How often do you move your giant toolboxes?

[Sumboodie]

Unload it as bext you can before you move it - I just folded the rear left wheel under my shop box moving it so I could unload it for moving...

I am NOT a happy camper tonight. Do I try to save the box, and buy a piece of plate to mount the casters into, or shitcan the box and replace it.

BTW the box is almost as old as I am, so don't tell me about warranties - they're long dead.

I wasn't impressed when mine did the same. I'm sure glad I didn't pay catalog prices for it! Overpriced junk!

 

[Lassen Forge]

... build an angle iron cradle with casters on the corners. Or a big flat plate as proposed. But that is going to weight a bit.

Years ago I ended up with a quality toolbox that had shipping damage. The box looked like a parallelogram from the front and the drawers did not want to open. Probably got dropped from the truck on its side. I mentioned my dilemma to my mechanic and he commented that the body guys down the street moonlighted on the weekends. In the end they straightened the box out like new and welded to corners to make sure it did not move. Best $100 I ever spent.

I was thinking doing just that, however it probably won't happen until I get set up over there now... but the roller framework idea just makes sense. Just kinda pissed the weel support bent - box has been with me 50 years, to have it fail now is, well... sad.

 

[tool_scrounge]

I was thinking doing just that, however it probably won't happen until I get set up over there now... but the roller framework idea just makes sense. Just kinda pissed the weel support bent - box has been with me 50 years, to have it fail now is, well... sad.

Lista insists that you add "waffle plate" stiffeners to the bottom of their cabinets when you add casters to avoid the buckling issue. Here is an old GJ thread on that topic with some pictures and some flat plate equivalent stiffness calculations that may be useful.

Casters to use for Lista and Vidmar boxes

I have several 30" wide 59" tall Lista and Vidmar boxes on which I'd like to install casters for mobility. What's a good size caster to use? I am contemplating on 5" casters. Any suggestions from experience? Thanks in advance.

www.garagejournal.com

 

[jptbay]

Mac dealer moved my loaded 72"x30" roller cabinet in his tool truck with big power lift gate for a donation of his favorite craft beer.

Was money well spent. Box was super secure and didn't get a mark on it.

 

[Formula]

Whenever I move mine to another dealer, I just call a tow truck company that I’ve used for years. They bring out a flatbed and load it up. The last time I had it moved, the tow truck driver said he could feel there was a lot of weight to it by how his truck handled with it.

 

[Rick B.]

I have a few friends who were cajoled into buying large boxes and, after paying it off and leaving the profession, it has become economically and spatially challenging to keep them in storage units, etc....it seems an American obsession to have a tool box, sized extra extra large.

Back in the 80's it used to be stacked chests. The taller the stack the more respect I guess. I knew guys who had step stools next to their boxes to reach the top box! No adays it's spread out instead of up.

 

[CGarage]

Back in the 80's it used to be stacked chests. The taller the stack the more respect I guess. I knew guys who had step stools next to their boxes to reach the top box! No adays it's spread out instead of up.

Sort of like American waists.....

A top box and a bottom box seems more than reasonable to me. Someone should have done a better job inventing vertical, locking storage for long extensions, ratchets, and pry bars.
That would bring the standard 26” rolling boxes into the modern era.

 

[CS454]

Sort of like American waists.....

A top box and a bottom box seems more than reasonable to me. Someone should have done a better job inventing vertical, locking storage for long extensions, ratchets, and pry bars.
That would bring the standard 26” rolling boxes into the modern era.

I adopted a 3 drawer roll cart only because my shop is the size of a stadium and there's no assigned bays. Otherwise I would've gladly worked out of my 26" stack my entire career.

 

[CGarage]

I adopted a 3 drawer roll cart only because my shop is the size of a stadium and there's no assigned bays. Otherwise I would've gladly worked out of my 26" stack my entire career.

I think that is the ideal setup. 26” top and bottom box + a roll cart. That covers almost everything for 95% of professionals (Automotive).

 

[2ndGearRubber]

I think that is the ideal setup. 26” top and bottom box + a roll cart. That covers almost everything for 95% of professionals (Automotive).

Maybe for basic stuff. Like basic RR work like brake and suspension. Or maybe at a dealer with one brand and that's all you work on.

