100% Biker – August 2019

http://www.100-biker.com | issue 250 | 100% Biker | 107

SHEDHEAD IS OUR REGULAR LOOK AT ALL

ASPECTS OF BIKE BUILDING, COURTESY

OF OUR RESIDENT METAL-WORKING

SHED HEAD GENIUS, BLACKJACK

CABINET RESHUFFLE

IT OCCURRED TO ME THAT IF YOU CUT A FILING CABINET IN HALF AND ADDED

SOME CASTORS, IT WOULD MAKE A SERVICEABLE TOOLBOX TROLLEY

I

f you’re building bikes, then in the first place you’re going to

need stuff, and in the second, you’re not dead.

The stuff presents a problem as you need space to keep the

stuff and some way of keeping it organised, and preferably

some sort of work surface. The not being dead brings a slightly

less obvious problem in that, if you’re not dead, then you are

getting older, and if you’re getting older, then the adage ‘work

smarter, don’t work harder’ starts to make a lot more sense.

So, while I’m finding the time to blend the welds on

Skinny Minnie, I also have to find the energy, enthusiasm

and the bloody grinder. That tends to entail lots of walking

back and forth which mounts up over the course of the

day because the bench with the vice on it is about twenty

feet from where I’m working on the frame, so things like

making the side stand tend to result in even more walking.

If you don’t have a permanent work space for the bike, you

probably know what I mean.

Which brings me to filing cabinets (Fig.1). They’re not hard

Fig.^1

Fig.^2

Fig.^3

to find, they’re often free, but they’re not great for storage

past a certain point. However, a while ago it did occur to me

that if you cut one in half and added some castors, it would

make a serviceable toolbox trolley; that worked out fairly

well and led me to thinking about a cross between a mobile

workbench and a storage trolley for small fabrication jobs. I

already had a free filing cabinet, but they often seem to turn

up on Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace at anywhere

between free and a tenner – ones with keys are a bit more

desirable. The first step is to take the drawers out, which

you do by pressing down the catch levers on the runners and

then pulling the drawer free (Fig.2). That will trip the locking

mechanism which is a feature to stop all the drawers being

opened at once and toppling the cabinet, so you then need

to depress the tab (Fig.3) and reset the mechanism before

moving on to the next drawer.

Since I was using the 1-inch (25mm) square 1/16-inch

(1.5mm) wall box section I bought to make the TIG trolley