the slide. when it was almost all the way out, but i still had access to the nut, i tightened the front of the peg board slide. then i moved it a bit until the bolt head in the back showed through one of the slots cut into the slide, slid a screw driver in, and tightened the rear nut.

here it is, in all its glory:






at this point, i have several of my objectives met. the cabinet has two drawers, a deep one to use for charged batteries, and a shallow one for documentation that comes with the tools. i have installed two pull out 16X32 peg board panels for tool storage.

all that is left is . . . . . . .

 

[a52-830]

charging. charging is the place that concerned me most.

as i stated in the initial post, part of what cause this was my decision to change the cordless tool ecosystem i was in. my initial purchases have left me with two milwaukee 48-59-1812 “rapid chargers”.

initially, i thought of keeping one aside so i could put it into a bag to take with me, and leave the other at the bottom of the big space. this had the virtue of being easy, something i tend to be in favor of, but i was concerned about **** collecting on it, and it sliding around.

didnt like that. then i thought of just adding a drawer or two at the top. maybe i could buy two of the deeper drawers from the bottom of the cabinet as parts from Harbor Freight, and leave a charger in one, and charged batteries in the other, at the top of the cabinet.

alas, HF does not have the ability to sell me parts.

i bounced around for awhile trying to decide what to do. i returned to BreeStephany’s original thread, and noted how she solved the issue.

her use of a drag chain, something i had seen a lot before, but never made the jump myself for this use, solved some of my issues.

i am currently pretty far into the implementation of the “charging solution”, but those posts will need to wait until i have committed all the errors, and devised the solutions. it is also supposed to be warm around boston tomorrow, so i will be able to paint some of the parts i have already fabricated.

i’ll be back with the rest of it once it is finished. thanx for reading this far, and a special thanx to BreeStephany for providing the inspiration to get started, and the example to share with others.

 

[Hammer1963]

Terrific build! I enjoyed reading your post and giving well deserved credit for your inspiration. It is very well written and full of details. I like when people know how to source available pieces from what's available to them and having the ability to make something their own, I look forward to seeing your finished project.

 

[racer-john]

There is only one problem in trying to follow your conversion and that is: "THE ATTATCHMENTS" don't work.

 

[a52-830]

hmm, i wonder what happened to them? well, i reloaded all the images, and they are still in the broken orientation that they were before.

 

[racer-john]

Now they show.

 

[a52-830]

i have fixed all the images. thanx for your patience.