Sheet Metal is Fun! Making a tool tray using hand tool

welcome back to sheet metal is fun we

got a big project today we ain't going

to fly an airplane we're not going to

burn Rubber we're going to bend sheet

metal we're going to make a tool tray

and you're going to come away with a

sense of accomplishment let's head on

inside

welcome back here we are at the bench we

got a piece of metal we are going to

make a tool tray today

the flat piece of metal when this lesson

is over you're going to have a trade

that you can carry whatever you feel

like carrying tools snacks gardening

whatever you want come on in a little

bit I want you to see the Scribe lines I

took the drawing that we left on the

board and I transfer that onto the metal

but one of the things I want you to know

is the the way we decided what size to

make our tool tray was we decided what

we're going to put in our tool tray so I

want to be able to put this hammer in it

so we left a little bit of wiggle room

on either side you're not gonna be able

to see it but what I'm going to do is

I'm going to outline the base

this outline right here is the the

bottom the base of our tool tray

then what I did is I decided how high

would I like the tool tray

I'd like it to be that high

so this is a copy not only a visual aid

which is very important in what we're

doing

but it also made it easier when I came

over to make

to transfer these marks onto our metal

I was able to just draw the base

put our end on here

take the same end

put this end on there

So Not only was it a visual aid it

always also saved us time in the layout

across the top is going to be our handle

let's go ahead and Mark this

that's going to be our handle we're

going to notch that in just a minute

and uh this is going to be a tool tray

but more importantly

foreign

it's going to be a sense of

accomplishment we're going to take a

flat piece of metal

and we're going to turn it into

something useful and in doing that we're

going to stimulate our mind and we're

going to gain

a new level of respect for ourselves

come on in and start the notching

process let's start with our handle

we are going to first put on our glasses

and let's Notch this handle we're going

to go

here

remember from last lesson always cover

the drop

this is just a notch straight in this is

going to tell us where we're going to

bend the handle

so we're not removing any metal here

Again cover that piece so when it comes

off it goes down

thank you

today we are going to bend this tool

tray

with tools

that you may already have and if not one

quick trip to the hardware store

and you make a small investment

into

what could be a hobby

or it could be a living

I've been doing sheet metal work for

over 40 years and I made a very good

living at it

and um

a lot of our schools out where we're at

have abandoned the mechanical sciences

and now there's a a very wide shortage

of people who can visualize mechanical

things and people who can go out and do

mechanical things so I want to encourage

you guys

to

to take on something that maybe you've

never thought of doing before some of

you are out there you're watching this

video series you already do some of

these things I think even for those of

you that have done this before maybe

maybe you'll see something new

I've been doing this like I said over 40

years

I probably learned two things every day

and you never know where that source of

knowledge is going to become from so I'm

glad you guys stopped by let's go ahead

and knock this this is our tool tray

right here

we're going to cut with our red snips

and I think we covered on the previous

lesson

we never go to the end of our snip

unless we're notching

cut this one

these are lines that

I laid out

in the interest of time

I laid out the toolbox

but the toolbox

tool tray that we're making today

[Music]

is just as we drew on the board

and let's see

right now I'm notching the hymns

these are the parts we're going to fold

around the end of the tool tray

so that we don't have any sharp edges

notice I covered that with my thumb

always be careful of your eyes

here we go that's one so we're

one-fourth of the way done already

two Snips to a comfortable amount of

closing

closing

and then you move them forward and never

go to the end of your snips

unless you're notching

[Music]