The giant boxes are for the rest of the tools that aren't supplied, but still required. I don't think a 26" wide box would even fit my cooling system pressure/vacuum kit. I have a 6 drawer cart, I can't imagine working out of anything less than a triple as home base. You'd have to pile stuff in, and still not have what you need.

Assuming you can secure consumables, spare parts, funnels, etc elsewhere. If not then you need a cabinet too for all that stuff and less valuable tools.

 

[ecotec]

I never move my large box. It is old, overloaded, and on borrowed time. I carefully open my socket drawer.

 

[dr_clyde]

Most of Europe and Asia the shop supplies all the specialty tools, if not all the hand tools as well. If a mechanic needs to bring their own kit to work it's typically a very small amount of stuff and would fit in a small rollaway if not a hand box or cart like a Hazet Assistent. American mechanics tend to have to supply ALL their own tools, and this includes some "specialty" tools that are bulky and not space savers at all, hence the bigger boxes in USA.

Once you look at all the stuff required to work on modern vehicles, you can see why toolboxes have grown. Just the electrical systems alone require a few drawers full of testers, meters, scanners, scopes, probes, and all sorts of hand tools. Back in the 60's all you needed were some wrenches, sockets and a few screwdrivers and maybe a hammer or two for general repair. You had "specialty tools" if you had a timing light and a test light. If you did engine work, body work, suspension work or anything larger, you might need a bigger cabinet but still nothing huge.

There is a reason for these boxes and it's not just ego. Although it for sure is in some cases.

 

[Shoreline_]

I think my box is as heavy as a small forklift. The few times I've moved it without a roll back I would empty it and pull the drawers to lighten it up. ***** but it's not an everyday thing.

 

[Wrench97]

I see a lot of these giant 73" boxes with side lockers, chests and overhead cabinets. I looked at the specs of some of these and the UNLOADED weight is approaching 1 ton! I can't imagine how much they weigh when fully loaded.

Does anyone ever move them after they are loaded up? I would think this would be harder than pushing a 68 Buick....

To move them loaded you normally use a roll-back type tow truck.
When I retired from the fleet shop I moved mine a couple drawers at a time then loaded the box with a F/lift and unloaded it with a chain hoist at home. Of course it took the best part of 2 weeks for my wife to get her garage spot back............................

 

[diy gearhead]

Lol never...the box is stationary, never moves..I have a cart that I work out of, the box just holds my specialty tools and tools I don't need daily, the cart carries all my most used tools and gets pushed from bay to bay wherever I'm working at the moment..

 

[fasteddie313]

I don't move my boxes any more than I have to. Maybe once a year if that to clean around them or something.

When I worked industrial maintenance at a large brewery, I had a couple small "go boxes" I would take with me to a job. If I was going to be in a spot for more than a few hours, I'd forklift my KR1000 to the site. I also used a Knaack Jobmaster chest to store large stuff on the move.

When my dad worked tool and die in the 80's, they had to roll their boxes all over the shop to different machines. He made custom bases out of angle iron and upgraded the casters, the Kennedy rollers would fall apart otherwise.

My father, retired Journeyman Tool and Die Maker, Pontiac Motors, has a hitch on one of his boxes he pulled all over with a fork lift..
Snappy bench type box with like 8" castors on it..

 

[Moldyjim]

When I was renovating our 1890 farm house I had four of the hand totes for carrying around the house.
One for electrical, one for plumbing, a sheetrock and carpentry totes.
Worked out pretty well, especially nice for working on a ladder, just carry the tote up and straddle the top step with it. Beats going down and back just to grab a wire nut.

My tool & die boxes are three tiers high Kennedy boxes with the HD casters. I took it home about 10 years ago and it hasn't been moved until just recently when I moved it out of the barn into a different outbuilding. My really precious tools I have inside the house in wooden boxes.

 

[Eli D]

By no means giant but this one makes the trip from Oregon to Utah and back about 4 times each year.

 

[logical]

Just a home DIY set up with two 56" units, one with and one without top box. They can be moved if I had the need, but it's not as if they would fit anywhere else in the garage. When it's time to clean under and behind them I get out the leaf blower. The tiles under the casters accommodate floor slope.