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Silver soldered storage box

SCHOOL OF MAKING

ice have a tendency to nibble on

power cables. Some people say

it’s because they’re attracted to

plasticisers, but maybe they’re

just mistaking the orange cable

for cheese. Whatever the case, it

can be important to protect your power tools from

these hungry visitors, and a metal storage box

should do just that.

The box is designed to be folded from thin sheet

metal and silver soldered together. The folds add

to the strength of the box and stop it from flexing.

The design of the box incorporates tabs or flanges.

These provide the silver solder joints a large surface

area for bonding.

CAD DESIGN FOR SHEET METAL

The box and lid were created using the sheet

metal feature of Fusion 360 which was released

earlier this year. You can download a trial copy of

the software and then license that as a student,

Protect your tools from furry intruders

Silver soldered

storage box

M

enthusiast, or start-up for a free license. Fusion 360

requires an internet connection and an AutoDesk

account to work. Your work is saved to the cloud

although the software is installed and runs locally –

hsmag.cc/QtvwtU.

Before starting, it’s worth setting up the ‘Sheet

metal rules’ which define the properties of the

material you are working with. These control how

the metal bends and how much material the CAD

package includes for the folding. When metal is

bent, the metal on the outside is stretched and

the metal on the inside is compressed. How each

metal behaves is defined by the k-factor and the

software uses that and the parameters of the

bend to determine the characteristics of the fold.

The default for steel sheet is 2.5 mm thick, so we

created a new rule for 0.5 mm.

Once you’ve defined your rule, sketch a rectangle

for the base of the box on the X-Z plane. Switch

to the sheet metal workspace and create a flange

representing the first side of the box. When

creating the first side you’ll be prompted to choose

Right

Rules control how

the metal bends

Above

Our tools are stored safely away from any hungry animals

Andy Clark

After an aerospace

apprenticeship and

electronics degree at

Imperial College, Andy

took a job as a software

engineer. For the last

ten years he’s been

making and repairing

in a shed at the bottom

of the garden. You can

see more of his exploits

at workshopshed.com

@workshopshed