Good advices for a newbie (threading tools lathe)

[C-Bag]

Wow! When you say heavy duty you mean it! If there was a nuclear strike in Italy that box would survive!

Before mig welders got so cheap here there was a device called the "metal stitcher" that you replaced the work lead of your arc welder with. I never used one, but the idea was it automatically moved the rod in and out making it so you could weld thin sheet metal. They used to carry it as Eastwood but it looks like it went away. My little Lincoln 175T mig welds thin stuff really well. But if it gets really thin I oxy-acetylene weld it.

I think I would have gone the sheet metal route for that case. Even though I don't have a metal brake. I do have a small plasma cutter and I've come up with a trick for making boxes with it. I draw it all out on the sheet and instead of cutting the whole crease I leave breaks in the cuts 1" long and space them along the crease lines. Then I can bend the box by hand. There are of course the gaps where the plasma cuts are, but if it's a place where I'm worried about aesthetics I put aluminum angle over the cuts. Makes for a classy looking box. With places like Harbor Freight and Eastwood selling these inexpensive mig's and plasma cutters now for around $400 and they are getting great reviews they are more affordable than ever.