Hey guys, thanks for all the complements. 66bowtie, the box part of the tool chest is made out of 3/4" birch plywood, and is held together with glue and screws. The drawer slides are held to the box with machine screws and t-nuts (blind nuts). You can see the t-nuts on the outside of the box. I don't like the way they show, but I didn't think wood scews holding the rails from the inside would stay put. I've come up with a couple ways to get around this if I were to build one again.
The drawers are just basic pans that I had a sheet metal shop form. Then I welded up the corners. After I drilled all the holes for the slides and handles, I had them powder coated. The faces of the drawers are sheet aluminum cut to size. One machine screw at each end and the handles hold the face to the drawer. The aluminum I used was about an 1/8" thick, but I think it would look better if had used 1/4" material.
All together I think I spent about $600 on materials, which is still isn't cheap. But I think it's as good or better than the store bought ones at twice the money. I worked on it when I could, but my best guess would be about 60 to 70 hours. A lot of that time was design time, so the next one will go a lot faster and I'll be able to make it a little more refined too.
One trick to remember is to build the drawers first. That way you can build the box to fit them. If you build the box first, and the drawers end up a little too big, yer screwed. That's the basics of it. If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Paul.
