Sunday, November 26, 2017

A Free Roller Cabinet

I was walking in my neighborhood the other day and came across a decrepit roller cabinet that someone had put out for the trash.  It was one of those bright red sheet metal things that mechanics use (or at least I assume mechanics use them, but maybe that's a stereotype).

I had planned on building some kind of a stool or small table to hold up a toolchest that I'll also be building soon.  But maybe I can use this sheet metal thing instead and save myself some effort, and keep something out of a landfill too.



Before I could use it, the cabinet needed some attention.  The cabinet door was included but was off its runners and just lying inside the cabinet.  The drawer runners were a little mis-aligned.  The bottom of the cabinet was pretty rusty.  And the casters looked like they had been replaced at some point but rather than drill new holes for the casters, they had just put one bolt through one (of four) mounting holes in the caster.

I worked on the drawer and cabinet door runners and got them working properly again.  The casters it came with were in good shape, they just needed proper mounting holes drilled.  I sanded off the rusty parts of the bottom of the cabinet and sprayed on a coat of red gloss paint for protection.

It's still a little ugly but the cabinet works now and I've already found some uses for it around the shop.


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