Short story: I want to buy a steel tool storage top cabinet with drawers (the kind that normally sits on top of a matching rolling cabinet) to go under my workbench. I have plenty of width and depth, but not much height, so I need to either remove, or cut off part of, the lid that raises. I will investigate total removal first (it doesn’t look easy, I’ve seen the unit in the store), but having part of the lid left may prove beneficial to helping keep sawdust out.
I have no welder and I have no experience or knowledge of welding, so that may not be a solution for me. I will check on that further, but for now assume that is a no go. I have an edge grinder, can you cut 18-gauge steel with an edge grinder? Is there any other tool that I could maybe rent that would do the job? Bear in mind that the cut would have to be made in situ, with the lid still on the unit.
(the unit I am interested in is on sale through Wednesday, so I’d like to figure this out before then)
An edge grinder can easily “cut” 18 gauge steel, although I would describe the process more as burn away a strip the thickness of the grinding disk. I haven’t used one for any significant amount of cutting so am not very skilled, and I find the hardest part is cutting an accurate line. From your description I’d say that if you can’t remove the lid before cutting part of it off, making accurate cuts might be difficult.
As an alternative, you might be able to use a hacksaw to start a cut on a corner, then a reciprocating saw to continue. 18 gauge is not that thick, and unless the unit is made of some exotic type of steel a standard metal blade will cut it easily and quickly.
How about not cutting the top at all, but removing it from its mounting hinges. It went on, so its gotta come off.
Maybe some full extension drawer slides would let you slide it backwards, or sideways?
Just taking it off and doing without might be the easiest route.
In my former house, some of the brickwork at the back had deteriorated due to water seepage from the evestrough along a flat-roof portion. There were some stonemasons building a new house across the street, so I asked them if they could replace part of the wall, which they were happy to do if I supplied the brick.
They did a fine job, but the point of this little anecdote is the amazing saw they had. It was a gas-powered circular saw – an electric version would have been just as good – and it cut through brick like the metaphorical knife through butter. After it was done, they found some scraps of galvanized sheet metal and, just as a no-cost favour, used it to seal the roof edge so that water would flow directly into the eavestrough. They used the same amazing saw, which cut through the galvanized steel sheets like the aforementioned knife through butter. I jokingly asked if they were using a diamond saw, and they said yes – it was a circular saw blade tipped with industrial diamonds. I imagine those blades aren’t cheap, though, but it might be possible to rent them.
Harbor Freight has a good set of metal shears that doesn’t cost much. 18 gauge will cut easily with them. They have some cheaper versions that I haven’t tried but for several reasons I don’t think are worth the money. This one is on sale for the rest of the day for $39.99. They cut straight and easily, you’ll get a finished cut, much better than using a cutting disk on an angle grinder.
Sorry, just reread the OP. To get through the edges where the metal is doubled up you may need to start and cut with a hacksaw or angle grinder.
But I have to ask, why aren’t you removing the hinges and taking the top off altogether? Those top drawers are often nearly useless, if you store things on top of the cabinet you won’t want to move everything to open the lid. Might as well take it off.
Thanks for all the replies. To clarify a few points: here is the type of unit I mean (width varies, but essentially the same structure). The top lid curves down to match the shape of the sides. The issue is not putting something on top of it, but if it sits under my workbench, I can’t raise that lid more than about 3 inches. I have not been able to find any units like this at a price I can afford that doesn’t have a lid like this. All the floor-standing models are too tall to fit, even without casters.
As to removing the lid, as I mentioned I might try that, but looking at the unit at the store, those black plastic things that cover the sides also cover whatever the attachment of the lid is, but from what I can see it appears to be riveted. Also I’m not sure how to remove the pneumatic supports, it wasn’t obvious. I would have to tinker. It’s not ruled out.
If I cut across the lid just above that bump-out that says Craftsman, it would leave the flat part of the lid but not the part that folds around. So the top would be partly covered but I could still reach in and get stuff, or lift that partial lid up 3 inches for a little better access.
I would have to probably brace the lid in the fully open position (as in the link) and cut it across. I have a reciprocating saw, and I have a jigsaw (I saw a guy on Youtube who cut a sheet of 18 gauge steel fairly easily with his jigsaw and a 21 TPI blade for metal). That would be a lot easier to control than a reciprocating saw, but tiring to cut at that angle (sideways). The Harbor Freight metal shears look promising too, but I don’t expect I’ll ever use them again after this job.
