Toolbox under workbench or no?

[NICKS]

For those of you that have incorporated your toolbox under your bench, do you regret doing so?

If you built a bench and did not put your box under your bench, do you wish you would've?

I'm starting to finish the interior of my newly built garage and am having trouble deciding how I want to do it.
My biggest concern is what happens when I outgrow my current box (44" HF chest). I'm close to that point already.
I'm going to be using kitchen cabinet bases and putting a sheet of plywood across the top and possibly topped with a sheet of aluminum. So do I want solid cabinets or leave a space for the tool chest?

 

[matt_i]

I definitely like the drawers underneath. So much easier than opening kitchen cabinet drawers on my knees and fishing around for stuff back in there in the dark.

If you are about to outgrow a tool box then it is time, my friend, to design another one into the space

 

[kbs2244]

I have a roll around ool box that ha a prarking spot under thework bench.

 

[Steevo]

If my tool boxes weren't under my workbench, I would not have room for them in my shop. No wall space available at all.

 

[jimgood]

How big is your garage? Do you regularly find yourself walking back and forth between project and tool box? Do you feel like that time would be significantly cut by a tool box that's closer to the project?

 

[NICKS]

How big is your garage? Do you regularly find yourself walking back and forth between project and tool box? Do you feel like that time would be significantly cut by a tool box that's closer to the project?

The garage is 24d x 32w.
The garage was built mostly for detailing cars and tinkering on my own car's.
Time could always be saved by less/shorter trips to the tool box.
The box and bench will be mounted along one of the side walls. I will actually have two bench's. One for tools and dirty stuff, the other for detailing supplies.
My working bench will be somewhere around 10-12' possibly slightly longer depending on what I decide to do with the tool box and will eventually be lined with wall cabinets too.

The shorter base cabinet will be going where the black shelf is now as it's only temporary. It will house my detailing supplies, along with a few wall cabinets above it.

The taller base cabinets will be used as the base of a bench after I acquire at least one more set of them. Basically they are just 3 15" bases attached to each other.

 

[TK-421]

I like idea of two 44" boxes with an opening in the middle so you can sit down and work on stuff.

 

[sarman47]

I have some under and some along a wall. I would recommend, what ever save the most space. You will fine that no matter how large the garage, you will out grow it ..................

Nice garage by the way.

 

[NICKS]

I like idea of two 44" boxes with an opening in the middle so you can sit down and work on stuff.

That's another good idea since I know I'm going to out grow this box and not sure if I want to buy the top to go on it or just buy another chest.

I have some under and some along a wall. I would recommend, what ever save the most space. You will fine that no matter how large the garage, you will out grow it ..................

Nice garage by the way.

Thanks.
I already I wish I would've went bigger but I only had so much money to work with. I also have a 25x32 on the house for the daily driver cars and mower/snowblower.
One of the problems I'm having is I can decide if I want cabinet space or floor space

 

[LXCam]

I just built my workbench box combo. 10'6" long and absolutely love it. This set up holds 90% of my mechanical tools and is parked right next to my lift. I think what I dig the most is when I'm done wrenching on something, I just lay all the tools up top and put away when I feel like it and not having to walk allover the joint doing so.

 

[TK-421]

That's another good idea since I know I'm going to out grow this box and not sure if I want to buy the top to go on it or just buy another chest.

If you go with a second box then there's your workbench base right there.

 

[crewchief888]

if i was in the "planning" stages, and had money to spend on the garage,
i'd probably get another roller cab, and build them into the bench.

my garage is smaller than yours, and i already have multiple tooloxes, none of them would work with the workbench idea.

everything else in my garage was salvaged or re-purposed.....

 

[Alchymist]

"Common" tools go in the tool boxes - tops, roll bottoms. Dedicated tools go in boxes under the tool - 3 drawer intermediate under the wood lathe, 2 drawer under the metal lathe, 2 drawer under the mini mill, etc. Trouble is I have too many tool boxes for the space I have.

 

[zkling]

Depends on how you are using your work bench. I personally prefer a open space at the bottom for my feet when I need to get up real close on my main work bench. Also helpful when you have a chair or stool.

Now if you are just talking a light assembly/disassembly/set things on work surface that many use their tool box tops for then that is different. IMHO.

 

[Katodog]

I rebuilt my workbench with the idea of having the toolboxes under it. Otherwise I wouldn't have anywhere to put them, and the area under the bench would just be another place to gather **** I don't need.



IMG_0882 by Edward Durbin, on Flickr


It's really convenient, I don't have to wander around the garage for my tools, and when the car is parked in there it's a pain in the neck to get into the cabinets. Plus, I don't have enough room for a couple of rollers, they'd be up against the wall and impossible to get at with the car in the garage. As it is now, I barely have room for two cars in there, shelves on one side and cabinets on the other make space limited. I have to climb over my car to get at certain things and it's not fun.

Whoever builds two-car garages apparently doesn't know that some people, hard as it is to believe, actually have tools, and need extra space.

 

[GTA Matt]

Being limited on space, putting my box under the bench was the only way I could have a large bench and a toolbox. It actually works out very well.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If my tool boxes weren't under my workbench, I would not have room for them in my shop. No wall space available at all.

NICKS, if you haven't checked out Steevo's workbench build, you need to.

 

[JOHN 86GT]

I just built my workbench box combo. 10'6" long and absolutely love it. This set up holds 90% of my mechanical tools and is parked right next to my lift. I think what I dig the most is when I'm done wrenching on something, I just lay all the tools up top and put away when I feel like it and not having to walk allover the joint doing so.

Very nice ! Is that Lista ?

 

[csp]

Very nice ! Is that Lista ?

LXCam's build thread: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311519

 

[Capt Chrysler]

I have had open benchs and closed cabnet style benchs. More years with the closed. I didn't care for the closed.

I also never used the top of my SO tool boxs as a bench top. As I didn't want to trash it out.

Do what you like and post some photos!


Capt. Chrysler

 

[ssdave]

I have three rolling stack tool boxes, and I will continue to use those for machinist and mechanics tools. However, I would like to build a work bench/layout table with either 2 or 4 of the harbor freight boxes underneath. That would be to keep chisels, sandpaper, hammers, glue, clamps, jigs, etc, etc, etc.

For tools at the workbench, I much prefer pegboarding many of them. For mechanics tools, I prefer stack tool boxes, and take out what I need and put on a working table (or maybe rolling cart) next to the vehicle I'm working on.

As said before, a lot depends on what you do and how you use the tools. For primarily vehicle work, no way I would have them under a bench. For general work, (a lot of it at the bench) if most of your tools fit into the box under the bench, that system would work great.

For me, I have 4 primary workspaces/types of work. I like to have a basement shop for my gunsmithing work, and my lathe and machine tools reside there, along with a workbench to assemble and work on things. That area has a set of Kennedy stacks, and a rack for tooling under the lathe. The bench has stuff stored all the way along under it also, on open shelves. A lot of stuff is pegboarded behind the bench too.

I have a reloading area, and all the reloading tools are there. The tools and components for that are in cabinets.

I have a woodworking and general work area, that is a 4 x 8 foot table surrounded by open space and woodworking machines. That's what I would like to convert to 4 HF boxes as general storage.

I also do vehicle maintenance, that is in the garage parking bays, and tools are taken from the stack boxes and used on a table alongside. I also have a general workbench along a wall, with pegboard on the wall behind it too.