Time to upgrade the tool box now that I have a 2 car garage. I know the HF 44" tool chest is pretty well regarded but every time I check it out in store I leave thinking it's too cheaply made. I can't bring myself to spending Snap On money. Is there anything in-between? I'm thinking something in the $5-800 range.
I'm sure I'll be told they're all crap now because (old man ranting), but my Craftman chests have been pretty good.
Some of the guys at work have Snap-On chests. Can't say they're dramatically superior.
I have a 30 year old Craftsman chest and a 1 or 2 year old HF red $300 one. I can't say that the Craftsman chest is better made than the HF. The black cheap HF chest, though, I would pass on that one. I went to buy that one when I bought the red one instead.
Oh, the stainless chests at Lowe's are in-between. They look nice.
I picked up a pair of the Lowe's stainless units during their Black Friday sale. Originally, I bought a matching top and bottom, but that didn't work for me and so I returned the top and bought a second bottom. I'm very happy with the quality. Twenty two drawers and a long padded work surface at the perfect height.
You want the HF line called "US General PRO". Be careful, they make a "regular" line of red boxes called US General, those are pretty low end. The PRO line is much higher quality, kind of like a 15-years ago Craftsman Professional unit.
Failing that, go to NAPA and by a Carlyle box.
Dr. Hess wrote: Oh, the stainless chests at Lowe's are in-between. They look nice.
I agree. I was looking a the smaller one. I almost pulled the trigger to replace my Sears chest, which has been perfectly adequate, then the prices went up. Looked a them again the other day, but now the chest seems kind of small. I cannot afford the big one.
Home Despot has been running specials on a Milwaukee chest and a Dewalt chest at decent prices. I cannot buy the Milwaukee chest out of respect from my several Vietnam vet friends. Not sure where the Dewalt chest is made, probably VN for its mentor China.
And Costco has a chest that looks pretty good for the price.
spitfirebill wrote: Home Despot has been running specials on a Milwaukee chest and a Dewalt chest at decent prices.
I looked at both of those before I saw the stainless ones at Lowe's (I had actually planned to buy the Milwaukee one). If you can wait a few months, the Black Friday deal was pretty significant. I would suspect that they'll do it again. I think the regular price was $679. I forget what the sale price was.
I started a thread a lot like this back in the winter. I wound up getting a Proto (made by Stanley) for just under a grand. It lives in my work van, and is holding up to road life very well. I also strongly considered a Kennedy brand chest as well.
This is the most in depth comparison of that price range
The dude went over the top comparing everything and bought the HF.
Good to know. I probably won't buy until later in the year anyway... unless something pops up on craigslist. Issue is I want 2 ~44" boxes and it's trickier to find matching ones on Craigslist.
The boxes I was referencing were the red "Pro" boxes. The black ones are really awful.
Milwaukee also has a new longer 60" bench version available on homedepot.com.
Really happy with my Milwaukee bench/top combo and I may add one of those in the near future.
This one: 60" long bench
FWIW, when I was a lowly aircraft mechanic apprentoid I purchased a Beach 14 drawer roll cab at Costco.
Beach made boxes for Craftsman, Mac, etc back in the day.
After over 15 years of day-in, day-out use, the drawer supports are wearing out and some of the drawers are sagging.
I would say the box is lower quality than the US General boxes I have now.
I still don't own a Snap-On box even though I own a lot of their tools. The US General stuff is just too good for the price to justify the extra $$$ for a Snap-On box.
Shawn
Meh, I've had one of the red US General 44" boxes for 3 years now, and it's been fantastic. I'm in the garage practically every night for something (single guy with lots of projects...) but it doesn't get moved around much. I've been really happy with it, for whatever that's worth.
Waterloo. They are the parent to a bunch of the branded stuff out there. Same with Homak.
The 44" HF is an OK box, but the 52"(?) and up boxes are a much better buy, IMO, if you want to not spend 2k plus.... The bigger boxes are also wider to hold more crap.
I used a small craftsman set the wife got me on our first christmas (2001). Added a middle box from Waterloo that I got used from a co-worker in 2003. Used that until last year when I picked up a scratch and dent Husky set. Here the two are together:
The husky is better made than the craftsman, but no harder than I am on boxes they both work well. THe Husky was just a lot bigger with more room. Basically got hte Husky for free after we sold off the other stuff that we got on the pallet of goodies.
