NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE! Folding legs for Pelican 1650 case

 26 Apr 21

     When I go camping I use Pelican brand cases for several containers, spare parts, kitchen/survival stuff. Those 2 cases are always in my 109. In addition I have 2 1650 cases for larger bulkier items such as sleeping bag and clothes and general stuff to keep it organized and free from dirt and water.

When I get to a campsite I gotta pull out stuff, and depending on whether I am going to sleep inside the 109 or not if I want it to stay out all night I want it to stay clean and keep unwanted visitors out of my stuff. Pelican and Nanuk cases do the job!

Once set up I typically stack my cases, but invariably I have to get into the one on the bottom. Then I wind up with all my cases spread all over and me bending over to get in them. When they are stacked I use them as a table to cook on, so I have to make sure I get out what I need first!

I have wanted a camping table other than the one on my back door.

Thinking outside the box I wanted to make some legs to fit my Pelican case. They needed to fold up. The bottoms of the 1650 cases have legs to keep the box off the retractable handle and wheels.

 My first attempt was to make some legs that fit in the case legs, but I just couldn't get a good folding design and the legs when open were too variable to always fit the case.

Sept 2020 I used it once as a cold drink holder at a welcome home from the fire evacuation party.

It wasn't ideal, I could do better. I just had to suss out a way.

I spent time on YT looking at overlanding videos and looking at tables, I kept thinking of how my wooden TV trays fold. Then I took my 1650 case and removed the handle and wheels to see how it was constructed, What exactly did I have to work with?

Then I had an idea and a plan! I'm not one of those draw it all out and do all the maths to design it. I'm a build it kinda guy.

And here's the story (Of a lovely lady.....);

The big thing was how to make them fold. I figured I could make a 45° brace of rod and tube construction that would slide into itself. I was wrong.......kinda, but I'm getting a head of myself.

28 Apr 21

I gathered some materials, 1/2" tubing;

And made a set of brackets to hold the hinged uppers for one side of the case. Each side had to be different due to the different screw hole patterns. I used 3/4" x1/8" flat stock to bend into C shaped brackets. I bought some shouldered bolts in 3/8" x 5/16- 18 and welded 5/16-18 nuts to one end.

Randomly I chose 16" for the leg length and cut off 2 legs. I also cut off 2 x 2.75" tubes for the hinges.

I do not have a notching tool, well I guess I do....my method is to cut a slot as near as possible to the centerline of the tube and then using a round file, notch it.

OK, OK I make mistakes and crappy welds all so you don't have to. Mistake #1 was to precut the short pieces for the hinge. I had no way to hold them in place and stay aligned at 90°. This was accomplished with a longer piece of tubing held in my cheapo 90° fixture. I could then center the leg and cut the hinge to length!

Then weld the hinge on the leg and test fit the bracket 

And on the case,

Rinse, lather repeat,

29 Apr 21

Next came the hard part; it needed a cross brace between the legs with a hinged strut in the middle. Once again I used my notching tool(file) and made 2 ends and some short 5" sections. I joined the sections with the shaft of an old screwdriver with a 3/8" diameter. Trying to be cheap and use what I had, but in the end I had to buy a length of 3/8" rod.

I cut a slot in the tube to plug weld the pivot rod in place.

At this point the strut tube is too long, but I can use it to figure things out.

That was a LOT of work trying to get things squared up and aligned.

30 Apr 21

That done I began work on the other end;

I needed a form to keep my flat stock square as I made my brackets, using some heat and a hammer....

The flat was drilled to fit the screw mounting holes.

1 May 21

I started on the brackets and legs for the other end.

I had seen these brass flange things at the hardware store, but each one was as expensive as 1 of the shouldered bolts. The shouldered bolts were not long enough for this end so I went with the flanges. They are 1/4" id x 3/8" OD, my bolts are 1/4-20 x 2.5" Same building process as previously described.

Here is where I struggled, I could go no further until I figured out the folding system. My original idea of a rod sliding into a tube was dead. The rod was too long to fold or too short to close. I'd been thinking about it since completing the first set of legs. What to do? I really didn't want to put hinged flat stock struts. I thought of all kinds of ways.

I went back to the web, looked at a crap ton of folding legs, watched those amazing guys in India and Thailand build tables with folding legs on the street with a welder and no shoes. Absolutely no one did it how I wanted. I figured it couldn't be done. Time to think outside my box........

I let it rumble around in my head and I put the upside down case on my kitchen counter and played with tubes and pencils for hours. I did come up with an idea.

2 May 21

Honest, I do learn! I made the cross brace pivot differently. I made the brace and then cut the center and installed the 3/8" rod with the hinged leg on it.

As long as my rod could go through the tube I was good, it was the hinged end on the cross brace that denied it going through. I couldn't go through it, I'd have to go around it!

I made my next hinged end with the sliding tube under the hinged tube for the cross brace.

Test fit

The concept worked, the rod stays in the tube when extended and protrudes out the rear when collapsed, so I welded the cross brace rod into place.

