Huot Toolbox - Drawer / Slide Removal

jakemac · Mar 1, 2014

So, about a month ago, I got into a discussion in another thread about how to remove the drawers on Huot boxes. During which, I posted some pictures and discussed the steps I went through to by-pass the stops on the sliders in order to remove the drawers on one of the new(ish)(possibly 70's) bottom boxes I had.

During the discussion another member was having trouble removing his sliders because his Hout box used a different system. Since then, I have acquired another bottom box (older, possible 60's) that uses that same system. It took me a little while to figure out the trick and I thought I'd start a new thread that contains both methods. They are essentially the same, use a shim to let the stops ride past each other to remove the drawers and slides. It's the method of construction that is different.

I'll start by re-posting my original post as found in this thread, post #52. The discussion begins earlier than that post.

I hope this thread can help others with their boxes. The method should work with other brands using similar slides.

jakemac said:
......... the hacksaw blade should work. My bottom box is apart for degreasing and relubing, so I took a few pics.

Pic 1 - the "tool" I used. 1/2"x11" piece of spring strapping with a slight bend at the tapered end. The tapper and the bend help it slide past the stops.

Pic 2 - A side view of the drawer and slide, showing the stop bar on the drawer.

Pic 3 - the tool over the stop, and under the slide detent.

Pic 4 - The inside of the box, the circles show the bent metal tabs that are used as stops.

Pic 5 - With the slide.

Pic 6 - The tool through the slide and over the stop.

You need to pass the tool all the way through the slide so that the detent on the slide rides over the tool and passes over the stops. It's important to keep the tool centered so that it doesn't slip off the stops while moving the slides.

Start by pulling the drawer all the way out. Position your tool in the slide and push the slide back into the box past the stop. Then do the other side of the drawer. Now you can remove the drawer and work on removing the slides from the box side.

As inferred, the detent is on the ends of the slide and the tab is on the wall of the box and on the side of the drawer the way this box was constructed. The tabs face towards the back of the box on the wall and towards the front on the drawers.

In the older boxes, the detent is on the wall of the box and back of the drawer, with the tabs on the slider facing the detents on both sides.

I'll discuss the method I used for the older box in the next post.

jakemac · Mar 1, 2014

As stated in the first post, the stop tabs on the older Huot boxes are on the slider, not the box. As such, it is easier to remove the sliders with the drawer first and then remove the sliders from the back once the drawers are out.

In the first post I slid the shim into the box to cover the tabs and detents. With this method I used a different way to get the shim in place. It's similar to using a credit card to jimmy a hotel door (so I've been told :evil:

).

First, pull the drawer out so that the slider hits the front stop. Then, insert the shim at an angle, so that it is over the detent and passing below and behind the tab. Push the slider back a few inches, so that the tab is riding on the shim.

Now, carefully pivot the shim down so that it stays on the tab, but also covers the detent. Slowly pull the slider out past the detent, but not out of the channel. You still need to do the other side, and don't want the drawer to fall out. Once the other side is free, you can remove the drawer with the sliders.

Next, place the drawer on a table, and use the same method from the back to remove the sliders from the drawer.

Try to remember, or take a picture, of the orientation of the tabs on the sliders as they come out so you can put them back in correctly later.

Done.

Using this method, I had 3 drawers (6 sliders) out in under 5 minutes. Figuring it out took much longer. As with the first method, once you get the "feel" it will go much faster.

The pictures -

Pic 1 - Showing the shim being placed at an angle. Over the detent, and behind and under the tab on the slider

Pics 2 & 3 - With the slider out, you can see how the shim is placed then lowered to cover the tab. Allowing it to slide past the detent.

Pic 4 - The drawer (w/ slider) out of the box and ready to remove the slider.

Pic 5 - Showing the detent at the back of the drawer that needs to be by-passed.

Pic 6 - Showing the same method being used to remove the sliders from the drawer. The shim is between the tab and the detent, allowing them to slide passed each other without catching.

Pic 7 - Showing the inside of the box and the detent.

jakemac · Mar 1, 2014

Hopefully Huot didn't use a third type of drawer system.

Feel free to make suggestions, and/or post your methods of removing other brands drawers/sliders.

and, as always -
:needpics:

drivesitfar · Mar 1, 2014

Hey Jake,

nice tutorial and thanks for sharing. I know i'll benefit from it more once I actually own a Huot box which I didn't know I needed until I joined GJ.

that said I bet some of these methods will help others with different brands of tool boxes so again a big thanks for sharing your information.

by the way this little one is for sale around my area for $50 and it needs help and a new lock and last time I checked he was firm at $65 and asking $100. is it fixable or worth fixing since not very big and pretty beat up?

like I said I didn't know I needed an old Huot box until you and a few others seem to like them so much. by the way can you share a few more pictures of your Huot boxes you have restored and sold or haven't posted a picture of yet. did you name what color paint is the best match for original factory yet?

