Curious what folks in here are running today and what you wish you could get if you were starting over today?


Daydreaming a bit here as construction on my garage grows closer. Our previous places have been 'modern' garages with barely enough room to park the number of cars they're rated for. So I've currently got two boxes:

-Main box is a bottom end Craftsman from 20 years ago. Probably 28" wide, and is a 3 high stack (roller, mid box, top drawers). Worked OK for a long time, but frankly I was probably over capacity the day I bought it.
-Secondary box is even worse - some no name garbage I probably got from Harbor Freight or something 15+ years ago. Its a 2 high box about the same width as the Craftsman. But its on its last legs after a few moves. It's always been a cheap box, so I've tried to be ultra careful as to how much I load it, but still has sticking / slide issues and general damage from moving houses + paper thin sheet metal. This is probably headed to the scrap yard when I upgrade.

I think I'm looking at either a 56 wide or 72 wide roller box with a top cabinet of drawers. I don't have any need to ever move it once in place and I don't need an integrated work top. As a taller person, the more tools I can get up top, the better (although I certisnly understand weight balance too).

But honestly the options are overwhelming as every store seems to have their own house brand of boxes. To me, many of the boxes look the same (like they're coming from the same Chinese factory), so maybe the options are much narrower than they seem. Ive also got no interest in a high end snap on / pro box. Even something equivalent to this bottom end Craftsman would be fine with me - I just need a lot more of it.

Any tips on brands / features?

Also curious what you all do with home vs car tools? From all this reno stuff, I've got a lot more house stuff than I've ever had that has no home yet (besides a couple of home depot buckets). Interested to hear if you all just mix it together wherever things fit best or if you've got a smart way of keeping similar items clustered together. If I go with a narrower 56, I'd be tempted to keep my old Crafstman and use that as a dedicated house tools box (especially since my new garage will be detached / on the opposite end of the property).

Also curious what you all do for specialty tools? Are you just boxing them all and dumping them in a closet / cabinet or do you have a smarter way of organizing them? Ive got some ultra specialty stuff I probably need to pull out of my box (a zzp pulley puller being one) as I never use them, but my system for those has been historically poor - I had them all stacked up in a garage cabinet and never could tell what was what without dragging it all out to read labels.

 

There's so many choices out there for boxes it's confusing. I have a Matco box from the late 80's. Standard top and bottom width a side cabinet.
Space in my garage is limited so I designed the workbench to fit along side of the box and have the side cabinet on top of the bench. Most of my special tools are either in the side cabinet or in wall cabinet's that I grabbed from a University of MN demo building.

 

My father gave all of the boys in the family a hand-me-down tool box (AKA, he wanted something new and this ensured something old did not go to waste). And I admit, the hand-me-down I got is nice. I believe it is a Popular Mechanics brand (which I bet the parent company did these for multiple names). The draw glides are nice and smooth (I don't think ball bearing, but still works great), solid construction. My other one is a cheap-o from when K-Mart sold Craftman branded products. It is a cheap Craftsman. It is definitely lower tier than my hand-me-down. But it works. I have NEVER had a problem with it. And one of those drawers holds a bunch of pliers, channel locks, wire cutters and vice grips. But the drawers do not feel as sturdy/solid nor the rails for them as nice as my hand-me-down. But cabinets are on casters, but I put them where they need to be and next to never move them (if I did, then the cheap-o Craftsman might end up not being as good as it is). Both have open space in the bottom to store stuff, so I have various items in cases. The drawers are pretty much loaded based on how I feel things need to be and based on what is in the drawers some what determines which cabinet I use. I have these cabinets to be useful, therefore, don't set the cheap one up for failure by potentially loading it with heavy stuff to cause it problems.

In the end, I guess I am saying, unless this is for use in a professional shop where having all your tools in one cabinet and ability to lock that cabinet and move it around the shop are important.... Multiple smaller tool cabinets might be as good, maybe better than one mammoth cabinet. They can all sit side by side....

 

I agree! Its been so long since I looked at them that I didn't realize the number of options out there. Even the online reviews are all over the place (I suspect because they're either getting kickbacks or free product from one brand or another).

Nice! I've still got a handful of fluoresecent light fixtures that my Dad got from an old high school teardown many years ago. I know LEDs are all the rage these days, but they came with practically a lifetime supply of bulbs (at least for how much I use them)

Sounds like almost the same thing as the Craftsman I've got. Even though its definitely a cheap box, its been great so far. The drawers on mine are fairly shallow, so its practically impossible for me to ever over load.


I don't have any need for a lock; I've never used the locks on my current boxes. My thought is that if someone manages to get into the garage, they've already got access to more than enough tools to get through any kind of cheap lock like these in no time.

I do like to move them a little occasionally just for cleaning - but its just a couple feet out and a couple feet back. Once in place, I've got no need to move them out of that area and certainly wouldn't be rolling them all over the floor. I do want something on wheels though so I've at least got the option to move things if needed (say an unexpected rearrange or house move).

That's a good point about multiple cabinets, I hadn't thought about that. 2 more about the same size as my Craftsman would probably get me enough space. The narrower ones seems to be a lot cheaper too.

I would probably change up brands though. Last I saw a current Craftsman box at Lowes, they seemed much cheaper than even my cheap one from 20 years ago (which is itself way cheaper than my Dad's 50 year old one). 3rd party reviews on them don't seem great either. Looks like there's a lot of praise around the US General stuff from HF.


I will say my small one is done for - it won't survive another move. I think the whole sheet metal frame got tweaked a bit on our last move which is causing a couple of the drawers to stick to the point that they're almost unusable. I'm not mad though - I know it was dirt cheap when I bought it and its managed to last nearly 10 years.

 

I just picked up a Craftsman 2000 box from Lowes. Feels like good quality, and I like that it has a power supply built-in, as I can keep my trickle charger in the top and have it right next to the terminals for the Camaro.

In the research that I was doing throughout the year, the ICON series from Harbor Freight is actually pretty decent. They are pricier than the Craftsman counter parts, but supposedly pretty good!

One of the things that my Dad has done, is a few cabinets mounted on the wall, and that's where the big tools go / things he doesn't use as much. Then he just uses a craftsman stacker box for the sockets / wrenches / etc. on the things we use often.

 

That looks nice! The box I played with at the store was a 1000 series - so its probably worth the drive to a few stores to check out a 2000 box locally.

I've got awhile still - haven't even received permit approval for my garage, so I'm certainly in no hurry. I am curious to see if any if these places do holiday deals on boxes as we come up on year end. Ive at least got a baseline idea today of what they normally go for.

 

I got a set deal on these 2, if you bought both pieces they took $100 off. So I picked this up for $496.

 

Excuse the mess and chaos. The red tool box is the hand-me-down. The black one was the brand new cheap-o KMart/Craftsman. But both work great for me. I really cannot complain about them.

 

I'm just glad I'm not the only person who has so much junk shoved in the top that the lid can never be closed

The only thing thats supposed to be in my top box now are my adjustable wrenches. I always dread having to drag one out as Ive got to dig through the pile to get to them (without the pile toppling over first).

I do think our Craftsman boxes are about the same vintage. The layout of mine is a bit different in terms of drawer count, but otherwise looks identical. I'll definitely agree - its been a nice box so far!

I like that propane torch holder too. Ive been keeping mine on the floor next to my box as I kept knocking it over on the shelf it used to sit on and was afraid I'd knock it all the way off one day.

 

Finally made it home, with all this tool box talk I should clean my bench up and look for more room. Like everyone else I have a overflowing toolbox.