[SplitRim]

I've put this in "The Pit Lane" as its a "Pit Box" and nowhere else seemed appropriate, as its not your normal idea of a Scratchbuild. Mods feel free to reposition as you see fit.

I've been using a cheap plastic tool box to carry my slotcars around in for a while, but it's a bit on the small side. Ok if you're running just 1 car at a meeting, but for SlotRallys where we run 4 different cars over the day, it means I've got another case to carry as well as my food supply.

I looked at purpose built stuff, but as I've not got a vast income at the moment, I'd rather put the £80 towards a better controller, thats if I had a spare £80. What I do have is plenty of spare time(I'd rather I didn't) so I thought about building something out of Ply or MDF.

I priced up the materials and figured I could put something together for about £30. Ok its still £30, but I fancied the idea of the satisfaction I'd have if I built something from scratch. The idea was put on hold as I figured I'd do something after Christmas.
My wife had me take some pics of the kids to give as a present to her mother for Christmas, so she dragged me to the well known Swedish purveyor of firewood (you know, Blue and Yellow Logos......) to look for a frame before we had one made.

On the trip through the store I came across this:



Its called MOPPE, Its measurements are Width: 42 cm Depth: 18 cm Height: 32 cm

I've got a good eye for dimensions, and was pretty sure I could get 2 1/32nd cars into each of the top 3 drawers! Despite it only being £16.99 I'd not got enough cash on me, so decide I'd come back another day to get one.

Imagine my delight when Santa had dropped me one off on Christmas Day.

Its made from untreated finished ply, so I figured a quick coat of wood primer, and a top coat and I'd be the proud owner of a new PitBox!

More to follow,

Simon

 

[tifosi]

That looks great, can you tell us the measurements of the inside of the drawers?

 

[staglinger]

Hi Simon
I think the only two you can use are the middle two sadly 200mmx180mm
or the top 3 for single garages.
mine are 2 car 300mmx180mm .
regards ade.

 

[slotcarscrapyard]

Thats a great find!
You could use 2 of these joined together with a piano hinge and add a carry handle on top for a super deluxe version!

 

[loosesalute]

That`s great Simon...you want to think yourself lucky. I have to use a lurid pink picnic box!

Cheers,
Kev

 

[SplitRim]

Thanks for the comments Guys, I'll measure the internal drawers when I find a tape/ruler.

However, Heres a picture of one of the three top row Drawers......



Ninco Mosler body and Scaley C73 Porsche sharing the space, as you can see they are deep enough for 2 layers of cars, dependant on type. I had to trim the rear of this drawer to clear the bolts below the handle. Fixing 2 together might make it a bit bulky, and heavy: empty it weighs about 4kg.

Its painted with woodprimer ready for a top coat once I've found a tin in the garage. I drilled the top and this is the Handle, £2.69 fron the Range, with a bit of brass to act as a strenghtener.



This is the whole thing painted with handle in place, still in primer though. I've had an interesting idea for a "Top coat"..........

 

[Scorpus Flex]

looking good i personally never knew they sold anything useful in ikea.

 

[Ian B]

Wow I could do with some of those, just to tidy up my work bench area, great find

Mind you I haven't been to the Scandinavian store for 20 years!

 

[SplitRim]

Cheers Ian, I try to avoid it but when you find something like this, and those hotdogs, makes it work the trip.

I've actually got something almost identical in Dinosaur pattern cardboard from when my daughter was little, she's now 21, so wasnt too surprised when I found the Plywood one.

 

[SplitRim]

Whilst I was looking for paint in the garage, I was moving some boxes and in some was part of my collection of Ordnance Survey maps( google Ordnance Survey if you're not from UK).

I have hundreds of OS maps, quite a few ancient rare ones which are treated with reverance and kept in the house. The stash in the garage, are duplicates of '70, '80 and '90's Landranger 1/50000. Mostly Mids and North of England and Wales, from my road rallying days. Several of them have many copies, as I used to get every update on publication, and due to marking them up for Road Rallies needed 5 or 6 a year In some cases as many as 30. All marked with Not As Map junctions and features! 119 Buxton and Matlock had 32 copies, so I figured i could spare one for a bit of PaperMache.......

