Straightening a bent tool chest

[piehammer]

I picked up this Craftsman chest over the weekend for a good price, but it is bent / skewed a bit. All the drawers still open and close as does the lid, so I could just put a spacer under the corners to get it to sit level, but I'd like to straighten it if at all possible.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[KSJeff]

First thing I would probably try is to pull the drawers out and sit the right side (as you're looking at it in the picture) up against some 3/4" plywood or something similar and clamp it square. Not sure if it would stay that way, but I'd start there and see if that pulls the top over at all.

 

[sk farmer]

its bent and needs to be straitened .

me?

i would pull the drawers and lay it on it's back. from there use a clamp to pull it back to square. it more than likely will need to go "over center" slightly as it is being stretched back. should be fairly simple .

 

[lilredex]

Take out the drawers and make a diagonal jack out of threaded rods with a coupling nut to do the work. Make some hardwood corner blocks. You'll have to go over center to allow for spring back, as already suggested.

 

[piehammer]

Project update: Pulling the drawers yielded a pack of Stanley blades, a 4.5mm Taiwan socket, a 9mm Craftsman -VV- wrench, and a Starrett C305R steel rule.

So far, so good I'd say.

 

[FuzzyTiger]

I hate fighting with thin sheet metal like that and I find it always just gets worse than if I had left it alone... That might just be a reflection of my skill though.

 

[SeisMec]

As others have said, remove drawers and use clamps or whatever to move it just past square. However before you do, look at this outward flare bend

You probably have similar near the bottom right corner and matching corners on the rear. Some might flare inward rather than outware. Use a plastic face hammer to re-flatten while you have the box stressed.

 

[Al Borland]

Pile it full of tools and let gravity fix it.

 

[piehammer]

I hate fighting with thin sheet metal like that and I find it always just gets worse than if I had left it alone... That might just be a reflection of my skill though.

Yeah, I may just use it as is. I don't have large enough clamps, and it is not that bad.

 

[piehammer]

As others have said, remove drawers and use clamps or whatever to move it just past square. However before you do, look at this outward flare bend

You probably have similar near the bottom right corner and matching corners on the rear. Some might flare inward rather than outware. Use a plastic face hammer to re-flatten while you have the box stressed.

Thanks, trying that now.

 

[captain14]

Where’s the 10mm socket if you found everything else there?

 

[quickfarms]

Take out the drawers and make a diagonal jack out of threaded rods with a coupling nut to do the work. Make some hardwood corner blocks. You'll have to go over center to allow for spring back, as already suggested.

They are actually not very strong.

You don’t need to use hardwood, doug fir will work

I straightened a middle chest that was racked by clamping it to the welding table. Just make shore to put some wood inside to spread the load out from the clamps

 

[csp]

I'd find a way to put the bottom right corner against something solid and push the entire top left corner towards the right with a porta power. You could go very slowly and have lots of control vs using clamps.

 

[69jbjohn]

Super easy to straighten. They are really flimsy. Drawers out, find the long dimension, bar clamps to squeeze it back square. Worth doing !

 

[joey1320]

Find a place where you can rest the bottom-right corner at a 60ish degree angle and sit on the left-top corner to skew the center towards the right.