Here you can see how a transfer punch works. They have a point centered within it's diameter that transfers a small dimple onto your work piece once you strike it with a hammer. This small dot/dimple can be picked up with a center punch to make it larger and deeper, or you can use it as a spot to locate from. Transfer punches come in sets ranging from 1/16" thru 1/2", but don't get used very often by machinists. However, in a case like this they can be very useful.
 

Building A Box

Have you ever looked inside of a safe and noticed the overall thickness of the door? Not just the piece of steel that you see from the outside, but the total thickness from outside to inside. The reason they're so thick is to hid all the moving parts that make up the lock system. I'll need to do the same thing on this one, so it covers the lock mechanism. Well, mostly that is....

I'm going to make this box out of 1/16" thick steel sheet and to do that I'll be using four pieces of material. I plan on fastening it to the sub plate with screws, three per side, which is more than enough. I'm machining all four pieces below, which makes the setup more ridged (like you saw before). I'm also using clamps to help keep my work pieces from chattering (vibrating).
 

The height of the box is 2.050", which is the max I can make it and still have the door open and close. These pieces will end up with a few holes in each one soon.
 

Here I'm machining them to length, which will be the same as the sub plate.
 

I plan on welding the corners of the box so it becomes one piece, but before I do anything to these I'm going to do a test weld on some scrap stuff first.
 

I welded this from the outside and then sanded it to see how it looked. So far so good, because I'd rather know about any problems at this point instead of later.
 

I drilled and countersunk for some 6-32 flat head cap screws (3 places) that will attach to the sub plate. But how about those other holes that are smaller? Hang in there...I'll get to that soon.
 

Here I've drilled and tapped for my threads on the sub plate and I'm also countersinking them, but deeper than you normally would. Why? The next page will have that answer, unless you already know.