Oxy/Map Tool Caddy & Fire Table

[PJs]

I was inspired yesterday by Toolmaker51's posting of his Un-Bucket Tool Bag to post this little caddy I did last year. These kinds of tips and tricks help us with all the different things we do and thought I would share this handy one for me.

Basically I picked up one of those BernzOmatic OXY/Mapp kits a while back to do some silver brazing and Mapp alone isn't quite hot enough for some of the thing I wanted to do. I won't go into rating it's worth but leave it to say the O2 tanks don't last long and are pricey. But for getting into tight places and portability it's pretty good. The kit came with a little wire rack to hold the tanks but it was basically worthless IMHO...always coming off because of the short hoses. Felt more like I was dragging the tanks around and made it difficult to use and store. After a couple of uses I came up with this idea to hold every thing I might need on a small job, Stable, and stored well.

I made it from some scrap 1/4" acrylic I picked up at our local Tap Plastic's, remanent bins for couple of bucks. It won't survive a 15' drop but its quite robust...acrylic glue is a very strong bonding agent and might imagine most of the joints would stay stronger than the acrylic itself. I could have made it from plywood but then there is the whole painting thing, And Honestly don't care if it gets scratched up. It only took about 4-5 hours to build, mainly cleaning up of the edges and cutting the hand slot in the back and legs. The brass Pivot pins are from and old ground rod I salvaged. They lock the legs in place with only a slight torque and were easy to make.

Here are a few pics of the caddy I came up with.



Here is a drawing I did to keep it straight in my head when I laid out my scraps to maximize the use.



While building it I decided that I wanted a small fire brick table that was (semi) portable and had some fireplace bricks I picked up for $2 apiece a while back. So with some scrap 3/4" Angle Iron, a piece of 1/4" ply and a little construction glue I put this together. I've thought since to put some folding legs on it but don't use it often, so it hasn't been a priority. The nice thing is it stands on end up behind the Caddy when it's stored. A bit heavy but works!



Over all it fits my need and was a fun useful project. Hope it helps others on this great forum also.

~PJ

[rendoman]

Nice and clean job!
Like the line of the little caddy. It's Always a pleasure seeing that our italian kit of similar welding station are worse than yours
Protective good glasses, torch with exchangeable jets, lighter and a better quality valves... Our kits are 2 little tanks, small valves, torch single jet, no lighter, no sunglasses
Got the same feeling about duration of o2 and fuel, even here tanks cost much, that's why some years ago I chose 14lt normal tanks and frover torch. But the portability of your kit is absolute !
It's nice the firebrick table! I wanted to build one, but I can weld over my steel table, and even on mdf wood with not so much damage ( I did many parts of horns on wood , with water can close to position )

[PJs]

Thanks Stefano. Most of the extra's I already had, glasses, striker etc. I keep the mapp gas head in their too just to get a bigger flame tip and general heating if I need it. I thought about making it a 3 tank caddy to include a small propane tank but just seemed too much and typically don't need all three. The best thing for me is I can get into tight place with it or throw it in the back of the car to take it to do something and the small fire table is handy for laying things out.

Thanks again, ~PJ

[C-Bag]

Way to go Wiz, that is so freakin' tidy! I love it. These kinds of posts like this and T-51's Un-Bucket are very inspiring. I really like the acrylic. Never worked with it, never even thought of it, but it seems like such a great alternative to wood. But the very idea you can see everything like in the carrying slots is just the stuff! I'm always trying to make tidy kits like this to try and keep all the parts and like special glasses, hoses, nozzles etc together and the use of acrylic it means at a glance I could see where I stashed it.

A couple of years ago I got into oxy-acetylene welding aluminum and I've got all kinds of stuff for that, fluxes, rods, special doo dads, high $$ glasses, little torch etc that I've just got piled in a drawer......this would be THE solution for that!

Thanks so much for posting this. I'm sure I'm going to have more questions like where do I get acrylic? Home Dump?

[PJs]

Thanks for the kind words C-Bag! I agree, keeping things portable, accessible and visible in my small shop is imperative. These tool bags and totes/caddies are where its at for me and TM51 was right on with his and an inspiration for us all.

Acrylic is pretty easy to work with generally, IMHO. It can be cut with a coping saw/fret saw/hacksaw, jig saw, band saw, or even a table saw and with a trim router. Heck you can even score it (1/4" or less) and crack it like glass. The trick is the blade and feed speed so it doesn't melt and stick back together. Clean up is pretty easy with a sanding board or files and some people use a torch but it takes a steady hand and timing is every thing. They have a bunch of Vids on YT too.

I picked up some jig saw blades for it at Tap Plastics and they work great. Tap is mainly in CA but now in OR and WA too. You can order online also. Lots of places on the net that I know of but the only big box store I've seen it in is OSH, at least with any selection. Our local "Tap" has a great LowBuck scrap bin for drops (all sizes, shapes and colors too) on things they build for business and regular folks. Even found Delrin, UHMW, polyethelene and they have Polycarbonate, and lighting panels too. They will also do a couple of cuts for free for you and love to help with your projects.

I've done a few things over the years with it, like a thin profile spice rack for the counter, the back cover for my lathe apron and my original tail stock Dial indicator base, replaced a cracked lighting panel for a small cubby...lots of odds and sods, usually because it's handy and pretty easy to work with. The only downside to me is, it's not very environmentally friendly but can be recycled, and they are getting better at it...but I'm using scraps for most of my uses anyway...

Thanks again! ~PJ

[DIYer]

Thanks PJs! We've added your MAPP Torch Caddy to our Storage and Organization category,
as well as to your builder page: PJs's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

MAPP Torch Caddy by PJs

tags: torch, holder

[DIYer]

Thanks PJs! We've added your Fire Table to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: PJs's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Fire Table by PJs

tags: table