Built Harbor Freight Tough!

[SteveH-CO]

I bought a 44" wide HF tool chest earlier this year - the one that is ~$400 and weighs 330lbs empty. Nice chest - has served me well.

So.... I was testing an electric scooter/wheelchair in my garage, and had it turned up to 'full speed' (5 mph). Not remembering that the wheelchair doesn't have brakes, I drove it across the garage, could not stop it, and ran it into the side of an open drawer on my HF chest. It hit the drawer hard enough to bend one of the two full roller drawer slides. The drawer would no longer shut. Oops. The drawer itself did not bend.

I removed the drawer, grabbed the slide (sticking out from the chest), and reefed on it, bending it back. I tested the drawer, and tweaked it a few more times, and the drawer operates about 95% as well as it did. Just a bit stiffer to slide in and out than the undamaged ones.

I'm sure my lesser Craftsman box would have exploded if I had run this ~400# worth of wheelchair into it. Since this HF toolbox is supposed to be a clone of a pro-grade box, I'm glad it held up like it should have.

FWIW - Steve

 

[Moosefire]

I bet that would make a good video. I would've liked to see that

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[davethorik]

You can take off the US General badge and replace it with a handicapped parking only sign

 

[zendriver]

Ho-hum

Nobody likes stories of their stuff holding up!

Next time, hit it with a garden tractor!


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[dogdog]

You can take off the US General badge and replace it with a handicapped parking only sign

LMFAO

 

[SteveH-CO]

This wasn't my finest hour. I'm surprised I didn't lacerate my leg on the toolbox. Would have served me right.

 

[captain14]

Maybe post in this thread?

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=271579&highlight=Unsupervised

 

[MushCreek]

A guy where I worked had an HF 5 drawer. It was dented- heavily- all over. All four sides, including every drawer, and the lid. I never did ask how it happened. It looked like he beat it with a hammer over and over, on every surface. He either has anger issues, or wanted to get it broken in. Oh yeah- all of the drawers worked fine.

 

[davethorik]

Usually bumps, dings, etc on the exterior of any box will not affect drawer use. Hitting open drawers, or severe structural damage is almost always the end of the line.

At an old job, was working one day when one of my co-workers turned in a 2 week notice and my ex-boss flipped out and walked him out the door. Guy had one of those wider stainless roll cabs I think they sold at Sam's club. Watched boss load it with forklift into guys truck while guy just stood there.

Drawers facing out (no-no), box unlocked (no-no), and the loading was done on a slight downward grade (no-no)...Im sure you can see where I'm going with this. It was also raining.

I helped the guy pick up a few hundred pounds of machinist tools dumped all over the wet, dirty concrete. Most of the drawers were open when it hit, the box was wracked so bad none of them would budge. It also damaged the tailgate of his T100. What a HORRIBLE way to end employment somewhere...