Once I got my milling machine setup and started buying the accessories needed such as collets, endmills, metal stock etc I realized that I needed a small tool cart to organize everything.
Knowing that I'd probably need to modify the tool car to suit my needs I purchased the cheapest all metal cart I could find and ended up with the model below for 139€ from eBay via a seller in Germany.
The price has now almost doubled but here is a link to the auction: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164638118575
Aluminum and steel stock is pretty heavy and the cheap plastic wheels that came with the unit bolted directly to the bottom plate of the cart so when it was heavily loaded the wheels started tilting inwards.
In order to solve that I welded a metal frame that bolts to the bottom of the car and then I purchased some proper rubberized wheels locally.
That allowed me to load up the larger bottom drawers with metal stock without anything bending or flexing too much.
I then purchased some Kaizen style foam and started cutting out slots for all the tools and endmills.
By this time the cart looked like this.
After using the cart for a while I realized that the top was a bit to weak to handle my Vertex BT40 tool holder without flexing. So I solved that by adding a 2 mm stainless steel plate on the top.
And this how the cart tucks away next to the milling machine when not in use, saving valuable floor space in the garage.
As we all know a shop or garage is always too small so I thought this might be an inspiration to other people who toil away with metal working in their own home garages.
Knowing that I'd probably need to modify the tool car to suit my needs I purchased the cheapest all metal cart I could find and ended up with the model below for 139€ from eBay via a seller in Germany.
The price has now almost doubled but here is a link to the auction: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164638118575
Aluminum and steel stock is pretty heavy and the cheap plastic wheels that came with the unit bolted directly to the bottom plate of the cart so when it was heavily loaded the wheels started tilting inwards.
In order to solve that I welded a metal frame that bolts to the bottom of the car and then I purchased some proper rubberized wheels locally.
That allowed me to load up the larger bottom drawers with metal stock without anything bending or flexing too much.
I then purchased some Kaizen style foam and started cutting out slots for all the tools and endmills.
By this time the cart looked like this.
After using the cart for a while I realized that the top was a bit to weak to handle my Vertex BT40 tool holder without flexing. So I solved that by adding a 2 mm stainless steel plate on the top.
And this how the cart tucks away next to the milling machine when not in use, saving valuable floor space in the garage.
As we all know a shop or garage is always too small so I thought this might be an inspiration to other people who toil away with metal working in their own home garages.