Free Tool Chest Ideas

[shaunwhite11188]

i was thinking if someone could come up with a desigh of a old filing cabnet and transforming it into a tool chest???????????

 

[Steve_S]

A tool chest is just a heavy duty cabinet with a lock. The main thing is that the rollers or slides can handle the weight, and you want drawers that are a logical depth for the tools you plan to put in them.

 

[v8garage]

Filing cabinets are pretty good for storing power tools without any modification. Drawers are kind of deep for hand tools.

 

[e-tek]

A tool chest is just a heavy duty cabinet with a lock. .

REEEEAAAALLLYYYY?!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the tip!!

 

[Steve_S]

LOL! I was just trying to put things in perspective! Just saying it's nothing but a specialty cabinet, that's all. Therefore a filing cabinet would work fine without a "transformation".

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

Filing cabinets are pretty good for storing power tools without any modification. Drawers are kind of deep for hand tools.

Depends on how much time you want to spend. An older neighbor, (now deceased) was quite the scrounger. He used both cardboard boxes and some wood ones he made as drawer liners for a filing cabinet. He said if he ever found the free wood, he was going to modify the drawers, so you open them, and pull drawers out of the drawers to one side (like the black and red plastic Craftsman socket chests.


Seems like a lot of work for very little benefit to me.

 

[PoorOwner]

I have a steel desk with file cabinet, the drawers slide out almost 26" deep, I put all of my impact sockets in one about 70 lbs and it holds fine, although the momentum from the weight can be quite big.

 

[Frank Elson]

I have a multi-drawer filing cabinet, drawers are just a couple of inches high.
I should think you have them in the States as well.

 

[arthur1920]

I just saw a filing cabinet the other day.. tall, 4 inch high drawers x 20 inch wide, about 6 feet high. I thought...wow that would make a great tool chest. don't know what kind of specialty file cab it was. Check second hand office supply listings in your neighborhood.

On the other hand, a Sears 5 drawer rolla way cab on sale is about 120. Every time I look around at what is available, I end up buying another rollaway.

 

[Brad54]

I just saw a filing cabinet the other day.. tall, 4 inch high drawers x 20 inch wide, about 6 feet high. I thought...wow that would make a great tool chest. don't know what kind of specialty file cab it was. Check second hand office supply listings in your neighborhood.

Those are map or blueprint file cabinets.
I know a guy who had them at his fab shop, and sectioned off the inside so it was in little compartments. Then he ordered at least two of every style of tab and bracket from The Chassis Shop, and painted the part number on the tab or bracket with that yellow junk yard paint that will survive a nuclear blast.

Then, when he was fabbing a chassis or some other project, he'd go to the cabinet and pull out the tabs or brackets he'd need, mock everything up, and when it was all set to go together, he'd order all the tabs from The Chassis Shop. Saved a lot of time on his fab work, as he didn't need to fab the brackets and tabs himself, and could build around what was already available, and he always had a full assortment on hand.

Those drawers would also make great organizers for specialty things like a full assortment of pop rivets and a rivet gun, etc.

There are of course nut and bolt bin cabinets and organizers, but they don't seem to work as well for rivets. Same with trim clips, blind nut clips, etc.

Pull one drawer open, scan all of them for the one you're looking for neat and organized.

Yes, I'm looking for some myself!!!

-Brad