 Oboy! now I had to deconstruct the first hinged strut and remake it so it was an underachiever, I also had to ream the inside of the tubes to rid them of a seam and any welding deformation. I found my drill with the round file in it set on reverse and run in and out a jillion times got it smooth and slightly larger for the 3/8" rod to go through. The reason the drill was on reverse is because the round file is spiral cut and when in reverse the file would tend to come out not get sucked in and jammed when running clockwise.

I had wanted a single hinge position for the center rods and had to see if the legs would lie flat.

Anywho, I put on the tube hinge bits on the bottom of the 3/8" rods.

I scrounged a section of 2" square tubing and cut off 2" and then cut that in half to make a bracket for my strut rod ends.

3 May 21

Now for this I went with 2 pivots, mainly cause I didn't offset my rods enough to get them side by side. my bad.... I also decided to just use 3/8" x 2.5" bolts for the hinges. I really would have liked to use all the same sizes for my hinges and probably would go with the 1/4" and brass flanges if I had it all to do over.

So a couple of 3/8" holes, so hard to square up, probably should have drilled them before I sliced the tubing in half.

I wasn't sure if I should do 1 or 2 bolts into the case to hold bracket. I finally decided on 1, a 3/8" allen button head bolt with as large a washer as I had to provide back up.

Centering;

Welding the nut on.

Once the center of the case was found I drilled that and bolted the bracket in for a test fit.

Open

and closed.

Inside

I hope that I have figured out a simple way to keep the legs open and closed. I am using R-pins.

First thing I did was to drill some 5/32" holes but my frelling drill bit broke in the hole. I had to drill from the other side and I got lucky and hit it. Then using the broken bit shaft I was able to hammer it out enough to grab it with some side cutters. I used the blue tape to keep the rod and tube in the same relationship while drilling.

It was really hard to center the hand drill and drill through the tube and rod at the same time. I did the extended holes first and soon worked out that it was better to unbolt the legs and put them in a vise. So I did that and started with a small bit to go through. Once the holes were in I took it apart and drilled larger holes for the r-clips.

After doing the extended holes I had to bolt it all back up and slide the legs down for the folded holes. These I went right for the blue tape and unbolting method, then into the vise and used the same holes in the tube as a guide for the new rod holes.

Bolted it back in and tried it out! 

Extended

Folded

One of each.

I stood it up on my rocky driveway, to take a gander at it.

4 May 21---May the Fourth be with you!

I still had to level the legs and add some feet. The feet are 3/8" galvanized bolts. I did a crap load of measuring and a little cutting. Measure twice and cut once REALLY applies when working with metal!

I sliced a slot in the legs to plug weld the bolt in.

After that was all done it was time for paint. I had to disassemble it yet again..... As I took it apart I used a stamp to id parts locations, a couple coats of Permatex rust preventer and a couple coats of flat black paint.

I had to ream out the paint from the sliding tubes with the round file and drill, for them to work smooth again.

A lot of time, you can see it took a few 4-5 hour days to build. I think it will work great as a table for the stove or whatever when camping. Not so sure about the packability in the 109 with the rest of the stuff, but I know the legs will not come flopping open when shifting it around.

I think the r-clips I got while the right shape are too small to easily push in.

30 Aug 2021, Update;

The best hitch pins I found are Hillman: .125 x2-9/16.

A couple days ago I set out to make another set of legs for my second Pelican 1650 case, so I took measurements of the first set and make a cartoon for the dimensions. Purchased what I needed and then due to the frelling hot days I worked a couple hours every morning for 3 days to make the set. It was A LOT easier knowing what I needed to do.

   This time I started with the center mount and the brackets to screw on to the case. It is these dimensions that determine the tube length for the hinge parts. Eventually I got it all built, this time I went with 3/8-16 bolts at all the hinges, much simpler.

Then I got to thinking.............why can't I use the wheels? And last night I went to bed with the germ of an idea. Could I modify the wheel mount to fit between the case and my leg bracket? Would it be viable as a wheeled case?

Here is a look at the wheel bracket;

Notice the raised rings around the holes, the ones in the bottom of the picture are where the leg brackets mount.

Where the wheels mount;

The other side of the wheel mount is recessed to fit over the case nubs.

Using my disc/belt sander I removed the rings from the 1 set of holes.

And fit it in place, here I did some measurements, there is a 6mm height difference between the top of the case nub to the top of the wheel bracket.

Seeing this might work I went ahead and did the other side, and mounted the legs;

Of course the next step was to drag it through my driveway and see if it was functional. I discovered that I need to fold the legs nearest the wheel first to get the rod portion to not be in the way.

Followed by the obligatory set up and pictures.

What have I learned?

Yes the wheels can be retained. There is a now a 6mm lean to my case, so either a spacer or trimming the legs is needed. Or not. The ground out camping is hardly ever level.

I don't think the stock pull-out handle can be easily adapted, it is pretty complicated to just slap it on and then the leg brackets. The legs themselves make a pretty sloppy handle, flopping around. A tubular handle might be made though.

Don't misplace the original screws.