Outlawmws · Mar 1, 2014

I think $50 is still a bit on the high side for a box that small and in that condition, at least for me in my area. Certainly no suckage. YMMV if you have a harder time finding decent boxes in your area. if he's been asking $100, then $65, and is now at $50 with no takers, that pretty much say;s it all...

Offer $35 or $40 and see what he says? :dunno:

Also assuming things is tweaked and the slides are no more than gungy/dirty....

drivesitfar · Mar 1, 2014

thanks and I agree. he was on the way to the 80 year old client i'm meeting so offered $25 earlier this AM and haven't heard back yet. Heck for $25 I can keep it as is and throw in the rusty stuff waiting for the E bath or vinegar.

Outlawmws · Mar 1, 2014

And Jake Nice thread! good Idea! (I have AD... Look! a picture of a tool box!)

jakemac · Mar 1, 2014

drivesitfar said:
.......... by the way can you share a few more pictures of your Huot boxes ............

I'm not a seller just a hoarder, and I prefer an original look if the box/tools aren't too far gone.

So far, both my Huot's are bottom boxes. I have an older (50's ?) top box on the way from another member in april, but I haven't had my hands on it yet. The 7-drawer in purple, I think is from the 70's and just got a clean-up and a little fine tuning with a hammer and dolly. The other dents will have to stay because the double wall won't let me reach them, and I don't have the means deal with them from the outside and still preserve the hammered paint.

The 3-drawer box I just picked up is currently yellow, but has the original blue hammer paint underneath. It might be powder coated, so I'm not sure if I can remove it and preserve the original paint. It's still a work in progress. Two of the drawers had buckled walls on the back and had to be straitened. The lock was removed and replaced with a hasp (twice), so I'll have to learn to live with the extra holes. The slides were lubed with old motor oil, so I have a lot of degreasing to do before I tackle the paint issue. I would like to return it to the original finish without doing a restoration.

The last pictures are the box I'll be getting my hands on at the end of April.

macgee · Mar 8, 2014

Jakemac had contacted me a while back about this thread as I originally had the question about trying to remove my drawers which is different than newer Huot's.

Jakemac was nice enough to start this thread, I have since found the correct tool to easily remove the drawer without any drama (easy peasy).

After the suggestion from another member (Packard V8) on GJ (Thank You), I went into one of my old standard size filing cabinets and stole one the metal holders that come with the paper folders for hanging files in the filing cabinet. It's the perfect size (5/16" wide x .029" thick x 12.75" L) for removing old Huot drawers.

I sanded the paint off the edge and thinned the metal down a little bit, I then curved the tip up by quite a bit. The trick is to have the drawer pulled out but to make sure the intermediate black slider is slid/recesseed closed all the way into the chest in order to have enough space/length from the front of the chest to the bent out black metal catch for the curved tool to have enough room to make it over the catch.

You'll know when you've cleared the catch when you hear the tool hit the back of the chest, once that is done with the tool still inserted slide the black intermediate slider out all the way out the front face of the drawer, that's when you know you cleared the drawer lock and black slider is forward then you can pull the tool out. Do each side prior to pulling the whole drawer out.

Thanks, Jakemac!

Here's some pic's of the box and tool.

My Junk is Stuff · Mar 8, 2014

Same idea as everyone else, this little guy worked for me... fishes em out in seconds..It's the curl in the end that makes it work so well.

jakemac · Mar 8, 2014

Great stuff guys !

The pictures are really helpful. Nice job. :thumbup:

monster48 · Mar 28, 2019

great joy...the perfect tool i've been trying to remove these drawer for a long time

nutpowder · Jun 3, 2020

jakemac!!! thanks so much for this tutorial. i would have never figured out how to take out the drawers on my huot. much appreciated!

jakemac · Jun 3, 2020

I’m glad that this thread is still being helpful.
I’m not really active on the forum much anymore, you know - Life, but I still pop in occasionally.

Sent from my iPad using The Garage Journal mobile app

Bighead38 · Jun 3, 2020

jakemac said:
I'm not a seller just a hoarder, and I prefer an original look if the box/tools aren't too far gone.