So frankly, where I am now is that the jigsaw with metal blade looks the most do-able. If I can’t figure out how to take off the lid without making too much damage. If you think that’s a bad idea, please let me know (and why, of course). Thanks again everyone.
You’re going to utterly butcher that job. The edge you cut will be sharp, uneven, ugly, and need some kind of protective rubber edge installed over it or you will cut yourself every time you reach in there. IMO, don’t go there.
The right answer is remove the hinge pin(s), and lift the lid off for good. Based on a LOT of other Craftsman cabs, I would bet there is a piano hinge across the back of the unit which runs full-width. Which has a single long hinge pin that’s been flared at both ends. Cut that off with an angle grinder and drive the hinge pin partly through, then pull it from the other end.
The pneumatic supports are installed in one of two ways. Either there is a small ball on a post on the cab which fits inside a socket on the strut, or there is a screw or bolt which runs through the center of an eye on the strut and into a threaded female body post on the cabinet. For the ball and socket, some muscle will separate the two parts. For the bolt version, you’ll probably need to cut the plastic covers off the bottom end of the struts to access the bolts.
The key thing is that you really don’t care how much damage you do to the parts you’re going to pitch, but do care about any damage to the parts you’re gonna keep. So cut, push or pry with that thought uppermost.
If the 3D view in your link is accurate, it appears that you can remove the entire lid by cutting off the two posts on the insides of the top compartment where the pneumatic hinge rods attach. I can’t see any other hinges in the picture. If you have a hefty pair of side cutting pliers you may be able to snip the posts off close to the walls and then file away/smooth down as much of the remaining posts as you want. The other option would be to brute force the ends of the hinge rods from the posts, a claw hammer and a small block of wood to minimize damage to the walls may do the trick. This would leave the posts sticking out, but you could probably cut them off with your reciprocating saw. I’d tape a piece of cardboard to the cabinet walls to protect them from the saw blade.
Definitely take that lid off. You may want to look at bottom and intermediate tool cabinets meant for stacking. They won’t have hinged tops on them, only single cabinets and top cabinets have those. Bottom cabinets are usually on wheels, you might find that useful in your shop.
There’s an obvious full-width piano hinge just below the “Caution” sticker in one of the pics. The pneumatic struts are not hinges; they’re supports to prevent the lid from slamming when it rotates about that piano hinge.
I have already looked extensively at bottom tool cabinets, they are all too tall to fit under the workbench, which is the only space in my tiny shop I have to put such a thing. Rolling around is not desired. I have not seen anything else without a hinged top except a couple of very expensive brands. Sorry, I thought I had made that clear before.
Nice vote of confidence there. Of course it would be sharp, I’m not clear why it would be uneven and ugly. I think a protective rubber edge is not the end of the world.
Nevertheless, thank you for the very specific suggestions for how to remove the lid. They will probably be useful.
I disagree. Both the 3D view, and the square on front view picture show an obvious gap between the bottom edge of the lid and the top of the cabinet, ruling out a full width piano hinge. What I do see now in the right hand image in the second row is a pin hinge in the corner of the lid, which makes more sense.
I still think that the lid could be removed fairly easily and without doing much damage to the cabinet. It may also turn out that the removed lid could still fit on top and be pulled straight out and slid straight back on in the limited vertical space that @Roderick_Femm has descibed.
Ding ding, we have a winner. Removing the cover would have been the way to go, but I didn’t even need to do that much. First I removed the pneumatic struts, which I did with a very small screwdriver prying out a piece of plastic on each end that, on its other side, was holding the strut around the ball support on the wall of the unit (sorry, hard to describe) – this was fairly easy to figure out once I could get a really close view in good light. It looked like it was made to come out that way, and so no damage to the struts. Then I realized that, without the struts, the cover was free to swing all the way over and hang against the back, and that there was room for that under the workbench. It wouldn’t be doing any good, but it would still be intact and attached, and able to be used in the future if conditions change. So that’s what I’ve done.
The cover would have been easy to remove, but not without damage. There was no hinge at all in the back, just two rods sticking out that fitted into that big black plastic structure, which I could not figure out how to remove. Lacking the ability to do anything about that black plastic structure, all I would have needed to do was to saw through one of those rods, lift up that side of the cover a little, and slide the other rod out.
My original solution was wrong in several ways, which I might have realized on my own once I had the thing in my possession, but several of you managed to persuade me of that in advance. I appreciate it.