This is what I ended up with.





The drawers need a coat of something, not sure what yet, the whole thing will need some kind of varnish, I'll get it some rubber feet. The Drawer shown has a Pair of 1/24th Tamiyas in, as you were wondering about the size Ade.....

So that the drawers dont fall out, I have a couple of ideas, but need to wait 'til my pal gets back from a business trip to China, as I need the use of something at his works.........

So Tif, I found a tape after I'd done a bit of work on the box yesterday.

All of the drawers measure D (front to back) 6 7/16" 164mm H (top to bottom) 3 1/2" 88m

Widths of each row
Top 3 W (side to side) 4 7/8" 123mm
Mid 2 W 7 7/16" 190mm
Bottom W 15 7/16" 392mm

 

[DJ]

Brilliant, love what you've done with the old maps, there's something simply wonderful about OS maps.

 

[Groomi]

That looks great. Love the idea.

I'm almost tempted to do as someone else suggested and join two together with a piano hinge and some clasps on the opposite side.

It's the sort of thing that would look great painted up in classic racing liveries - from simple schemes such as Rob Walker Racing blue with a white strip, to more complex schemes such as Martini stripes.

 

[tifosi]

Ta for the dimensions spli, I will be interested to know your solution to the drawers falling out!

Tif

 

[FZSsemans®]

great idea!! nb iron man..........just bought a bed for my daughter. 200 euro, 3 drawers and I couldnt even buy the wood for that money. Somethings are good and easy for little money.
I took an office thing with me years ago: was for A4 papers. 6 cars stand on 1 plateau..........bring it on!! right down corner you see it

and the nice ones go on a glass plate
with a rolling 6 drawer things, made for 6 boxed cars, by our swedish friend

I hate the crowded store, but some things are good, cheap and cant be made bymyself for that money

and with taht money I can buy those cars!

 

[scaleslotcars]

I discovered these handy drawers about ten or twelve years ago when I built this kitchen cupboard,

Mine came from Ikea as well, they only had the smaller drawers in the box.(six in each)
I had some left over and they were knocking around for a few years until I got this slot box(birthday present)

and luckily three of them fitted in the open space that was at the bottom perfectly, even matching the original drawers in the box at the top!

 

[SplitRim]

Patience Tif, I have a couple of ideas, also in the recycling vein.....

Hopefully it'll be completed before Oldtimers so you'll be able to take a butchers at it there.

 

[RS Slot Racing]

How bizarre that you've stumbled across this idea. About 5 years ago I was mooching around (being dragged actually) Ikea and came across the same range of boxes. I bought the one you've shown for keeping spares in - nice and tidy. At the time they also made one with three wide drawers and I thoguht it would make a good transport box for my race cars. I made dividers for the top drawer, so as to stop 1/32 cars from sliding about.
Then one evening as I took the box out of my car I had the box tipped forward slightly and to my surprise the drawers started sliding out, heading towards the ground and a catastrophe of slot cars!

I managed to catch the drawers in time and from that day on the box sports a very smart non-slip strap.

I've taken pictures, but it seems I'm not able to add them to my reply so you'll just have to guess what it looks like!

Col.

 

[SplitRim]

That was my worry as I didnt fancy playing pick up on a wet carpark somewhere.

I've thought about bungee cords etc, but thought it was a bit untidy to finish it that way. I have alsorts of carp lying about the 2 car garage, thats never had a car in it for 9years, so I'm looking at a couple of other options. Like I said before, after my chores I've got plenty of time to think of something.

Problem is its 5mm ply and theres not much free space between the drawers and the frame, so hinges will be tricky to fit, I didnt do wood work at school.

Simon

 

[Coopdevil]

Have you consider magnetising the trays to stay in place? Steel paper on the inner surface of the "back wall" of the box and unwanted traction magnets out of RTR cars mounted on the back of each tray?

 

[scaleslotcars]

Cut a piece of ply (or similar, maybe perspex even) the same size as the box, hinge it at the bottom and put some kind of lock at the top, when shut it will completely seal off the box and when open provide a nice flat area to work on