So far, both my Huot's are bottom boxes. I have an older (50's ?) top box on the way from another member in april, but I haven't had my hands on it yet. The 7-drawer in purple, I think is from the 70's and just got a clean-up and a little fine tuning with a hammer and dolly. The other dents will have to stay because the double wall won't let me reach them, and I don't have the means deal with them from the outside and still preserve the hammered paint.

The 3-drawer box I just picked up is currently yellow, but has the original blue hammer paint underneath. It might be powder coated, so I'm not sure if I can remove it and preserve the original paint. It's still a work in progress. Two of the drawers had buckled walls on the back and had to be straitened. The lock was removed and replaced with a hasp (twice), so I'll have to learn to live with the extra holes. The slides were lubed with old motor oil, so I have a lot of degreasing to do before I tackle the paint issue. I would like to return it to the original finish without doing a restoration.

The last pictures are the box I'll be getting my hands on at the end of April.

Picture number 6 is the Huot box we have. I love that thing.

Lookin4'67Galaxieconv · Jun 4, 2020

My two Huots. Just picked up the red one a couple weeks ago.

1982fxr · Jun 4, 2020

I have one of those top ones but I think with an older logo. Probably the coolest box I own.

brianNH · Dec 5, 2020

I have a 10-drawer Huot top box that I pulled from the town recycling dumpster. Bottom kinda rusted inside & out, some dents & bent s/m, but not bad at all. Most drawers work well. This thread has been super helpful for me in getting the drawers out for thorough cleaning & priming. The tip about using the steel piece from a Pendaflex folder worked very well for me. It took some doing, and some slides came out much harder than others, but it all worked very well.

The main thing I eventually did that really helped a lot in getting the most stubborn slides out was to grind a bevel on the front edge of the bent metal tool. Before I did that, the tool was having a hard time getting past the metal finger on some of the slides, especially slides that were tight moving. After putting a bevel on it, easy peasy.

I had originally just cleaned up and primed the rusty bottom half, but then I decided to remove the drawers and do a more thorough restoration.

Today, I washed the whole thing and all its pieces in a solvent tank, then cleaned it all up with a pressure washer. Tonight, I've been working on removing dents and bends from the slides. On one of them, two of the spot welds had come free, so I rewelded that together. I've banged out dents and bends in the main frame and a couple of the drawers.

I went to Home Depot today & picked up a quart of baby blue paint to repaint it with. I was tempted to use some cool new color, like hammered copper, but in the end I decided to stick with a color much like the original.

I was tempted to sandblast the main cabinet, but decided not to because I knew I'd then spend the rest of my life dealing with the sand that would have gotten in between the inner and outer sheet metal of the main cabinet frame. So, I'm going to just scuff everything with sandpaper and then prime it with Rustoleum red oxide. Nothing fancy - I'll just be brushing the paint on, not spraying it.

The modified tool:

Wheelbarrow load of drawers, degreased and pressure washed:

And the main cabinet frame. Worst rusting on bottom already primed 2-3 coats before diving deeper into this project. Bottom front had quite a dent in it, but I hammered that out. Bottom lip still needs more straightening work.

macgee · Dec 5, 2020

Nice job brianNH,

Looking forward to seeing it get finished.

Cleaning up a tool box may not seem too labor intensive but I'm sure by now your realizing how much there is to do and how many different surfaces to touch. Awesome your painting it and bringing it back to life.

Recently I cleaned up an old Lista 30" deep 5 drawer, cleaning out all the junk, washing it down and servicing each slider; I was exhausted afterwards.
You may want to try Oven-Off cleaner on the cabinet (HD & Costco sell it for cheap). Awesome degreaser, removes a lot paint and also a really good de-ruster after leaving the foam coating on overnight. Just wash it down afterwards to neutralize and then give a brush over and it will be ready to paint.

Cheers

Lookin4'67Galaxieconv · Dec 5, 2020

brianNH said:
I have a 10-drawer Huot top box that I pulled from the town recycling dumpster. Bottom kinda rusted inside & out, some dents & bent s/m, but not bad at all. Most drawers work well. This thread has been super helpful for me in getting the drawers out for thorough cleaning & priming. The tip about using the steel piece from a Pendaflex folder worked very well for me. It took some doing, and some slides came out much harder than others, but it all worked very well.

The main thing I eventually did that really helped a lot in getting the most stubborn slides out was to grind a bevel on the front edge of the bent metal tool. Before I did that, the tool was having a hard time getting past the metal finger on some of the slides, especially slides that were tight moving. After putting a bevel on it, easy peasy.

