Clarke Tool Chests

[cortina_gt]

Hi, I'm new here. What a great site. Has anyone ever heard of Clarke Power Products. Summit Racing carries their line of tool chests and the prices seem reasonable.
http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?Ntt=clarke&N=700+115+4294796279&Ntk=KeywordSearch

 

[MarkH]

You will find plenty of threads covering this in search.

Summary: comments run from great to skip it

There seems to be a changing level of quality depending on where you see them and when. I saw some great ones at TSC and Orschleins when they first came out. The last ones I saw were more OK, but not anything special for the price. So it may be one of the products you want to inspect to know what you are getting.

 

[-lecroix-]

Harbor Freight type quality ... actually, a lot of the Clarke stuff can be found at HF just without the Clarke decal.

 

[Deafautotech]

i own two middle clarke toolboxes (one that have black and heavy duty ball bearing and other one red as standard ball bearing) i am prefer heavy duty ball bearing because it siad rated to (i cant remember how much) but i did put 100 lbs on it and it still slide as smooth but slide show me little bent (which it is normal).... but i cant keep 100 lbs on it because it will fall down when i open....

 

[Roospike]

I have the Clarke black w gold mobile tool cabinet with top chest with heavy duty ball bearing and side locker at work i use for welding and it works great for the $$ . With welding and fabrication u end up with a drawers full of heavy clamps and the weight hasnt ever been an issue.

 

[-lecroix-]

Whaaaa? Yow own something that has the same quality as Harbor Freight.

Damn Hypocrite.

 

[SteveU]

They have these at the local farm store. I pulled a drawer out & put some downward pressure (less than 30 lbs) & the outside of the drawer started to flex a lot. Wouldn't be suitable for having anything heavy in it.

 

[Amarkel]

I was looking at the same box, Summit Racing is not too far from me.
The 40" wide stuff looks good. The casters look a lot better than anything Craftsman has put on their rollers for a long time.

 

[plinker]

I have a Clarke 5 drawer top chest.

It's not near as heavy duty as my Snap-on KRA59G, but for storing specialty & measuring tools it works just fine. 110$ with tax on sale @ Menards.

 

[wilbilt]

It has been suggested here in the past that those Black/Gold boxes are quite pimp.

I bent a drawer on one at TSC, too.

 

[Kevin54]

Check these tool chest http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Tool...emQQcategoryZ35001QQihZ006QQitemZ160162037292

 

[wythors]

Clarke stuff is made in China and the quality of what I've seen when I visited Summit was pretty lame. If you're looking for decent quality at a reasonable price, check out International boxes. They are good quality (think Craftsman Professional) and are made in Canada. Another member here (sorry, forgot who) and I both have Internationals and I'm very satisfied with mine.

 

[Jononon]

Their stuff's very common here (England) because Clarke is the major brand at Machine Mart. The Clarke HD Plus stuff is tolerable, in that it doesn't fall to pieces, but it's pretty rough - sharp edges, poorly finished corners, crunchy drawer slides. The standard line is utter rubbish, I believe that's what's sold unbranded at Harbor Freight.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

I have experience with the Black & Gold series, having a couple of base cabinets (not pictured), in my shop that I bought at a garage sale.
Pictured is a set that I won at an auction on Black Friday. I took it completely apart, cleaned, polished and serviced it so be as close to new as I can get it. IMO: They are well made and compare to Craftsman Professional Series. Last picture is how I found it.