Introduction: Powder Coated Hanging Parts Box
In the Angular Metal Shop class at TechShop I attended, the class project was to make a simple hanging box from a sheet of 1/16" steel. Using my recently learned media blasting and powder coating skills from a previous TechShop class, I decided to turn the class project into something nice looking for storing small parts for my projects.
- The project started with flat sheet of 1/16" steel and a pattern (second image). A scribe was used to mark the holes and cut and bend lines.
- Using a combination of tools: hydraulic shears, corner notcher, straight (slitting) shears, and a finger brake, the metal was cut and bent into shape. A spot welder was then used to weld the edges together resulting in the box (third image). The blue stuff on the inside was used to make the markings for the cut and bend lines and holes easier to see.
- A media (sand) blaster was used to clean the surface (fourth image).
- All of the surfaces of the box were then powder coated in blue (fifth image).
- Blue painter's tape was used to cover the outside of the box and the box was powder coated in yellow. Voila! The finished box is shown in the first and last photos.
