this is my senior welding project from high school, I built it with the intention of having it in my dorm room, so there should be no way to break in or take it discreetly. I couldn't modify the dorm in any way, so I made it heavy as fuck. its so thick that drilling or grinding though would take hours and be extremely loud, and torching would destroy contents. this cost me roughly $40 to make.
supplies-
10 feet of 3 inch angle
5 square feet of 1/4 plate
8x8 square of diamond plate
can of clear coat
tools-
Scotchman metal worker
Miller tig welder
grinder+cutting wheel, wire wheel, grinding wheelx2
Miller Plasma torch
various PPE
3 sharpies
basic design-
3 inch angle on all sides and corners, 1/4 plate under that. I made mine 1'x1'x6", but if I had more material, I would have gone 1'
3.
I started by making a 12x12 square of 3 inch angle, and laying a piece of 1/4 plate on that.
I put a 6x12 plate on each of the 4 sides, and welded the inside up
I made another 12x12 square of 3 inch angle, and sized it to the first one, to make sure all sides matched, with the pieces of 6 inch in place.
I made a 11.5x11.5 piece of 1/4 and sized it inside of the top half, and tacked it into place, making sure it fit well. after this, before joining the two halves, I measured 1 inch around the inside of the angle, on top of the plate, and cut a slot for the hatch using the plasma.
I didn't get a picture of this part, but I made a slider out of 2 pieces of 8x2 1/4 in plate, using 2 pieces of 2x2 1/4 on each side, with a piece of scrap on top, and an 8x2 slider, with a 1 inch notch to fit two 1 inch pieces of 3 inch square for the padlock, and fabbed it up so it would fit in the middle of the door, but slide out of the way to access the inside of the box. I used the plasma to cut a notch out of the side so it would slide out of the way completely.
for the door I used the piece I cut out of the top plate, a 6x6 plate of 1/4, and an 8x8 piece of diamond plate, and used the plasma to cut a slot for the lock.
now I welded the entire box together, I used a high voltage but a low wire speed in order to get good penetration/strength. I welded the corners first, than the four 6-inch pieces of 3 inch angle on each corner. this was more of a cosmetic addition, as it covers any ugliness in the corner welds, and adds weight. I welded the gap between the top and bottom half of 3 inch angle, and grinded all welds down to a flat finish, and used a wire wheel to bring the entire box to a dull shine. I debated spraying the box in truck bedliner, but decided to clear coat it instead, and I'm happy I did. the dull shine doesn't show well in pictures, but it looks amazing in person.
let the pictures speak for themselves.
I bought the biggest motherfucking lock Home Depot had
