how do you use your tool cart vs tool chest

[hoffman912]

ok obviously one is more mobile to move around the car as you work etc.

What i am curious on is how you use your tool cart vs tool chest for storage? do you keep everything in the tool chest and then when you have a project pull the tools you need and load up the cart? or do you keep certain tools in the cart, and others in the tool chest? how convenient is it considering space it takes up in the garage?

 

[mucksavage]

I'm purchasing a cart (HF 5 drawer) this weekend. My top & bottom box is overloaded. My intention is to put all of my "often used" items in it & move it out to the driveway when I'm working on something.

 

[jmvar]

This is a great question.

I have a 1 car garage that will NEVER have a car in it. I have to work in the driveway and would like a good method of taking tools out there.

I was also eying the harbor freight cart and would like to hear everyone's take on what tools should go in the cart.

 

[JasonMcElroy]

This type of question (organization and use related) can be really diffcult to get right and can be downright paralyzing for certain people when setting up shops and work spaces. I know I can be pretty obsessive and have suffered from perfection paralysis ofen in the past. It can get pretty old and keep you from the real objective: get some work done and enjoy it.

So the typical approach is to attempt to consider in advance the types of work and projects you'll be doing and the tools you'll need to do them. I've built two shops from scratch now (inside, not construction of building itself) and tried that approach both times. I found on each occasion that you never use it how you thought you would and that some ideas were great and some areas are less than useful.

So this last time around I tried something new. . .

I just went to my shop and worked on whatever I felt like for a few months. When done each time, I left the tools wherever I had been using them. It was pretty clear to me down the line what I used the most and where I used it. . . so I made it permanent and built a home for them in the "stations" where they ended up.

Did the same thing with my service car. If tools end up there and get used more than once, they stay there.

Night and day. Worked great.

Nice to be free of overthinking the problem too.

YMMV.

Jason
(recovering over-thinker)

 

[Hpozzuoli]

If you work in a multi bay shop or an equipment dealer that has a yard it is easier to move around the cart. The spot you get for your big box might not be behind the bay you work out of.

If you work on vehicles at home I really don't see the need to have a cart unless your garage is huge, like some folks here have. If you are working in your driveway I just walk back and forth. Typically whatever car I have at the time is in the garage anyways. I couldn't justify a cart in my current situation, not to mention I have no more room left for it to go.

 

[HotwheelsYJ]

I keep my always needed no matter what job type stuff on my cart: RTV, Liquid wrench, zip ties. Tape & tape measures, pry bars, shop rags & the like.

All "tools" are in my boxes. I start a project with the top section of my cart empty & it continues to fill up as I need different tools.

End of the project or on clean up day , everything goes back in its assign spot in my boxes.

My boxes never move but I'm only in a 20x32 shop. There's a spot on the wall beside my main box where the cart fits but its normally out in the middle of the shop.

 

[hoffman912]

thanks, great points guys. I have been debating on how i want to set things up in my new garage. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3781346

its a narrow garage, 21x27 or so, with a lean to on the side that i will use for shop tools and storage.

I have been debating on using a HF 44" chest and maybe a tool cart, or going a different direction and getting a few craftsman project centers http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-...0959496000P?prdNo=14&blockNo=14&blockType=G14

the idea being that have one project center for metric, one for sae, and maybe another with speciality tools, the carts could fit under a work bench and provide rolling work spaces... but in typical Harry style, i could also be making it overly complicated.

i really like the idea of a tool cart (especially the HF 5 drawer.. i wonder if jack stands will fit on the bottom shelf), but i also wonder if it will eat up too much room..

 

[hoffman912]

I keep my always needed no matter what job type stuff on my cart: RTV, Liquid wrench, zip ties. Tape & tape measures, pry bars, shop rags & the like.

All "tools" are in my boxes. I start a project with the top section of my cart empty & it continues to fill up as I need different tools.

End of the project or on clean up day , everything goes back in its assign spot in my boxes.

