Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Undervan Storage Box continued:
When I had the mock-up mounted under the van I saw that the charcoal canister would interfere with the undervan storage box is I originally planned it.
While I was deciding on the final measurements for the box I went ahead and moved the charcoal canister one more (and hopefully final) time. Moved it a couple inches forward.
Time to decide on the final design. I thought the front end of the box was too close to the differential so I shortened it by an inch. Here is the final size.
I used Google Sketchup for the first time to create the above diagram. Couldn't figure out how to draw the dimensions for the top ledge. It's 1-1/2" wide along the 2' 8" edge and 1" wide along the 1' 11 1/2" edge.
Spent a lot of time thinking about how to construct the box. Since I've recently taken up welding I thought about making it myself from angle iron and 16 gauge steel sheet. In preparation I practiced making angle iron corners.
Then I did some math and figured out if I made the box myself as planned it would weight 105 lbs. Decided I'd have it professionally made from aluminum instead.
Took my plans, wooden mock-up and van to the local machine shop to explain what I wanted. It's a fairly good sized business and my project was certainly small potatoes to what they normally do but they couldn't have been more helpful. They took my hand drawn plans and with me explaining with the wooden mock-up they seemed to understood what I wanted.
While I was there I asked the owner for and got a tour. For those of you who haven't been around a machine shop before here's what it looks like.
Milling Machine.
Lathes
Milling machines and lathes are what you used to need to create precision metal parts. My Dad who spend his professional life as a Tool and Die maker would have spend a great deal of his time on machines just like those. It took a a lot of training and work to learn his trade. The owner showed me his newer CNC machine (Computer Numerical Control). He told me that after three days training on the CNC machine a new employee could produce the same kind of parts my Dad would have made and could probably turn out twenty of them in the same amount of time. Didn't get a picture of the CNC machine.
Here is the water jet cutting table. This will be used to cut out the parts for my box.
Here's the job they had just finished on the cutting table. It's for the floor of a local high school. He showed me the drawing the high school had submitted for the design. They are able scan it in and with just a few tweaks to the design the machine is ready to go.
Metal shear.
This being West Virginia there was at least a couple pieces of mining equipment getting rebuilt. This is the cutting head of a continuous miner. As this head spins it is pushed against a coal seam and the hardened bits grind out the chucks of coal.
Tours over.
A couple weeks later and I got a call from the machine shop. My box was done.
It's 14 gauge thick. Had trouble weighing it when I got it home since it's so bulky. Then I realized it's also shiny. I couldn't see the dial on the scale but I could read it's reflection.
I call it at 43 lbs.
A few construction notes. I asked for 20 degrees and that's what I got.
I noticed the lower front edge is bent then welded farther back as opposed to being welded along the edge.
The mounting holes have already been drilled. This is a mistake but I'll take the blame. I wanted to show where the holes would go to make my drawing more understandable but didn't explicitly write "Don't drill these holes". My bad but not a big deal.
I was changed $503.50 for the construction of the box. Material costs where just about half of the price and labor was for 6 hours.
continued -
When I had the mock-up mounted under the van I saw that the charcoal canister would interfere with the undervan storage box is I originally planned it.
While I was deciding on the final measurements for the box I went ahead and moved the charcoal canister one more (and hopefully final) time. Moved it a couple inches forward.
Time to decide on the final design. I thought the front end of the box was too close to the differential so I shortened it by an inch. Here is the final size.
I used Google Sketchup for the first time to create the above diagram. Couldn't figure out how to draw the dimensions for the top ledge. It's 1-1/2" wide along the 2' 8" edge and 1" wide along the 1' 11 1/2" edge.
Spent a lot of time thinking about how to construct the box. Since I've recently taken up welding I thought about making it myself from angle iron and 16 gauge steel sheet. In preparation I practiced making angle iron corners.
Then I did some math and figured out if I made the box myself as planned it would weight 105 lbs. Decided I'd have it professionally made from aluminum instead.
Took my plans, wooden mock-up and van to the local machine shop to explain what I wanted. It's a fairly good sized business and my project was certainly small potatoes to what they normally do but they couldn't have been more helpful. They took my hand drawn plans and with me explaining with the wooden mock-up they seemed to understood what I wanted.
While I was there I asked the owner for and got a tour. For those of you who haven't been around a machine shop before here's what it looks like.
Milling Machine.
Lathes
Milling machines and lathes are what you used to need to create precision metal parts. My Dad who spend his professional life as a Tool and Die maker would have spend a great deal of his time on machines just like those. It took a a lot of training and work to learn his trade. The owner showed me his newer CNC machine (Computer Numerical Control). He told me that after three days training on the CNC machine a new employee could produce the same kind of parts my Dad would have made and could probably turn out twenty of them in the same amount of time. Didn't get a picture of the CNC machine.
Here is the water jet cutting table. This will be used to cut out the parts for my box.
Here's the job they had just finished on the cutting table. It's for the floor of a local high school. He showed me the drawing the high school had submitted for the design. They are able scan it in and with just a few tweaks to the design the machine is ready to go.
Metal shear.
This being West Virginia there was at least a couple pieces of mining equipment getting rebuilt. This is the cutting head of a continuous miner. As this head spins it is pushed against a coal seam and the hardened bits grind out the chucks of coal.
Tours over.
A couple weeks later and I got a call from the machine shop. My box was done.
It's 14 gauge thick. Had trouble weighing it when I got it home since it's so bulky. Then I realized it's also shiny. I couldn't see the dial on the scale but I could read it's reflection.
I call it at 43 lbs.
A few construction notes. I asked for 20 degrees and that's what I got.
I noticed the lower front edge is bent then welded farther back as opposed to being welded along the edge.
The mounting holes have already been drilled. This is a mistake but I'll take the blame. I wanted to show where the holes would go to make my drawing more understandable but didn't explicitly write "Don't drill these holes". My bad but not a big deal.
I was changed $503.50 for the construction of the box. Material costs where just about half of the price and labor was for 6 hours.
continued -
