Which figure on a Mobile Tool Cabinet spec sheet should be fixed first?

Answer: Loaded weight and casters. Weight sets wheel diameter and base thickness, and base height eats into interior height.

How far does rated load differ from what actually fits?

Answer: The rating assumes static, evenly spread load. Real loading concentrates and adds travel shock, so plan on sixty to seventy percent.

Can a Mobile Tool Cabinet be sized by dividing load by shelf count?

Answer: No. Total load assumes even distribution, while shelf load depends on span and fold.

Is thicker sheet always better?

Answer: No. Weight and cost rise with thickness while deflection only follows its cube, so steel spent on folds returns more.

Do larger casters make a cabinet harder to push?

Answer: The opposite, since a larger wheel lowers the climb angle, though it raises the centre of gravity.

Mobile Tool Cabinet Specs: Dimensions, Wall Thickness, Load

Quick answer: A Mobile Tool Cabinet spec sheet is only useful when its numbers reconcile. Fix the loaded weight and casters first, then build a chain that adds up.

How a Mobile Tool Cabinet Dimension Chain Adds Up
Wall Thickness: Nominal, Actual and the Fold
Caster Dynamic Load: Why Static Ratings Mislead
Shelf Deflection: Span and Load in Practice
Tolerances and Fits on the Drawing
FAQ

1. How a Mobile Tool Cabinet Dimension Chain Adds Up

Spec sheets fail less often from too few numbers than from numbers that contradict each other. A cabinet quoted 1000 mm wide with a 940 mm drawer interior leaves 60 mm unexplained.

The chain runs outside in: width is two uprights, clear interior and two door gaps; height is caster height, base pan and stacked clear heights. On a 1000 by 550 by 1050 mm Mobile Tool Cabinet casters take 125 mm, leaving 900 mm usable.

Depth is overstated most often. A nominal 550 mm loses door, drawer front, rear stiffener and slide allowance, leaving about 460 mm, so plan long tools on usable depth.

Link	Typical value	Effect
Upright section	40 mm by 40 mm	40 mm per side
Door gap	2.5 mm	5 mm total
Caster height	125 mm	Counted in full
Usable depth	Nominal less 90 mm	Long-tool fit

2. Wall Thickness: Nominal, Actual and the Fold

Thickness is where specs collapse into one blanket figure. A Mobile Tool Cabinet does not load evenly: doors bend, uprights twist, shelves deflect. One millimetre serves a door, 1.5 mm an upright, 0.9 mm folded beats 1.2 mm flat.

Mobile Tool Cabinet: a dark grey case with its lid fully open, moulded ribs inside the lid, an orange seal line along the rim

Cold-rolled sheet carries a permitted minus deviation, so a 1 mm nominal often measures 0.94 to 0.98 mm, and the bend radius runs five to eight percent thinner.

The fold is usually left off the sheet. A 0.9 mm shelf with a 12 mm downturned edge and two swages gains twice the section modulus and halves deflection.

3. Caster Dynamic Load: Why Static Ratings Mislead

Casters carry every kilogram, yet they are the parts most often specified by a static figure. In motion a threshold or a turn pushes the momentary load to two or three times static.

Work backwards: loaded weight, divided by wheel count, times a dynamic factor. A 68 kg Mobile Tool Cabinet carrying 300 kg reaches 368 kg, or 92 kg per wheel, so at 2.5 each wheel needs a 230 kg rating.

Wheel	Dynamic rating	Loaded weight	Push over 10 mm
80 mm	100 kg	up to 160 kg	about 180 N
100 mm	130 kg	up to 208 kg	about 145 N
150 mm	280 kg	up to 448 kg	about 90 N

Diameter sets push effort: an 80 mm wheel needs about 180 N over a 10 mm threshold, a 150 mm about 90 N, at the price of a higher centre of gravity.

4. Shelf Deflection: Span and Load in Practice

Shelf deflection is rarely on a spec sheet and is the first thing anyone notices on the floor. It scales with the fourth power of span and the inverse cube of thickness.

Mobile Tool Cabinet: an orange case tilted in mid-air against a dark background, two side latches and a central handle catch, moulded corner guards

Going from 900 mm to 1200 mm does not add a third to deflection; it multiplies it by 3.2. A wider cabinet must thicken the shelf, add a centre support or deepen the fold.

A workable limit is span over 200: on 900 mm that is 4.5 mm, read after 24 hours loaded and an hour after unloading, with residual set under 0.5 mm.

5. Tolerances and Fits on the Drawing

The last block usually says to national standard, which says nothing, because two workshops read the same clause a factor of two apart. A Mobile Tool Cabinet needs size, diagonal, flatness and hole position stated.

Two millimetres either way on size is enough when the coating alone varies by ten microns. Of two cabinets quoted 1000 mm wide, the one with a 3 mm diagonal error will bind a drawer.

Hole position is the hidden assembly cost. Caster, bracket and hinge holes each held to plus or minus 1 mm can accumulate until a shelf will not seat.

Conclusion

A specification is not a longer table but a chain that holds. Reconcile the dimensions, match thickness to load, size casters on dynamic load and name the gauge for every tolerance. A Mobile Tool Cabinet documented that way can be quoted and inspected.

This article discusses only the container (case body) side of specifications and design intent, and does not cover any handling, loading or use of the contents.