yeah

all right we are halfway home

today's episode is going to be

interesting

we have a Shop full

of sweet tools

but in order to help some of you get

started

and learning something new

we're going to use some pretty basic

tools

so here this line represents the base of

our tray

here's our end

that is the end of the tray

with the hems added to it and we're

going to fold those hems over that's

going to be the next thing we're going

to be over there doing that in a couple

of minutes

let's go ahead and cut this side out

squeeze and push forward

every one of these hymns is a half an

inch I do them in a half an inch just

because it's a nice round number

you could do these in any size you want

the The Wider the Hem

the easier it is to bend

in other words a one inch hem would be

easier to bend than a half inch hem

but for what we're doing today

half inch hem is pretty sweet so since

I'm notching I'm going to put the end of

my Snips at the end of my cut

it's the only time we squeeze them all

the way

I think we did this last time

but I'm going to show you

now notice I notched it the wrong way

but I'm putting my thumb over the top of

it

trying to I was trying not to block the

block the Notch from the camera

let's give you a quick demonstration on

Snips if you go all the way to the end

and close your snip

you basically create a saw blade

and uh this is way harder than your skin

and it will take every opportunity to

prove that so don't put yourself in that

position

squeeze the snip Push It Forward squeeze

and push

but that's the same cut and look right

here

no way I'm doing that to that

we're going to put that in the trash can

you're gonna if you if you cut like this

you're not going to make any friends at

work

and you're gonna be you're gonna

constantly be standing in a puddle of

blood

everybody around you should have to wear

their earplugs from the sound of you

screaming all day long

all right we are ready

to start bending we've got our handle

we have our sense of accomplishment

let's go over and bend this up

it's kind of weird for me to do because

we're standing in a shop of tools that

are made to do this but every one of

them is uh expensive and heavy

and uh so what we're going to do is I

went to the hardware store I bought a

couple of clamps

I like a nice commercial grade clamp who

knows if you take your hobby a little

farther and you decide to do it more

often than not it'll be nice to start it

with a high quality clamp and then

you're never going to outgrow them

you're always going to be glad you

started out with something uh

so that you don't have to upgrade down

the road so a clamp like this I think

these are around twenty six dollars but

there are discount uh tool stores and in

every major city in America right now

feel free to buy the the most affordable

option that you can this is our other

big purchase

they call this a pair of duck bills

depending on the region you live in

these can be duck bills hand seamers or

tongs and this gives you a chance to

clamp a large piece of sheet metal and

then do the bending by hand so today's

lesson is

how would you make this tool tray

if you weren't standing in a room full

of really expensive

sheet metal tools we're going to do some

hammering today well not hammering we're

gonna

use a wooden Mallet but

let's start early on in the show

with me letting you know that I always

wear earplugs

they call us 10 knockers sheet metal

workers

the college ten knockers and their

there will be no sense of explaining

that nickname to you here in just a

minute

so what I've done is I scribed the metal

at the place where we want to fold the

Hem

there's a half inch scribe we're going

to go over in the next lesson how to

make a scribe and and how we make these

marks in metal if you look really

closely you can see all the marks that

I'm going to be bending on today

all right here we go

first high-tech piece of material

I'm using a saw horse here because I had

one

but you can use a workbench

a table

[Music]

whatever you have available

we're going to clamp we're going to

clamp the metal between the wood

and the table and that's going to give

us a crisper Bend because what we're

going to do is Bend this entire tool

tray up

with things that you may already have

so one of the things we're going to do

is we're going to tap this hem up

because we're going to fold this and

it's actually going to go all the way

over like a hem on a garment

so you always start at one end and work

your all way all the way across and then

just keep going back we don't want to

start at one end and take it up to

completion we're going to start at one

end or the other your choice let's start

right here

we're going to bend up

[Music]

we're going to follow back

[Music]

adding a little more Bend every time

changing the angle of our mallet

[Music]

every time we strike the metal we're

getting it closer to 90 degrees 90

degrees would be straight up

so this is uh we're not striking hard

because we don't want to stretch the

material we want to bend the material so

you can see I have a very loose grip on

the mallet

so that way if I accidentally hit my

thumb when I'm going across it doesn't

hurt because that's how that's how

lightly we're tapping our project we

don't want to stretch the metal we just

want to bend it

now we're going to back our board off a

little bit

we're going to make sure that we can see

a little bit of table

right here

we don't want to be out here because

that's going to give us a real rounded

Edge and we want a crisper Edge

so we want to make sure we can see the

table behind our project

foreign

here we go we're gonna do the same thing

we did last time start at one end work

our way across

[Music]

