Dollar store Tool tray - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: robrenz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 01:00:27 am
content: Walking thru the Dollar store these "microwave grill plates" caught my eye as a tool tray to keep my tweezers, and other small tools from rolling all over my drawers. For $2.00 how could I loose. I removed the flange so that they took up less space. As purchased on the left and after flange removed on the right.Dremel variable speed oscillating tool cut the flange off nicely. Then belt sander and scraper to debur the edges.My drawer before. All that little stuff rolls all over the place from opening and closing the drawers and ends up in a mess.Drawer after. The little ribs of the tray keep everthing in place and prevent shifting.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 12:20:28 pm
content: Nice! I go one step further in cheapness, I use old TV dinner/ Chinese food trays as sorting bins and keep everything inside each container by putting the whole thing inside their own zip lock bag.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2013, 08:19:28 pm
content: Nice!Now all I need would be some drawers to put those in...Just built an actual bench (base welded up out of 1.5" by 0.125" thick angle iron and added a 2nd hand top). Still need to add uprights for shelving (probably an overhead light too) and cross member to tie them together (thinking bolt-on using 1.5" square tubing for easier moving if/when the time comes).I've been thinking about power and storage lately as a result, so your timing on this is perfect.Current storage consists of plastic drawer units, plastic storage bins (w/ lids), and wood cigar boxes (what I store my tools in - idea being the same as a wood machinist tool box for humidity control).

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2013, 01:21:48 pm
content: That's quite frighteningly neat.Another thing that Middle Eastern and Chinese shops have, is a wide range of very cheap stainless steel baking trays, in many sizes. I find these very useful.Here's some of my mess, in contrast to Robrenz's neatness:

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:08:17 am
content: I use very cheap plastic food containers to store things. They are stackable, come in all sizes, available in you local supermarket. I sometimes use them as project boxes in desperate times.

author: chickenHeadKnob
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:29:00 am
content: Looking in on rob's world is always such a mixed blessing, many good things going on there, but quite costly to duplicate .. sighExcept for one thing!, my eyes immediately fastened on the light blue hexagonal shaft of an OK machine tool WSU-30m. I have one and it happens to be perhaps my all-time most favourite under $10 hand tool. Well when I bought mine around 1982 it was <$10. It seems you can still get them, don't know about the quality now. I had to wire-wrap many proto-types in my first job and we had access to the pro grade powered guns costing $600+, which were supposedly guaranteed to make gas tight wraps but I made better wraps just as fast with this little tool. It paid for itself many times over. Everyone of those hand wrap tools you can buy from radioshack or sparkfun with the silver chrome plated jeweller screwdriver type handles I have borrowed or tried have been crap in comparison, their tolerances are too loose. Although wire-wrapping has been marginalized now it is occasionally useful, still something the young guys should learn.Further eye wandering lead me to the bottom right corner of the photo, - those lasso type objects what are those?

author: robrenz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:38:11 am
content: They are various sizes of music wire with a loop twisted on one end to act as a handle. Some have a piece of blue plastic tape folded over the loop to form a better handle than just the loop. I made these for cleaning out hypodermic tubing dispenser nozzles I use on the paste dispenser and super glue bottles. Very handy to have around. I have music wire from .008" dia. thru .024" dia. in .002" steps for winding my own springs.Edit: my wire wrap tool is from 1979 so same vintage as yours

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 02:27:22 am
content: Quote from: robrenz on March 29, 2013, 01:38:11 amWow. How do you treat them to make springs out of them (heat with oxy acetylene, propane, or do you have an oven or induction setup)?

author: robrenz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 03:00:01 am
content: Music or piano wire is already spring tempered when you buy it. You wind and bend the springs in this condition, no heat treat is necessary.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 03:47:20 am
content: Quote from: robrenz on March 29, 2013, 03:00:01 amInteresting.Everything I can recall ATM indicated it had to be heat treated & quick cooled.Edit: Quick search is indicating heat treating & rapid cooling as well.

author: robrenz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 01:07:05 pm
content: Music wire is generaly purchased as "spring tempered" to aproximately 45 Rockwell C scale hardness. The spring tempered implies that it was already heated to its critical temperature and quenched (quick cooled) to achieve full hardness then re-heated "tempered" to a temperature that brings the material back/down to aproximately 45 RC.

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2013, 08:14:00 pm
content: Quote from: robrenz on March 29, 2013, 01:07:05 pmI was thinking that it would have to be re-tempered after being worked into it's new shape.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2013, 09:53:56 am
content: I have some machinery that has a wear plate hardened to 65 Rockwell C. It does actually wear, though normally they destroy what they run over instead ( that was expensive when a hold down bolt snapped, getting the broken 3/16 stump out was hard, eventually drilled it out ( it was softer than the high manganese steel alloy it was tapped into) and used a recoil set to go to M5 CSK setscrews instead. Then ordered the soft aluminium dies it had munched ( $5k later and a 3 week wait) and in the interim used an old very worn set that still worked somewhat. the Chinese clone uses PTFE, that wears as well, but does not do much damage ( aside from OHL being so kind to only engage 2 turns of the one hold down setscrew into the hole, I drilled through and retapped a thread all the way through, and put in longer ones that project the other side of the 5mm plate) in case of failure.