I had originally just cleaned up and primed the rusty bottom half, but then I decided to remove the drawers and do a more thorough restoration.

Today, I washed the whole thing and all its pieces in a solvent tank, then cleaned it all up with a pressure washer. Tonight, I've been working on removing dents and bends from the slides. On one of them, two of the spot welds had come free, so I rewelded that together. I've banged out dents and bends in the main frame and a couple of the drawers.

I went to Home Depot today & picked up a quart of baby blue paint to repaint it with. I was tempted to use some cool new color, like hammered copper, but in the end I decided to stick with a color much like the original.

I was tempted to sandblast the main cabinet, but decided not to because I knew I'd then spend the rest of my life dealing with the sand that would have gotten in between the inner and outer sheet metal of the main cabinet frame. So, I'm going to just scuff everything with sandpaper and then prime it with Rustoleum red oxide. Nothing fancy - I'll just be brushing the paint on, not spraying it.

The modified tool:

Wheelbarrow load of drawers, degreased and pressure washed:

And the main cabinet frame. Worst rusting on bottom already primed 2-3 coats before diving deeper into this project. Bottom front had quite a dent in it, but I hammered that out. Bottom lip still needs more straightening work.

Your restoration deserves it's own thread! :thumbup:

Outlawmws · Dec 5, 2020

Just remember Oven Cleaners are generally Lye based, so pretty caustic.

Also the "low odor" versions are essentially useless.

macgee · Dec 5, 2020

Outlawmws said:
Just remember Oven Cleaners are generally Lye based, so pretty caustic.

Also the "low odor" versions are essentially useless.

Correct Outlaw and important to mention, Avoid skin contact and should be done outside and stand upwind.

brianNH · Dec 11, 2020

I'm working on it slowly. It's been pretty cold, and that doesn't lend itself well to working in the garage a lot, and especially to painting.

However, I wanted to pass on a tip I discovered by accident, and it works extremely well. Some of my drawer slides were bent and/or had wrinkles in the lips. Pretty hard to straighten out the bent and wrinkled lips. I was putting a large screwdriver in between the lips and banging on that, but it wasn't working. The metal is too thick to straighten easily, and the lips are too close together to get any tool, like a vise-grip based sheet metal seaming tool, in there.

Fortunately, I happened to have a piece of 1/4" steel rod laying on my bench, so I tried that, and it worked perfectly. All those stubborn bends and wrinkles disappeared easily. You just take a hammer and pop the rod down into the slot between the lips. It expands the lips enough to keep a tight grip on the rod, so it stays in there, but not so much that the lips don't spring back to their proper position.

With the rod in there, now you have solid all the way from your hammer, through the lip, rod, lip combo, and onto your anvil. A few light taps from the hammer on the dents, bends, and wrinkles, and they just disappear!

Here's a pic of what it looks like. If you had a longer piece of 1/4" rod, it would be even better. With one end of the rod overhanging the slide, just slap it on your bench, and the rod pops right out. With the rod not overhanging, I had to use a small screwdriver to pop the rod out to reposition it.

Sept 2021 update - the system seems to be now letting me attach pictures, so here is that picture of the slide straightening tool setup.

brianNH · Dec 11, 2020

Odd - it let me post a picture on my first post, but on this second post it's telling me I have to have 5 posts to be able to post a pic. I'll try to post it later. Hopefully, you get what I mean from the description.

brianNH · Sep 2, 2021

Here is a picture of the final result. The locking bars are painted silver, and I bought a new lock for it, but I haven't yet installed them. I finished this project last spring. The drawers are a hammered copper color.

GrayFlattop · Nov 5, 2023

jakemac said:
As stated in the first post, the stop tabs on the older Huot boxes are on the slider, not the box. As such, it is easier to remove the sliders with the drawer first and then remove the sliders from the back once the drawers

Pic 7 - Showing the inside of the box and the detent.

Thank you so much for the photos and explanation.

four.cycle · Nov 26, 2025

HUOT tool drawer removal instructions.jpg

HUOT drawer removal instructions

2019 HUOT restoration thread

2021 HUOT roller chest thread

2025 HUOT 201 Porta-Cab thread

Snip's · Nov 26, 2025

four.cycle said:
HUOT drawer removal instructions

I found the same diagram from HUOT when I refurbished my HUOT drill bit cabinet...
You can see my DIY tool next to the engineer pliers.. Worked well on the drawer slides...

Huot Toolbox - Drawer / Slide Removal

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