tapping it nut lightly because like we

don't want to stretch the metal we just

want to fold it we want to hem it over

so you can tell by the way I'm holding

the mallet

I'm just letting it fall onto the piece

and do the work

if the Mallet falling on the piece

doesn't accomplish the amount of work

that you need to do got to get a bigger

Mallet what we don't want to do is hit

them out down and try to hold it down

let them out do the work if you need

more get a bigger mouth

[Music]

now we've got our hand folded over

pretty far I want you to take you see

can you see that

if you look at it it's almost a u-bend

right now

and now what we're gonna do

from this vantage point I can see

that it's irregular it's not perfect

but from holding it from here I'm going

to strike the Hem right here I'm going

to close it up but from right here I can

see I can watch it fold

all right here we go I'm gonna work our

way across

[Music]

tapping it very lightly because I want

this on the end of the project I want it

to look like a teardrop

that's the most strength

if you fold the metal all the way over

on itself and make it tight this Edge

will get wavy but that teardrop is where

you get the strength to make this stay

stay straight and hold a shape

that's one

here we go let's do that again

I had a good time doing that I'm looking

forward to doing it again

foreign

[Music]

thing we're going to start on one end

and work our way all the way across

take as many passes as you need to

to do what we need to do

[Music]

man look at that that's taking that's

coming along nice

we're gonna back our board off a little

bit

since we have to fold it over we have to

move our board back to create that space

that we need

to have room for the hens

notice I can see a little bit of table

all the way across if our piece is

hanging over the table it'll put a back

break in it it'll put an opposite crease

across our project we don't want to do

that here we go

[Music]

I like it

take a look at that check our progress

progress is good so I'm holding it and

looking at the area where it needs to

come down and uh as opposed to this if

I'm hitting it from this side I can't

check my progress because I can't see

what I'm accomplishing

so I'm going to hold it from this side

and I'm tapping it at an angle this way

so from this vantage point I can watch

it go down and that way I know I'm only

getting the amount that I want

[Music]

man I really like that

all right now here's where our hand

seamers come in we have some shorter

hemmed edges that we want to hem

let's go ahead and do that

all right

it's time to get serious and put my

glasses on

here we go I'm clamping it on the line

and I have to make sure that I'm on the

table I don't want to bend this out over

the vacant air gotta bend it over the

table that way I can push down

and I get a Sharper Edge now you notice

my hand seamers are not as long as the

area that we're gonna

hem so we want to make sure we overlap

now now we've overlapped

same thing we're going to just keep

going back and forth over that overlap

and that's going to give us the best

possible finish

[Music]

did you notice every time I clamped it

I made sure there was overlapping

now since we're right here let's get

this close

[Music]

let's flip it over to our place where we

can see what we want to do

[Music]

there we go

let's do three more of those

we're going to clamp it on the line

we're going to move it over the table

we're going to push down and bend at the

same time

now here we're going to clamp it on

[Music]

push down and bend

now we're going to go back overlap that

bend

overlap

there we go

close

go back to where we have a good view of

water uh what our progress looks like

[Applause]

and I like that

the end is easy because it's shorter

than our tool so we are going to clamp

that

over the table

look at that that was so short so easy

we wanted to do it all in one

here we go

[Music]

now our vantage point

so you can see now we have hemmed all

these edges over so the end of our tool

tray will have a nice finished Edge

that side's done

do this from the same way

over the table pushing down and bending

pushing down and bending

get it close

[Music]

finish it off

foreign

[Music]

pushing down and bend

let's get it close

[Music]

finish it off

[Music]

onto the easy one

over the table

that looks shortly though it's easy

[Music]

all right look at that

now we're going to bend up the side the

main body

your board back on here

we're going to put it on our marks

[Music]

you can use c-clamps in this operation I

like the vice grip the reason I like

it's a one-handed operation and it's a

lot faster otherwise we're turning a

t-handle down you have to hold it with

one hand to turn it with the other

but

that's just personal preference and

that's because this is what I do for a

living and time is always a constraint

but if you're doing this as a hobby time

isn't a constraint

here we go

I'm going to lift this up with my thumb

just to kind of help with the bending

put a little pressure on it

we're going to come along here

[Music]

