Last time I was home, I bought a Mafell ZSE 330K. It was for sale in the northern part of Germany, just about an hour or so south of the border, so I was lucky since most of the machines I find for sale in Germany are situated in the southern part of the country.
It came with a transport cart for use on the job site, but I wanted to make a box where it could be stored and also where I could keep any tools needed for the regular use of the machine.
I happened to have some thin larch boards that I had milled once, and there was just enough to make the sides of the box. They were planed int he thickness planer and ripped before gluing them into some panels.
The panels were trimmed to size on the table saw, and I marked up for some dovetails. Since it was going to be a tool box, I opted for regular through dovetails. With pins on the end boards where I would mount some chest lifts.
I gang cut the tails, and after some uneventful chiseling, I could mark the pins. Some more chiseling and the sides were assembled.
I hadn't really planned on what to use for a bottom, but I didn't want the box to be heavier than needed since the Mafell itself is no light weight machine. I had a piece of 15 mm plywood, and I planed a rabbet along all sides of it so the bottom would fit inside the sides and still have a flat part to be glued to the underside of the sides. This also allowed me to nail from the sides as well as straight from the bottom to give a strong joint.
Fitting out the box was an incredible enjoyable and relaxing part of the project. I was in no hurry, and I tried to not fuss too much over ultra fine finishing details.
The fence for the saw is kept in the bottom, around it, there were room for the tools needed to adjust and service the saw. I included 3 spanners, a screwdriver and chain saw file. There is also a room for the riving knife and the chain + saw bar. I drew a line around each part and wrote what should go where.
When the interior was fitted, I mounted a set of chest lifts. To give a bit more for the screws to bite into, I glued a small piece of plywood to the inside where each lift was going to be.
The lid was made from an old glued panel from an old solid kitchen cabinet door (or something like that). It was a panel that I had kept on the loft of the barn for purposes like this.
To keep the lid from scooting around, I added some strips on the underside, that works as dust seals as well as helping to keep the lid in place. I didn't mount any hinges or any locking devices. The idea is that you can just lift of the entire lid and gain access to the saw and tools. I was afraid that if I had hinged the lid, I would have to add straps or similar to prevent it from falling over and ripping the hinge screws out. And all that would just make it more difficult to reach inside the box.
I was happy to see, that when everything was in place, there was still room for a 5 L jug of chain saw bar oil. So the box contains all that I need to use the saw at any job sites.
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