Which rolling toolbox?

"Richard Ferguson" wrote

I got an awesome set of Craftsman last Father's Day. It was a three box set, one of them on rollers, and it was around $300 on sale. Dont' buy anything but the roller bearing drawers whatever brand name you buy.

Shop, shop, shop. You will get what you pay for. But occasionally you can find real deals on sales, discontinued items, closeouts, etc.

Steve

I would buy a Snap-On box if you can afford it. I purchased my first one in 1977 and have never lost money on them. They hold there value when traded or sold. I am on my 4th set now. Snap On stands behind what they sell and they are high quality.

Charlie

Ball bearings make all the difference. They allow drawer access when they are heavy with tools.

Mart> I have finally realized that I really need a large rolling toolbox. I

Find a used Vidmar/Lyon/Lista modular cabinet and put casters on it. I'll be replacing a 40" rollaway and topbox and a 5-drawer 26" box and have lots of empty space to fill. Also even at new prices, they are cheaper than Craftsman (25-30%) and tougher than any "toolbox".

I've got both a mid-range Craftsman and a Kennedy roll-around tool box. AIR, they are rated for similar loads but the Kennedy is far more sturdy. The Kennedy was around $400, I think and the Craftsman about half that or a little less. The Kennedy has a ~150 lb bench top T&C grinder on it and doesn't seem to strain with the load and still rolls around pretty easily. The same grinder on teh Craftsman had me thinking that the wheels would fall off at any moment.

Everybody is on the BB drawers, and that's fine. You'll prolly get them, and that's fine too.

I've had my Craftman's set, no BB, for 35 years, and they work almost as well as when they were new. I need to clean and oil the slides, naturally. They hold heavy tools, too. Air tools, etc. I'd say to get what makes your gut say "yes", as opposed to what the dang ads say anymore.......I have no idea who makes these anymore.

Richard, I built a rolling workbench using two of the Craftsman "project centers" right before Christmas last year, when the boxes were on sale. I paid $80 for each box, non- ball bearing drawers, built an angle iron dolly tray, placed them into it, and bolted them together. A 3/4" plywood piece was added to the top of each box to get above the raised lip around the top. A cabinet top contractor near me gave me a Dupont Corian countertop removed from a store display, which I cut down and reworked to fit the top of the tool boxes. Having the steel on hand, I ended up with about a day in it, along with about $172. The top would have cost around $450 if it was hired out to be fabricated. I built another for a friend and used plywood covered in stainless steel for the top. Maybe something similar to this would work for you.

Photo link is below.

RJ

Gunner

"Gunner, you are the same ridiculous liberal f--k you ever where." Scipio

If you want to be frugal, go to a used office supply place. Several things to look for are bank cash cans and card files. These were built very well and have strong bearing slides and heavy duty castors.

These are also cheap and have good locks. The downside is the drawers tend to be a little deep compared to traditional mechanics boxes but for the price you can live with the added depth.

I have been eye-balling these with the same thing in mind. Need a bench to mount a 10x36 lathe, and this looks like the way to do it. Thanks

||> I figure that what I want is a set of drawers of varying depths, mostly ||> 3 inches deep or less. The common style of toolbox has a smaller ||> "portable" toolbox on top of a large rolling toolbox. This sounds OK, ||> as would a large drawer unit that was one piece. I would prefer a unit ||> on casters, but that is not a hard requirement. ||>

||> I looked at Sears toolboxes the last time they were on sale, and the ||> only one that looked acceptable to me was one with ball bearings. I saw ||> a Husky toolbox at Home Depot that looked about the same quality. These ||> ran around $500 for the set of two toolboxes, but did seem a little on ||> the flimsy side. Realistically, I probably cannot afford to spend a lot ||> more than $500. I probably have been spoiled by commercial drawer units ||> by Lista and others, which are sturdy and slide very smoothly on ball ||> bearings. I have not looked at what is available as high end toolboxes ||> today. One that is very large would probably not fit into the available ||> space very well, ||>

||> So, which brands of toolboxes should I look at? Any tips in evaluating ||> them? Any brands to stay away from? Should I look for used commercial ||> drawer storage units? ||>

||> Thanks in advance. ||>

||> Richard || ||

Texas Parts Guy

I bought a cabinet from a sewing supply store going out of business. It was used for sewing pattern storage and sales. It makes the best power tool storage that I've ever found. A skil saw will fit into the depth just right. I wish I had several more of them.

RJ

O.K., my story goes like this: Once upon a time, I was an idealistic fellow who believed that only crass, selfish people lock their tools up at night in the millwork shop where I'm employed as the knife grinder/moulder mechanic. After all, I thought, some child of God might need to come in some weekend or stay late, and they might not be as fortunate as I. Perhaps they can't afford the tools they might need to work overtime to help feed the wife and kids... This turned out to be true. Trouble was, my new Milwaukee grinder never somehow made it back to my workbench and it's still out there somewhere, helping the needy... Then, my Dewalt circular saw suffered a similar fate, and it slowly began to dawn on even me that my Starrett collection would soon be deemed essential for more bong hits and nose powder. As I didn't think God intended this, and I'm certain I didn't, I went shopping and discovered a magnificent thing called a Knaack Storagemaster model 91:

It cost a bundle, but you can in fact put casters on it. Inside, you can stash stuff in the trays for awhile until you save up for a Gerstner (that will live inside) or better yet, build a series of wooden drawers yourself. It will also fit bigger stuff like the pancake air compressor, the rotary table, the great grandfather's toolbox from the West Point Foundry, a nightstand, and probably even a small cot. I have recently discovered that my stuff tends to stick around a lot longer now, and that people even ask me before they borrow something. Get this, they even make a point of returning it so it's still there for more honest folks to borrow. In looking around, I find that most of the fancy toolboxes that promise security are just that, fancy promises. My heart would still be out there on my sleeve if I'd bought a Snap-On. Meanwhile, I think dents almost add character to the Knaack. Sure, you can break into it if you're determined, but it looks quite a bit tougher than some of the fancy stuff at Sears for about the same money. My advice is that if you want security, buy security. If you want something that looks nice, that's o.k. too, just realize that you might be better off separating the two desires.

Charles Morrill

Pattern cabinets are freaking marvelous. Heavy duty ball bearing slides, well supported, dividers easily removed.

I keep my tooling in several of them.

Gunner

"To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated." - Trefor Thomas

I use a card file cabinet to store things in the shop. They are extremely heavy duty. Lots of doctor's offices get rid of them regularly because of computers. Can be had pretty cheaply.

Richard, Take a look at Waterloo. I've found them to be very durable. They have a new series called Promaxx toolroom series. The PMX4009 is the top box. It has 9 drawers (50Lb ball bearing), keyed lock, internal locking bar, 6,621 cu inces of storage and weighs in at 146 lbs. The roller PMX4113 is an 11 drawer tool cart on 41/2" casters. It also has ball bearing drawer slides. It weighs in at

204 Lbs. with 14,566 cu inces of storage. Total price for the pair in the J&L catalog is $514.87.

Dan

The new Snap-On Boxes are fairly secure. They have guarded locks and cylindrical keys. I'm not saying that you couldn't get in to one with a

48 inch pinch bar but I'd wager not many boxes will foil a true thief. My only pont about these boxes is they hold there value. Whats yours going to be worth in ten years? I'll bet mine is still worth what I paid for it.