[Music]

a little bit at a time if you're trying

to do it all you're going to put dents

in it

so since we've got it this far

we're going to push it over to the board

now we still have our tabs here we're

going to go ahead and bend our tabs up

[Music]

since the tab is small we're not going

to try to bend something small with our

hands so it has too much leveraged

against us

look at that we're halfway there

it's not quite 90. you can probably see

that

so let's get it back on the table make

sure we can see a little bit of our

table

we have to back the board off a little

bit

there's all this metal

any metal that we use other than dead

soft aluminum

it all has a memory to in order to get a

90 degree Bend

we have to bend the material past 90 and

let it spring back with its memory let

it spring back to the actual Dimension

that we want

so right now we had it there with the

natural spring back of the material

brought it back so we're just going to

push it that's the reason we backed our

board off

so we can if you watch we're going past

90.

and then whenever we're done

it's going to come back out where we

want it

that's the reason we needed to back it

off

now you can see it's a little closer to

90. we can fine tune that as we go

all right yeah

we're making some pretty good progress

here today

foreign

the edge of the board right on our

scribe line

we're going to get it put a little bit

of pressure on there

and part of this the reason we're

putting pressure on it is to prevent so

much spring back if we just strike it

you can see the metal it wants to return

back to its former state it wants to use

its memory to stay flat

but what I'm going to do is I'm going to

take that option away I'm going to apply

some pressure and then whenever we

strike it with the same amount of force

[Music]

you notice it doesn't have the

opportunity to spring back like it did

so we're just going to add a little bit

of force here and if you you can't if

you're if you can't do it with your hand

you can use your hip

so with my grip here we're just trying

to prevent some of the spring back

foreign

[Music]

we want to slowly work our way across

the project and we don't want to stay in

one place for very long

I should have left those clamps on

so we can bend this half inch tab

one more

now we're going to back it off a little

bit because we've got to allow for that

spring back and that material that has a

memory

we're going to add a little bit in here

and we're just going to go along and tap

this very lightly

[Music]

and then whenever we let go now right

here we've gone a little too far I'll

show you how easy that is to fix are you

ready here we go

there

I'd even break a sweat

[Music]

there's our pan with our two our hems

are folded over on our ends our sides

are folded over

and we've already got this board here

[Music]

we're gonna go ahead and clamp this on

notice my clamp is past this corner

let's move this one down

now we need don't go anywhere

good time to let the train go by anyway

so what we're going to do we want this

tab to go to the inside of our tray not

the outside

so I'm going to put this screwdriver

here and I'm only twisting I'm not

adding any no downward Force if we were

pushing down you can see what kind of

trouble you can get into

so I'm only twisting what I'm doing is

I'm telling this tab

I want it to go inside the tray

only twisting

no downward movement just twisting

now now that we've convinced this tab to

go to the inside of the tray on both

sides can you see that offset right

there

tab will go to the inside of the pan

here we go

so now we talked about memory earlier

I'm going to take this end a little bit

past 90.

and then when it Springs back

it's going to be right where we want it

our board is too long to clamp this one

the same way we did that one

look at this

same thing

borders on the line

now we need to make sure

that our tab goes to the inside

so I'm on the only thing I'm doing is

turning

you can tell by the way I'm holding the

screwdriver

all I'm doing is twisting

we don't want to grab the screwdriver

and try to push down you can see I can

see four places that I would not like my

hand to be if if the screwdrivers

switched out and my hand went anywhere

in this neck of the woods all bad

here we go cabs are going to go to the

inside of our tray

I'm just going to push on the back side

a little bit here there we go

[Music]

foreign

look at that

I like it

look at that that was a flat piece of

metal

we spend up the handle

we're right here

we'll do the same thing half inch hems

I like a half because it's an easy

number to work with it's also an easy

size to bend

and as with any lesson that we do

we want to always

strive for efficiency

and so

I try to do things in the most efficient

way

because that way I get done faster

and the customer gets their project and

I get their money

that's two good things so I'm always

open to any suggestions if you have a

way

that you can do anything that we do if

you have a way that gets it done faster

and more efficiently and you still come

up with the same finished project that

we that our customer deserves I'd love

to hear your input I've like I said I

learned two things every day maybe

you're going to be that one that teaches

me something today here we go

a little bit at a time

nice and easy

[Music]

