Tool Chest opinions please

[Frankingun]

HTRN, great minds think alike. The Gerstner boxes are more suited for a wood shop, or maybe a hobby that doesn't involve a lot of gasoline, grease, and oil. I could see using those in a gun room, but not a garage. I wanted a 40" chest with a full width drawer because I already have a few tools that are too wide for a "standard" width drawer on a 26" box, which is only 22 some inches wide. I was and still am pissed at Sears because this year they dropped the box I wanted in favor of two stacks of smaller drawers on the 40" carts, but you can buy an intermediate 40" chest with two full width drawers.

However, I did find this one from Sears. The one I want in silver, though my soul would have preferred black. I'll take what God giveth, and do note that this picture also shows a compatible top and side chest, I'm only getting the bottom:

[HTRN]

I personally prefer black boxs. They seem to not look as bad once they bet a bit beaten up as those shiny red ones do.

This is the setup I want - It's usually the biggest(or second biggest if they have a 52" setup on display)Rollaway in Sears Tool dept. Add in a full width riser for long tools, and if you really need more storage, a hang on the side cabinet.

One thing I may suggest for those of you out there under 6 feet - seeing into the top of the chest can be a bit dicey, so a step stool in the garage may be a good idea.



HTRN

[Netpackrat]

HTRN, that bottom box is similar to what I have at work, except instead of the narrow drawers on one side, there is a single hinged door, and behind that a couple of slide out trays. One of them holds my line bag, and the other holds a box I made for my sheet metal tools. I'm kind of torn between adding a top box, and keeping it the way it is so I can set stuff on top while I am working.

[Dedicated_Dad]

Napa has a black box on sale right now...

Looks OK for my homeowner use, and at a good price...

DD

[Frankingun]

They'll be dropping it off Friday afternoon. Pics will follow.

[TheIrishman]

This is the setup I want - It's usually the biggest(or second biggest if they have a 52" setup on display)Rollaway in Sears Tool dept. HTRN

I've never understood the need for those huge boxes. For about 15 years I've had this box(only with a third party 3 draw middle chest) and 2 add on side cabinets(also third party, but they fit perfect and if they said craftsman instead of stack-on you wouldn't know the difference). I fit everything from full 1/4" sets(standard/metric/torx/allen/drivers) up to the rare 1" drives I've needed(there really aren't that many bolts/nuts on trucks that require 1"). Stubby/ratcheting/standard size wrenches from little to "What do you need a 2 3/4" for?". Air ratchets/die grinders/air chisels/ 3/8"-1" impacts/air saws/screw guns/a snap-on cordless impact(for road service)/corded and air drills. Throw all the custom made(garage sale finds heated-bent-ground to work) odd ball wrenches and I still had the side cabinets to fill with presses pullers and scanners that needed to stay in the blow mold cases so as not to lose the little parts.
The easiest way to organize your box(about the only thing I could keep organized) Is to separate all your sockets on rails by drive-points-depth-impact/non impact and finally split metric and standard. The rails from craftsman are usually too long but if you cut them down you end up with extra bits to hold things like allens/torx that usually wont fill a whole rail. Sockets on top of the box with metric on one side and standard on the other. Impacts in the center(offset to the side for they're respective in/mm) and then the 1/4" to allens/torx working your way to the middle. The shear number of sockets you can fit comfortably in the top of even one of the small craftsman boxes will probably surprise you. Putting them in drawers requires you to lay down the deep sockets wasting space, or put them in a deeper drawer again wasting space above the shallows and drivers.
If you have "huge" sockets such as for 4x4 wheel bearings put them in the shallowest drawer they will fit in and put smaller "big" sockets inside of them. Leave the deepest drawers, commonly the lowest, for heavy less used tools like impacts and drills.
After years of working on trucks and buses I've only had one person doubt the capacity of my "cute little toolbox". A new hire fresh out of Ohio diesel with daddy's credit card and a huge Snap-on box full of shiny new tools. After work I decided to clean ALL my tools and drawers. Laid out they spanned two 8'x3' work benches.

[HTRN]

I've never understood the need for those huge boxes.

I have Electrical tools(like Rotosplits, special expanding screwdrivers, etc), Machinist tools(which currently fill two Kennedy Boxes), Welding gear, Plumbing stuff(I'm not even sure how many big pipe wrenches are here - 3,4?), etc, across one standard sized rollaway, and countless tool boxes. I'm tired of it. I want everything in one box, where I can find it.


HTRN

[Aglifter]

The big ones are useful to keep tools fast and easy to access, and organized. This is especially important if multiple people share a tool supply.

[Netpackrat]

Guys, the setup that HTRN posted is nowhere near being huge.

[HTRN]

Well, it is a fair bit bigger than the typical 26" width box that everybody buys in Sears.

It is roughly the same size as what you used to see from Mac and Snapon(although in the last coupla years, the pro boxes have truly gotten huge).


HTRN