Materials for storage box

[Pat]

A friend of mine who operates a cement business has asked me to make him a storage box that will be attached under the bed of one of his large work trucks. This storage area will be used for holding several 5 gallon buckets of metal stakes and numerous other heavy items. The dimension he wants is 10' long, 2' high, and 30" deep. He wants 2 drop down doors that will be approx 5' long each, and expanded metal used on the doors, sides, and bottom.

Can anyone give me their opinion on what thickness of material to use. I was thinking on using 2x2x1/4" angle for the frame, but then thought about how he overloads everything and now I am not too sure this would be heavy enough even with appropriate support. It's just hard for me to visualize how much weight this thing could hold..........Thanks

[grocery_getter]

Does a lb of steels weigh more than a lb of feathers?

If you take the dimension of the box 10' x 2' x 30" and get the volume of the box in cuin, you'll have 120"x24"x30" you'll get 86400 cuin. Now find out what the weight of scrap steel is per cuin, multiply that lbs/cuin weight with the numbers above and you can get the total weight of the content of the box. Add some more lbs at the end of the calculation to account for the weight of the welded box itself and I think you'll get a good guestimate of how much weight that you're dealing with here.

Andre

[bitternut]

24,503 +or- pounds if you pack it real tight.

[Guest]

Are we talking angle frames with expanded metal panels on them? I think 1/4 x 2 x 2 is ok, just use lots of bracing. After all, if it last for ever...you're out of a job!

For a floor you could most likely get away with 3/16" plate. Run braces under the plate every 2', and it should be bomb proof!

[Pat]

Yes, I was thinking of using 2x2x1/4" angle iron for the frame, and 1/4" expanded metal for the front, bottom, back, and sides. I do plan on using plenty of supports which leads me to another question. For the bottom supports, would it be better to use something else besides the angle iron? I am kind of new at this and don't mean to be a pest, but I would rather learn now by those that have the knowledge, rather than later after the thing falls apart while on the interstate and hurts somebody. All help is greatly appreciated.

I just thought of another thing I am curious about. Dose anyone know if mounting this storage box to both the bottom of the truck bed, and the truck frame would create a problem as far as the frame flexing, and possibly damaging the support........Thanks.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Pat
Yes, I was thinking of using 2x2x1/4" angle iron for the frame, and 1/4" expanded metal for the front, bottom, back, and sides. I do plan on using plenty of supports which leads me to another question. For the bottom supports, would it be better to use something else besides the angle iron? I am kind of new at this and don't mean to be a pest, but I would rather learn now by those that have the knowledge, rather than later after the thing falls apart while on the interstate and hurts somebody. All help is greatly appreciated.

I just thought of another thing I am curious about. Dose anyone know if mounting this storage box to both the bottom of the truck bed, and the truck frame would create a problem as far as the frame flexing, and possibly damaging the support........Thanks.

You could go heavier..like square tubing, but I think the angle iron will be fine. As far as the bed flexing that will have to be your call cuz you know where this thing is going...unless you can post some pictures....that would be helpful. There are a lot of experienced weldors here, that can help, too.

[Pat]

Thanks for the information Rocky. I will get some photos of where it is to be mounted and see if I can get them posted. I got a new Sony digital camera and wish they would have included "Digital pictures for idiots" as the instruction manual. The last picture I e-mailed someone would have required a big screen tv to view the entire picture. I have to work out the sizing problems...thanks again.

[jeffm]

off topic

most modern cameras output at a impressive resolution (1024x768 and up up up!). That's why they look huge.

a lot of times the software you use to download pictures (included with the camera) has some sort of image resizing facility, or your operating system may include something.

[Guest]

I set my camera to 640 x 480 which will come out to around 75k to 100k. Over 102k is the limit of this forum...the best way is to "optimize" the picture, rather than to make the picture smaller. Optimizing just eliminates some of the informaltion in the picture without noticeably changing picture resolution, or size.
ACDSee 5.0 has this as an add-in feature. Works great!