[Music]

all right now this is looking good

we're gonna back it off a little bit

[Music]

take it a little over 90.

start at one end work your way down

I could have moved my board back a

little more matter of fact let's do that

because I want to give our project room

to develop and have a place to go where

we're tapping it all right here we go

[Music]

I'm glad we took the time to move our

board that's way better

just like we did last time

on our tool tray let's take this over a

little bit more

[Music]

now we're gonna flip it around so we can

watch our progress here we go

I like it

that's one

laying in the edge of our board up with

the Scribe line on our metal

foreign

[Music]

back our board off far enough that our

hymn has a place to go

[Music]

[Music]

a little more

[Music]

finish it up

remember on a hem we want it to have a

teardrop shape to it

you got to have that teardrop that's

where the strength comes from

if we folded our metal over

is we fold it over too tight let's take

a look at this

if we fold our piece over

and smash it tight like this then it's

still wavy but what we want is we want

to have

I've exaggerated that for clarity but

this is what we want the fact that it's

an open teardrop that makes that when

this thing is coming along here

that makes that edge a lot a lot more

sturdy and it holds its shape better so

we don't want to hit it so hard that we

flatten out that teardrop plus when we

get ready to assemble this that Teardrop

Is Gonna

gonna come into play One More Time

all right we've got two more bins to

make in our handle

let's go ahead and line up on those

notches

[Music]

nice and easy

[Music]

you tell the one inch Bend had a little

more resistance to bending than the half

inch did

now the only way we can grab this one

is if we do it in the front

just like we did when we bent up the

base of our tool tray

remember we had to move the board

to the opposite side opposite

configuration

the board is lined up on our notch

I'm going to do the same thing I'm going

to lift

and we're going to tap this around

[Music]

I'm going to make one last pass across

here just to square that bend up

foreign

I'm gonna pull

and we're going to tap it to square it

up

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

the way our board went in there it

doesn't we talked about the spring back

earlier and since the only way to grab

this with our board

prevented us from allowing for that

spring back

um we're going to take this

and we're just going to lean on it a

little bit

it's really easy to overdo it

look at that

[Music]

now we have three tabs on the ends this

is how we attach our handle to our tool

tray

let's pick up our hand seamers again we

can't start in the middle because we

can't get our tool in there so we're

going to start at one end

we're going to push it into the mark

clamp it

bend it 90. now that we've bent that one

now we have access to the second one the

longer one we're going to bend at 90.

same thing here last one

Bend at 90.

now we've been all the three of those

out these are going to be our attachment

points

we're going to attach the handle to the

tray

same thing here we're going to start at

one side you could be either side let's

do this from the opposite way

once we do one of these small ones that

gives us full access to the wider one

across the bottom of the handle

last one's the easiest one

there we go

let's go back over to the workbench and

put our tool tray together this thing's

going to start taking uh taking shape

we're back

we got our tool tray we've hemmed the

edges we've been up the sides now we're

going to put the pop rivets in these

corners and complete the corner I want

you to come in really close

because this is where that teardrop we

talked about is going to work to our

advantage you can see the teardrop right

here

now what's going to happen is this hem

is going to go inside that teardrop I've

got the smallest little screwdriver I'm

going to put it right there in that

teardrop

now I'm not gonna push because again

we're putting ourselves in a predicament

if we start pushing so I want you to use

the inertia of the hammer so all I'm

doing is placing the screwdriver into

the teardrop

some light taps

you see how that affected the teardrop

let's do that over here as well

just a small light tap no pushing

all we want to do is open that hem up

same thing again small light Taps no

pushing

the pushing that's where you get

yourself in trouble

small light taps

no pushing

now here's where the magic happens this

is the tab that we bent up when we were

bending our pan now that tab is going to

go inside that hem

did you see what just happened right

there

the tab goes inside the Hem

now we're going to tap it with a hammer

we're not going to push

[Music]

