Mills and Lathes

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
Got to the point where we had too many lathe and mill tools to put in the drawers in the lathe and the cabinet in the mill. Put them on shelves but that is also a pain in the arse. Decided to grab a cheap tool trolley and use that. In the meantime mechanic mate was retiring a very battered tool trolley and replacing it with new shiny. I grabbed the old one which was destined for the scrap heap. One large drawer missing, two drawers jammed and many dents and cracks and the two drawers that worked were dodgy. Perfect!



Spent 10 mins or so with degreaser then pulled it to pieces. The locking mechanism was twisted up and refused to release the drawers without a fight. Panel beateded the lot and cut off the lock tabs. Repaired 4 of the 5 slides and replaced the damaged second drawer slides with salvaged ones. Now all the drawers work. The temporary gal top was pop rivetted to the frame and the broken welds rivetted back together.

All in all it will be perfect.



Top drawer for measuring tools, next two for lathe and mill inserts etc and bottom for bigger stuff. Bottom for the 4 jaw chuck and the rotary table and its 3 jaw. Still looks rough but it now rolls smoothly and doesn't flop about like an untrained seal when you open the drawers.
 
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