TOOL TRAY FOR NUT AND HEX HEAD ALLEN DRIVERS

[Don1966]

I thought I would share this with you. I had seen different ways to make a simple tray from plastic containers to wood blocks to insert nut drivers and Hex head drivers. I wasn't happy with using them so I came up with these simple trays to housed them in. I made a simple circle turning attachment to fit my bandsaw out of scrap pieces of wood and cut enough circles to make two trays. After drawing them in Autocad I printed them to scale and glue them to the cut circles and drilled the required holes for each tray.
 The bottom circle has three brass balls ( I already had these) to use for the feet. Using a  .5" spacer I lifted the second circle and drilled a tapped a .3125" Rod 4" long to rise the third circle with. Made a .75" washer with a curved face for the top to stabilize the top circle and cut a .2" deep inset for the lifting Rod to fit into. And Jo is going to like this one, cutting a stud to fit the top lifting Rod and screwed the top circle and lifting Rod together. I also cut 25" x .2" deep on each end of the lifting Rod so I could insert a ball on one end and the other fit into the inset of the top washer.
Ok some photos for you and this is my circle cutting attachment.

The cut circle on the attachment.

Gluing the templetts to the circles.

Here I have a little one inch vise in my mill vise holding the drill bit for alignment to drill the perimeter holes.

A look at how the bottom feet are done.

A top view of the tray.

The two trays complete, well for now  am thinking of painting them black.


I hope this is of interest to some and thanks for looking.

Don

[Ramon Wilson]

That's a couple of neat little storage units Don - beats my rummaging in a drawer for sure  Certainly something to consider given the low build time versus usefulness.

Thanks for sharing it - Ramon

[b.lindsey]

Nice Don. I use some top of the workbench holders I got from MicroMark years ago but they have blind holes for the drivers to fit into and I forget which is which and pull out a hex driver when I meant to grab a nut driver. Your solutions solves that as you can see which is which.

Bill

[Mosey]

Don,
That is a nice holder, and you have my compliments for all of the nice work that went into it.
Mosey

[mklotz]

Or you can drill some suitably sized holes in a block of wood and use a router bit to carve out a tool-tip viewing window...

[Walsheng]

One of the good/bad reasons for having a 3-D printer!

John

[sshire]

Great idea. I need something for pliers, side cutters, etc.
warming up my printer

[Don1966]

I applaud all of you for you ingenuity in making some thing that you like to use for your tools. Remember this is a model engineer site and making things out of metal is what I perfer to do, as I had posted in the beginning. Thanks all for you inputs.

Don

[Tennessee Whiskey]

That's just slicker than a snail's belly.  Just gotta know though dog, why didn't you use brass?  Sure would have polished up pretty 

E

[Don1966]

That's just slicker than a snail's belly.  Just gotta know though dog, why didn't you use brass?  Sure would have polished up pretty 

E

Dog I didn't have that much brass for them and didn't want to buy anymore. Hell the grasshopper is costing me enough now. 

D

[Tennessee Whiskey]

I hear you my brother.  You know I think I've got a couple of old door kick plates,  don't know the quality of brass,  but I think it's worth a look.  These look quite teh nick. Not only that,  but,  they look darn good too 

Cletus

[Don1966]

I hear you my brother.  You know I think I've got a couple of old door kick plates,  don't know the quality of brass,  but I think it's worth a look.  These look quite teh nick. Not only that,  but,  they look darn good too 

Cletus

The older kick plates were brass but I don't know about the newer ones. There is a lot of plated brass kick plates. If they are brass they sure would make a nice set of trays. These were quiet easy to make, that is if you have a band saw. Just spit them out like an assembly line. 

D

[Pete49]

Love the tool holder walsheng and admire those that can do the drawings.  I'm struggling with 3d at the moment mainly due to age related memory so all my printer goodies come from the net. One day I hope to be able to draw up simple stuff to print just need to keep attacking it to keep it locked in. 
Pete

[Pete49]

Love the tool holder walsheng and admire those that can do the drawings.  I'm struggling with 3d at the moment mainly due to age related memory so all my printer goodies come from the net. One day I hope to be able to draw up simple stuff to print just need to keep attacking it to keep it locked in.  In the meantime  I may just copy the idea Marv shows.
Pete
]

[Walsheng]

Love the tool holder walsheng and admire those that can do the drawings.  I'm struggling with 3d at the moment mainly due to age related memory so all my printer goodies come from the net. One day I hope to be able to draw up simple stuff to print just need to keep attacking it to keep it locked in.  In the meantime  I may just copy the idea Marv shows.
Pete
]

Seems there are a lot of people with 3-D printers these day and I would be happy to post the files for anyone who wants to use them.
Nice looking tool holders Don, and I like your choice of tools.

John