pics of your tool storage chest

[The motor guy]

I was thinking of buying a tool storage chest to keep things like sockets and wrenches in them. How much can you store in one of these? I was looking at a craftsman tool chest which is like 40 inches wide. It looks like my 48 piece wrench set would take up most of the drawers. Anyone care to post some pics of your tool chests so I can see how you have your tools arranged inside? Thanks.

 

[stephen9666]

If you do some searching, you'll find the Harbor Freight 44" tool cabinet is very well regarded. Do some research on Garage Journal.

HF has some junk, but they have some good stuff, too. The 44" box is one of the good things. It's far heavier duty than the Craftsman or basically any other box in the price range.

I've had it for about three years. It's held up great. Recently they updated it to have much nicer looking gloss red paint. The one I have is the mat red finish.

The best price you can find now is about $349 + tax. You'll need a coupon to get that price. Back in the day, you were allowed to use 20% off coupons on boxes. That's not allowed anymore.

http://www.harborfreight.com/44-13-drawer-gloss-red-industrial-uality-roller-cabinet-68784.html

 

[George42]

Snap-on - If you want quality and pride of ownership. HF if it's just a budget issue.

 

[The motor guy]

They want like 25,000 dollars for a snap on tool box. Why are they so expensive? Does that include tools inside it?

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
They want like 25,000 dollars for a snap on tool box. Why are they so expensive? Does that include tools inside it?


No tools, but one of the girls in their calendar delivers it!!

 

[The motor guy]

Why would anyone be dumb enough to spend that kind of money on one of those when you could buy 25 craftsman ones the same size for that price? lol.

 

[The motor guy]

It's too bad nobody answered my original question.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
They want like 25,000 dollars for a snap on tool box. Why are they so expensive? Does that include tools inside it?


Does that include the tools? What a facetious post. Your next $25,000 will buy you a wrench or two.
You've got to pay for the fuel that powers the tool truck (creeping up to $4.50 a gallon again in this area) and you've got to pay the salary of the tool man who basically uses all of his time to chum up to the techs and sits on his duff while the techs fondle all the tools like some kid in a candy store.
Snap-On makes good tools, but the tech who EXCLUSIVELY buys Snap-On buys his tools to fuel his ego.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
It's too bad nobody answered my original question.


Every single tech arranges his tools the way he likes them. I think you'll have to arrange your tools the way you like them and not rely on somebody else.

 

[The motor guy]

I was just mostly curious as to how tools were fit in their. I'm thinking once I put my 80 wrenches in their and all my pliers and stuff I would probably need two or three of those 40 inch wide tool storage chests.

 

[cb_13]

I don't have any pics but I have wrench racks for all my wrenches except line wrenches. I have the stand up socket racks that are size labeled. Being organized saves time and time is money. Sometimes useable space is more of an issue than overall space. Taller and wider drawers are nice to have. The bottom drawers on my box are really tall. I have air tools in one of them and specialty tools in boxes stacked in the other.

 

[stephen9666]

Unless you put the wrenches in there in the most space-inefficient way possible, there's no way 48 wrenches would fill up a 44" tool box.

Wrench racks are what I used to use. Now I keep my wrenches mounted on the wall, because I like them better that way.

 

[Donald]

I have the standard Craftsman tool cabinet & chest with ball bearing drawers. Always get those kind of drawers.

In the chest I have 1/2" sockets in the very top area, the small drawers with misc stuff. The main 3 drawers I have one of screwdrivers, and 2 for pliers, dikes, vise grips.

In the cabinet I have a drawer for metric, with the combo wrenches in a wrench rack, and box end on one side, ratchet on the other and also throw in flare, stubby and obstruction and I might have 30 wrenches in that drawer. Next drawer is SAE but same setup. I have a drawer for hammers, and the other drawers are for impact socket sets, tap & die, etc.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
It's too bad nobody answered my original question.


First responder stephen9666 gave you the best answer:

Do some research over at the Garage Journal tool forum. There's enough threads there on tool cabinets and storage to keep you occupied for hours, if not days.

The HF cabinet he recommends is THE value (price vs. quality) purchase at this time. Much better built than today's Chinese Craftsmans.

Like Bretfraz is to auto detailing, stephen9666 is to tools. They both offer good, practical advice based on real world experience.

 

[Merkava_4]

Here's my toolbox and a few of my drawers:

 

[doitmyself]

I don't know Merk, what's come over you?

In the bottom picture, the arrangement of those wrenches in the blue holder is uncharacteristic of you.

I forgot to list you as an official tool guru also, who can be found living at the garagegazette tool forum.

 

[The motor guy]

Thanks merk. Those drawers are deep! Really allows you to store some stuff.

 

[tig1]

My whole garage is my tool storage chest.

 

[vaboom123]

I'm a diesel tech for a living and here's my box at work. I've got a mix of just about everything from HF to Snap on haha.

 

[vaboom123]

That's a nice setup tig! I can wait to have a nice garage to putz around in