I made these back in September of 2011 but forgot to post about them. They now have handles on them which are not pictured. I’ll post in-use pictures in the future. The handles make the trays easy to hang on pegboard hooks and make it easier to the trays them around when they’re under the car with me.
These trays allow me to easily move tools and parts around with me when I’m on the floor. Whether I’m under a car or not, it’s nice to have a place to gather tools and parts on something that’s easy to reach and easy to move. If I’m at floor height, I want my tools at floor height. These also come in handy for keeping home flooring clean if you’re doing a repair near the floor, say replacing or installing an electrical outlet or doing some plumbing work inside a vanity.
I made two of these, exactly the same. A 12″x24″x1/2″ piece of birch plywood is trimmed with 1.5″x.75″ poplar, with reinforcing pieces of poplar underneath the entire outer edge of the birch plywood. Four small swivel casters are attached to the bottom (hidden in the pictures). The plywood and trim was sealed with polyurethane, the trim painted red, then raised-disc rubber flooring materlal was attached to the top of the plywood with carpet tape (and hence can be replaced with little work but will not move under normal use). I like the rubber flooring; it’s not easily affected by fluids, it can’t rust, it’s quiet, it’s not abusive to tools, and it’s easy to clean. It also matches my gray raised-disc BLT G-floor garage flooring, and the top of some of my carts where I’ve used the same rubber flooring material. As for the wood… inexpensive, readily available and transportable, and obviously easy to use.
