On to the Toolbox

The first thing I did to the toolbox was peel off that "Stanley" on the front, which not only was in the way, but is also not the name of anyone in this house, so it was hardly appropriate. It was just a sticker anyway. Next, I grabbed a hole saw and drilled through the lid in the two places where my exhaust fans would go. it seemed like the easiest thing to start the cutting with, since the reinforcement on the underside of the lid acted as a guide and I didn't really need to measure anything. I therefore drilled from the inside out, with the lid upside down and the rest of the toolbox laying on its back.

toolbox lid

holes in the box top


I measured the back of the motherboard tray, and drew a pencil outline on the back of the toolbox. I then used the same hole saw as on the lid, to cut a couple of holes to get me started on the big hole for the motherboard. This was an excruciating ordeal, because the hole saw was a really dull one. It didn't cut metal very well at all.

holes to start the back


I finished cutting out the hole with the combination of metal snips and a Dremel cutting wheel. I also used the Dremel to get rid of the burrs on the metal. The hole goes down below the bottom edge of the metal, so once I cut the sides and top i could pull out the piece in a few big hunks. The Dremel made short work of the plastic at the bottom of the hole, and I trimmed it down two or three times as I determined where the tray was going to rest. I just managed to avoid cutting off one of the support points on the back where the plastic bottom is attached to the metal side with what looks like a plastic rivet. Likewise for another support point where the side is attached to the top. As you can see in the pic, there are two rivets on the top, and one in the center on the bottom.

big hole in the back


Next for the toolbox came the hole for the intake fan in the front. At first I had tried to use a drill press at work with the aforementioned dull hole saw, but that started to bend the metal in from the pressure I was putting on it (because it was so close to the top edge of the metal), and it wasn't cutting. I was left with a nice hole in the center, however, and a rather wide outline of the hole I was to cut.

the failed attempt at a front hole


At this point I needed a change of pace from the hole saw debackle, so I moved on to the placement of the power supply. This is where the FoxBox comes in. The FoxBox is an old case I bought from Computer Surplus Outlet for a whopping $2. This web store's warehouse and retail store is located only a couple miles from where I work, here in Las Vegas. I went down there with the intention of finding something to use for a motherboard tray, before I decided to buy the In-Win tray. They had stacks of these old cases, which were originally for servers of some sort. The tray in this case is AT format, and I eventually decided that it would be too much trouble to modify it for ATX use, but my $2 didn't go to waste. In the picture below you can see inside the case some nice LED's and slot covers that I ended up using, as well as a hard drive cage in the lower right that I found quite useful.

FoxBox parts


I took the drive cage from the FoxBox, and cut off the original bottom pieces that were used to attach it to its case. I then bent half of each side underneath, to use as a new place to bolt the part to the bottom of the toolbox. It also made a perfect place to mount the hard drive. I missed taking a pic of this piece by itself after modding it. Sorry! After I placed the motherboard tray in its hole (with a notch to allow for one of those mounting rivets on the toolbox), I was able to determine where to put the drive cage. I temporarily secured the drive cage to the bottom of the case, and then was able to place the power supply in and get an idea of where to put the hole for the PSU exhaust fan. This time I only used the hole saw to drill the center and scrape off the paint where the hole was to go. There was no point in even attempting to cut through.

outline for the PSU


Switching Gears Yet Again

It was time to move on the process of figuring out how to mount the CD drive. I work in a trophy/engraving shop, and I have access to thin sheets of aluminum and brass at the shop. I cut up several pieces of material, and bent them as needed to form a U-shaped tray, a rectangle-shaped piece (much the same as the hard drive cage after I was done with it), and a flat piece with mounting holes. After a preliminary placement inside the toolbox, I determined that the U-shaped tray needed to be bent so that it shifted the drive to one side, so it wouldn't interfere with the PSU.

the CD tray in pieces


I screwed the flat piece to the bottom of the CD drive, taped that to the base piece with some heavy-duty two-sided tape (another perk of working in a trophy shop), and then set it all down inside the U-shaped tray. I then marked that piece and drilled some mounting holes in the sides. My scraps came in handy, as I had bent the base part just a little bit wrong, and needed to shore up one side to make it level. I taped a piece of scrap toolbox metal to the bottom. It still needed a little more height, so I added a couple slot covers from the FoxBox, which I cut the top edges off of. Perfect! Finally, I stood back in smug satisfaction that I was finally getting somewhere.

the cd drive and tray assembly


I decided at this point to not even bother with cutting a hole in the toolbox for a floppy drive, instead determining to mount it at an angle on top of the CD drive, so that you would open the top of the toolbox to access it. Once again, Computer Surplus Outlet came to the rescue. I went down there and walked out with several old pieces of mounting hardware, for free. W00T! One of them had holes at the back that were just perfect for putting a rod through, resulting in a floppy drive that swings up from the back.

floppy drive in a tray

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