Product Princess Auto tool box quality
- Thread starter DavidR8
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Grizzly Adams
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The base I built for my mini mill, but then I'm a wood worker first.
I used rubber mounting under the machine to deal with vibration. Works very well.
Grizz
Sorry for being a bit late to the party. Just saw this today.
Did you get the mill yet? PA tool box?
Have you started to construct the stand?
I ask because i built a mill stand and incorporated a Crappy Tire 26” tool box which is of similar quality as the AP box. I built it 9 months ago and it continues to perform perfectly with my 1,000 lb mill on top. Yes i would do it again.
But i probably went overboard with a very beefy and HD stand construction. Here’s a pic of the end result. I measured deflection of the front and back beams and added more bracing and an auxiliary front beam to get deflection under 0.001” (set up an indicator and measured deflection when the mill was lowered into place, achieved 0.0006” or less at front and back.) I wanted a very low deflection since i was measuring static load but concerned about dynamic loads.
I cut the top and bottom off of the tool box to lower the stand height by 3”. It’s bolted to the floor. The stand leg lengths were made to suite the sloped floor so that no height adjusting legs were needed.
Did you get the mill yet? PA tool box?
Have you started to construct the stand?
I ask because i built a mill stand and incorporated a Crappy Tire 26” tool box which is of similar quality as the AP box. I built it 9 months ago and it continues to perform perfectly with my 1,000 lb mill on top. Yes i would do it again.
But i probably went overboard with a very beefy and HD stand construction. Here’s a pic of the end result. I measured deflection of the front and back beams and added more bracing and an auxiliary front beam to get deflection under 0.001” (set up an indicator and measured deflection when the mill was lowered into place, achieved 0.0006” or less at front and back.) I wanted a very low deflection since i was measuring static load but concerned about dynamic loads.
I cut the top and bottom off of the tool box to lower the stand height by 3”. It’s bolted to the floor. The stand leg lengths were made to suite the sloped floor so that no height adjusting legs were needed.
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Mill isn't here yet, due at the end of the month.
Your build is sort of what I'm thinking about doing. Built something similar for my last mill except I also built the drawer cabinet. I have a bunch of 100lb full extension drawer slides that I picked up for cheap so I may do the same thing again.
The issue with transferring the mill weight (and dynamic loads) through the stand and to the floor is that the stand should be the width of the machine base. That’s why i ended up with a stand (not including the toll box) that is over 325 pounds. If the stand was narrower it would have been soooo much easier. (contradicting what i said above) If I were doing again I’d start with a much narrower tool box. In my 20/20 vision hindsight, I’d use a pair of side tool boxes (KMS TBS4007X 7 drawer side tool box on sale, see below link, price $350). The mill would sit on one on the right which would be framed with angle iron. The power X feed would me over the box on the left. I’d also remove the bottom drawer to reduce the height of the box the mill sits on.
www.kmstools.com
Here’s a couple more pics of my stand build. The mill sits on 4 pads (shims) that are machined to the required thickness so that when bolting the mill base to the stand the bolt tightening does not warp the mill base. This is an important step. (Thanks @Susquatch for the shim idea.) I lowered the stand onto the tool box and then welded them together (in pic I’m using my tractor mounted winch to lower the stand over the box).
Magnum 7-Drawer Side Tool Box
KMS's own Bynford Pro line of tool boxes are an excellent choice for both quality and price. They include high-end features like 18 gauge construction, ball-bearing slides and liners. This tool box is also available in blackBall bearing slidesAttaches to
Here’s a couple more pics of my stand build. The mill sits on 4 pads (shims) that are machined to the required thickness so that when bolting the mill base to the stand the bolt tightening does not warp the mill base. This is an important step. (Thanks @Susquatch for the shim idea.) I lowered the stand onto the tool box and then welded them together (in pic I’m using my tractor mounted winch to lower the stand over the box).
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The top photo shows the box sitting on 1 1/2” angles (near the floor at the base on the sides). These were added and welded into place after lowering the box in. There is also cross bracing between these floor angles. I certainly hope the box lasts a long time because it would be very very difficult to get the box outta there. Would likely be easier to just start over.
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To borrow from the Simpsons India/China schtick......Princess Auto is Canadian Tire's Canadian Tire.