My boxes never move but I'm only in a 20x32 shop. There's a spot on the wall beside my main box where the cart fits but its normally out in the middle of the shop.

excellent, this is one idea i like and was debating.

so 20x32.. 20 wide, 32 deep? have pics? I have a 21x27 and find the narrowness a challenge and would love to see how you set it up.

 

[vankaye]

I use mine in the most conventional way.

I keep rags, sprays on half of the top compartment. I keep air tools and filter wrenches in the drawer (mine has the optional drawer). And I keep jackstands and droplights in the bottom compartment.
I pull tools from the Toolbox as needed for taking things apart and I put the tools I used, along with the small items I take off, on the empty half of the cart's top. Then, everything I need is right there when I put back together.

After the job is done - I roll the cart over to the box and put the tools away.

 

[taumac]

In my garage I use my homemade little cart for about everything. I clean in out after I do a project.



Have a good one, Gerard

Florida GJers ( FGJ)
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=117

The 5 Stitches Garage
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211899

 

[HotwheelsYJ]

excellent, this is one idea i like and was debating.

so 20x32.. 20 wide, 32 deep? have pics? I have a 21x27 and find the narrowness a challenge and would love to see how you set it up.

Mines opposite of yours. Its 32 wide x 20 deep & only a single car shop. The center section is 12 wide & each lean to is 10'. It definitely keeps my big projects to one @ a time but the extra space on each side gives plenty of room for work benches, carts & boxes

 

[Ruger_556]

I have no cart... Just roll the box where I want to work We have a 6 bay drive through shop (You can leave a 53' van trailer hooked up) and it's really not a big deal.

 

[hoffman912]

JESUS! thats a lot of space

 

[hoffman912]

Mines opposite of yours. Its 32 wide x 20 deep & only a single car shop. The center section is 12 wide & each lean to is 10'. It definitely keeps my big projects to one @ a time but the extra space on each side gives plenty of room for work benches, carts & boxes

ahh ok. yeah. I am trying to keep mine two.. it is a two car garage.. but its narrow enough that all of the benches, tool boxes etc, have to be up front. the lean to is nice as its going to give me space for storage and shop tools (compressor will live there as will the sand blast cabinet, grinder, sander, eventually a drill press).

https://scontent-a-ord.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/1544523_10153627774525510_616965303_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-ord.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/1486930_10153627782315510_1233593276_n.jpg


https://scontent-b-ord.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1.0-9/1378752_10153273468200510_2136333322_n.jpg

thankfully i just got a shed so all the yard stuff can finally get out of my garage where it doesnt belong

 

[bushmechanic]

Both of my main boxes can be rolled about easily, but I've got two smaller units, rather than a single large box.

One has quite a bit of external storage for mid-job use, and is a Craftsman that was made right when they were really cranking out some outstanding stuff in the late '90s. The other is a generic Channellock from Sam's Club that I bought simply for the cart and extra hold-back tools, and has a large tray underneath.

That said, I do have a little wire stainless cart with multiple levels that rolls very easily. You can find these things anywhere under a number of brand names, and they aren't expensive.

I leave everything in the boxes, and just bring out what I need. The cart slowly fills up with whatever I'm using. That's what happens in my mind, anyway.

In reality, I leave stuff all over the place, and immediately lose any 13mm wrench I touch.

 

[Mike Miller]

A tool cart is superfluous to the average guy doing hobby work in a two car garage, when I was wrenching for a living it was a convenient way of transporting only the tools and parts I needed to the item being serviced/repaired with out having to drag a heavy roll away to a rig. Some things for recurring jobs like brake, tune up ect. were left on the cart along with cleaning and lubrication materials.

 

[taumac]

A tool cart is superfluous to the average guy doing hobby work in a two car garage, when I was wrenching for a living it was a convenient way of transporting only the tools and parts I needed to the item being serviced/repaired with out having to drag a heavy roll away to a rig. Some things for recurring jobs like brake, tune up ect. were left on the cart along with cleaning and lubrication materials.

I can agree with that. That's why I built a small 14 x 20 lightweight little cart. It just keeps all my tools in one place when working on the cars and stuff.



Have a good one, Gerard

Florida GJers ( FGJ)
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=117

The 5 Stitches Garage
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211899