I have the HF Pro set. My business partner has a Snap-On cabinet.
The Snap-On has nicer drawer latches. That's about it though.
FWIW, Waterloo used to make the NAPA Carlyle boxes until 4-5 years ago, then it switched to Homak. Anything NAPA sells that's not branded Carlyle or Homak is from Professional Tool (Harbor Freight black boxes), so avoid. O'Reilly's new house tool program thing is the same way.
If you look in my garage, you'll see a 10 year old Craftsman Professional Ball Bearing.
I like the ~46" Milwaukee box a LOT better than the HF mostly because the drawer slides feel fancy. I think the drawer layout on the HF is better for pure automotive use.
In SOME cases there is a HUGE difference in quality between HF, Craftsman, and Snap-On. Craftsman has made pretty nice stuff at points in time, and if you have the better Craftsman stuff and compare it to the shabbier Snap-on stuff i'd say they're about equal. But Craftsman has pumped out some garbage while i've never seen a Snap-On box (of the ball-bearing drawer slide era) that i'd call junky.
Wanting to get matching boxes definitely makes it trickier since it limits you to paying close to full retail on new stuff or taking the chance of waiting a hell of a long time on the used market (like i did). A little planning could go a long way on deciding which way to go. How long is the space you want to line up the boxes in? The HF 44 has available side boxes which let you tune the total combo in in ~18" increments.
I personally wanted to fill up almost all of the available wall i had with toolboxes, and it just so happened that a 72" Matco 4S and a 56" Matco 4S (in matching color of course, tedious to pull off on the used market!) more or less did that. Almost 11 ft of toolbox and bench top. But, even though i paid roughly 30% of new retail for each piece, it's still WAY outside your stated budget. If you stretch your budget up to 1k you can get 56" tool-truck-brand boxes at that price occasionally. They are 24" deep vs the 16" you would get in an HF 44. But unless you buy your first one in a common color it will be difficult to find a second one in the same color at the right price/location/time etc etc.
I love my old homak and kennedy boxes but occasionally think about replacing them because years of chemicals and random scratches have them looking terrible.
The harbor freight box scared me, my boss has a napa box i really like.my biggest issue is price, id like too replace both my tops and bottoms with one bigger top and bottom!
Bobzilla wrote: I used a small craftsman set the wife got me on our first christmas (2001). Added a middle box from Waterloo that I got used from a co-worker in 2003. Used that until last year when I picked up a scratch and dent Husky set. Here the two are together:
Do you need a Subaru Rallycross poster to compliment your Emma/Rhys one?
Nah... this one was signed for me. A friend of mine worked on the Andretti Rallycross team for a while. Got that signed for me from Rhys "Bob- Keep humping those Hyundais". I got it framed. I have great friends.
Have a Menards near by?
Go there, buy a Masteforce in the size you want. You can thank me later if you wish.
Menards Masterforce Tool Chests
The latching handles, and ball bearing drawers are so nice. I had SWMBO stand in the bottom drawer of one in the store, just to see how it would open/close with a little weight in it, maybe 115-ish lbs, and the weight was barely noticeable.
I've got the 36" Masterfoce bottom in red, and a random top box I bought on sale at Atwood's about 8 years prior to getting the Masterforce. I went without a bottom roller for a long time, too long. My top box is only ~24" wide, and ~12" deep, so I cut a piece of plywood to fit the top of the Masterforce (36x18"), stained and varnished it all pretty, so with my Atwood's box on top of it, I've got a little bit of shelf space in front and to the side.
It was a Christmas present from SWMBO, when we were still in OH.
I've got the 56" HF top & bottom combo, think it was $1100 after coupons for the combo. Overall I think it's probably the best box you can get for the price vs storage room and quality. Not sure how it would hold up if I had to move it a lot but it stays in one spot and I've got a $99 HF tool cart that I put tools in if I need to move lots of tools around the shop.
Here is my 56" HF top & bottom combo.
And here is the Craftsman box that it replaced
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