Thu Oct 13 2011

Baggage floor toolbox

I planned to get the remaining bits of fabrication done for the baggage floor toolbox tonight. First was to lay out and drill the rivet locations for the lid stiffeners.

I then transferred the holes to the lid as well as transferring the center hole for the Dzus mounting bracket to the lid and stiffeners. Once I had drilled this hole, it became apparent that I should have moved the end stiffener rivet back about 1/8 inch. I think it'll be OK, but just barely.

After checking the grip and testing the cam locking action I decided I needed a thin spacer (about .020 thick). This worked out perfectly because I also wanted to use a nylon washer between the head of the fastener and the screw. I didn't have any nylon washers of the correct size, so I just sandwiched a couple #8 washers between some aluminum and drilled the ID larger.

It took a while to get the horizontal and vertical positioning of these brackets correct. I ended up using some of the magnets my brother gave me to get it temporarily positioned then c-clamped it to drill. No in-progress pictures, but here's one of the bracket drilled to the side of the toolbox.

Last thing for the evening was to countersink and dimple as needed. Oh, and I drilled the holes for the Dzus fasteners up to 1/4 inch diameter. All that's left for this toolbox is to prime the stiffeners and Dzus brackets, then assemble it all. Sweet!