and look what a nice Corner that is now

we're going to clamp it

we're going to put in our first two pop

rivets

tap it one more time

[Music]

all right here we go

always make sure that your your body

parts your way from the rotating

cutting device so here we go

remember our pop rivet lesson

put the pop rivet in the hole

the river is going to pull that mandrel

through the hollow rivet

that you're going to expand

here we go

you can see the back side of the rivet

how is it expanded and that's what keeps

it from falling back down through the

hole

you got one in

let's put in our second one

you want to make sure when you're

Drilling that you're not just pushing so

hard

that whenever the drill bit goes through

the work

is anything that we're making this is

called the work

that the drill bit doesn't try to gather

you into a

a tornado

of pain now look we've added our two

rivets

that's how that corner is going to come

together that tab came inside and it

slid inside that tear dropped hem didn't

that make a nice corner

I'm going to tap this over

[Music]

dress it up with a file

when you use a file you only cut on the

push

all right you guys take a coffee break

I'm gonna finish each other three sides

and I'll see you right back here

all right we're back hopefully you guys

wouldn't uh took a breather had a cup of

coffee or any other beverage of your

choice

we're gonna attach our handle to our

tray

and uh the way this goes in I think it's

kind of magic come on in nice and close

you'll notice we turned these three tabs

out

and we turned our hems in

on the end of our tool tray and we're

working on our sense of accomplishment

sense of a breath man

what is this

is this some kind of joke

oh yeah yeah it's a joke

man that's in my handwriting too

some Mysteries we're never going to

figure out I don't know I don't know how

that happened let's get back to the

handle

all right here we go

so we have our flanges turned out in our

handle

foreign

over on our ends watch I want you to see

the handle is going to slide under that

hem

under this hem

right here

and look at that wow what a nice fit see

how that all locked together

the tabs on the handle go under the hems

of the end

let's try it again maybe we just got

lucky

all right here we go

tab of the handle

under the Hem

under the Hem look at that it wasn't

lucky after all so the way this handle

locked into our end cap

that's already a tool tray

but we've come this far let's go ahead

and put the rivets in here

so here we go

I'm going to put our vice grip on here

so here's what I'm going to do I want

you to come in real close we're going to

drill a rivet and and rivet the handle

to the end cap I'm going to put my vice

grip on here

in a way

I want you to look at the corner of my

vice grip

let me erase some of that ink off of

there see where the corner of my vice

grip is

that's going to tell me

where I need to put my rivet

so we're going to put our rivet just off

the corner of that vice grip

there we go

all right

take a light strip off

I like it let's do the same thing again

so we're going to locate where we need

to put our hole

by putting it just off the corner so

what we're doing with our vice grip is

we're transferring this Mark

to the back side

so we know our hole has to be right

there

just off the corner of our bicycle

take the vice grip off

foreign

the flange goes under the Hem flange

under the Hem

push it up

we're going to locate our hole with our

vice grip

let's put that hole in there

it's off the corner of our vice grip

all right

get started in the hole

Taste of ice cream sauce

load up our last rivet

locate our holes

with our vice grip

so now we know we want our hole just off

the corner of that vice grip

gonna get the pop rivet starter in the

hole take the vice grip off

look at that

now

we have

a tool tray

and a sense of accomplishment

we have a handle

we made it we decided how what size to

make our Base by some of the things we

wanted to put in

look at that Snips there's a screwdriver

vice grip

file

rubber mallet

we can put the small stuff in the top

we can put

pencils in the handle

I like the big old goodons and I like

the good old Biggins

look at how good they fit in the handle

also you

they carry snacks

savory

sweet

there you go

if you go back to our prior episode

you'll see this looks just like the one

in the drawing

thank you guys for stopping by today

I want to see if you guys can send me a

picture of your tool tray man I'd love

to see it I would like to see these

thoughts and these ideas and these

skills put into place it's Gonna Change

Your Life it'll change your life I

guarantee it you'll see the world in a

different way

thanks for stopping by I'm glad you guys

came along see you next time on

sheet metal is fun