donnykooy
Well-known member
As a ******** DIYer there are priorities that I have when it comes to getting it done. First is my knowledge to complete the task. Without the knowledge i could not do it. Second is my tools. Once again with out the proper tool I cant get it done. Then there is tool storage. I can complete the task without a good tool box. It would take me much longer to accomplish it if my tools are scattered in bins and stuff but it can be done. Tool boxes are for one thing, holding tools. I dont care what it looks like, i just want it to function like it was built to do so. Having said that I would like to talk about the 44 inch harbor frieght tool box. It is probably the most popular box for DIYs according to this website anyway. I dont having anything against HF tool boxes. Lots of my friends have them but I have seen them break first hand. According to my friend they are rated to hold 100lbs per drawer. I tried to call the manufactur about it but couldnt get an answer. If its not 100lbs per drawer then please correct me. Assuming they do hold 100bls per drawer lets continue. Most craftsman boxes today hold 50-75lbs per drawer and they do offer some that have 200lbs weight ratings. So harbor frieght is looking pretty good. They have double sliders on ther deep drawers which is awsome but this is where i have seen them break. People automatically think since it has double sliders it can hold twice the weight. Well as an engineer I can tell that is wrong. Only in a perferct world where the weight is evenly distributed to both sets of slides is this true. Even worse the large top drawer people love to put all their sockets in it. since the span is much wider not only it cant hold 200lbs in a perfect world situation, but now it can barely give u a 100-125lbs worth of support. Now I have impact sockets and I have weighed all my sockets and they come out to 235lbs. There is no way i would put them in that drawer unless I had a snap on, lista or matco that can hold 300+ lbs. Those drawer slides are screaming. I have seen first hand how easily they can fail. Like I said Im not anti HF but I see so many diehard HF owners who love to show off all there sockets in the big drawer. They claim to be so proud of their HF tool box but the name plate happens to be missing. If you load ur HF box or any other box way over it weight ratings well u paid for it so more power to ya. Also the casters are rated to hold a total of 2,633 lbs all together. Now lets say u loade ur HF box correctly it would put u at about 1,500 lbs. If u want to add the top box which probaly in between 100 -200 lbs. Now lets say u load the top box correctly with 900 lbs. well now ur sitting at the max weight capacity. Max weight capacity is not ment to hold forever. Something to think about and should be applied to all tool boxes.
