How would you design your own Toolbox?

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

What kind of toolbox design do you guys prefer most? What depth and width of drawers, box, etc. What are the best designed boxes that you've seen, or more importantly, owned?

Curious about this b/c when I see toolboxes at Sears/HD/Lowes, they really don't seem like they're all that well designed.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

I am hoping the building your own toolbox thread gets updated, and still wish there were pics of homemade wooden chests.

Honestly, I have seen lots of boxes, but have NEVER been completely happy with the layout of any of them. Between that, the higher theft area I live in, growing up seeing what people did with less (and their workshops and the garage I use), I still think about making my own wooden chest.
I'd rather spend it on the tools, then the box.

 

[Blacknwhitepit]

For starters, I would get rid of the top lid. Chances are you can't see into it, it stays open most of the time and it just collects dust and gets piled with more tools.

- BWP

 

[84TurboBuick]

Its funny that this thread just started today, as I just started building my own toolbox today.

I too was not a fan of any of the current tool box layouts / designs out there. So I'm going to make my own.

The current $ figure as of now is around a $1000 bucks complete. Around $400 - 500 for the wood (Oak) and another $400 - 500 for the drawer slides and misc. hardware. (Either brass or polished nickle)

The box will be 8' L x 45" H x 30" D

It will have 1 bank of 40" drawers and then 2 banks of 20" drawers, there will also be 4 20" drawers along the bottom.

All the drawers will be lined with heavy dark green felt and most of the tools will be held in place with wooden organizers.

I'll try to keep everyone that wants to follow along with the build informed as to how it turns out.

Wish me luck!

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Its funny that this thread just started today, as I just started building my own toolbox today.

I too was not a fan of any of the current tool box layouts / designs out there. So I'm going to make my own.

The current $ figure as of now is around a $1000 bucks complete. Around $400 - 500 for the wood (Oak) and another $400 - 500 for the drawer slides and misc. hardware. (Either brass or polished nickle)

The box will be 8' L x 45" H x 30" D

It will have 1 bank of 40" drawers and then 2 banks of 20" drawers, there will also be 4 20" drawers along the bottom.

All the drawers will be lined with heavy dark green felt and most of the tools will be held in place with wooden organizers.

I'll try to keep everyone that wants to follow along with the build informed as to how it turns out.

Wish me luck!

Wow! That sounds like it's going to be one hell of a box.

I'm assuming you'll have it on castors?

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

For starters, I would get rid of the top lid. Chances are you can't see into it, it stays open most of the time and it just collects dust and gets piled with more tools.

- BWP

My first full box (only full price one), is taller then me. I wish I would have got a step stool with it. LOL

Its funny that this thread just started today, as I just started building my own toolbox today.

I too was not a fan of any of the current tool box layouts / designs out there. So I'm going to make my own.

The current $ figure as of now is around a $1000 bucks complete. Around $400 - 500 for the wood (Oak) and another $400 - 500 for the drawer slides and misc. hardware. (Either brass or polished nickle)

The box will be 8' L x 45" H x 30" D

It will have 1 bank of 40" drawers and then 2 banks of 20" drawers, there will also be 4 20" drawers along the bottom.

All the drawers will be lined with heavy dark green felt and most of the tools will be held in place with wooden organizers.

I'll try to keep everyone that wants to follow along with the build informed as to how it turns out.

Wish me luck!

So this is SOLID wood, not solid wood front and plywood? What are you using for casters? Something like Woodcrafts in the 5"?

 

[84TurboBuick]

Yes its all solid oak. I want it to last the rest of my life! (Big order I know, but I want to build something that will last years) The entire frame will be made of 4x4's and all the joints will be tongue and groove. All the joints will then be reinforced with corner supports inside and decorative supports on the outside.

I'm probably going to end up with 9 casters on it altogether. I don't know if I am going with a 4" / 5" or 6" caster for now. I'm leaning toward a soft rubber 4" or 5" for now. I don't really care for the solid wheels.

All the drawers will have a piece of flat stock on the back and a "T" bracket on the bottom of each drawer to keep it from bowing. All the drawer bottoms will be tongue and groove pine, laid at a 45degree angle to distribute the load, along with a piece of 1/8 Luon to give it a solid top. All the drawers will have a double front (again to help with bowing) and all the slides will be as big as I can manage them. The slides themselves will be bolted thru an oak 2x4 with a piece of flat stock to keep it from "Rocking" itself out of the mounting holes.

The sides and back will be 3/4" Oak plywood slotted into all the 4x4's.

If this things ever falls apart, I am giving up all future woodworking projects and sticking to fixing my Grand National.

 

[chammyman]

go with the biggest castors you can, makes rolling it on rough concrete, over pipes and cables etc much easier. Will wood be able to support heavy tools ok though without weighing a hell of a lot?

Anyway as for normal toolboxes, they are never deep, wide or the drawers high enough.
As for best quality, here in the UK we are quite limited to the boxes we get. Snap on are the best in all honesty. Snap on last the longest and are the best made. I'd place Beta second, Britool third, then you have the rest like Sealey, Draper, American Pro and so on.

The cheap ones look good and seem ok at first, if your are just a weekend warrior they are probably fine, but when used professionally they just collapse (literally).

 

[Frank Elson]

since coming on here I have been looking in workshops to see what the pros use...
I haven't yet seen anything other than Snap On.
But, heck, they are expensive in this country, even secondhand.
I will just have to keep trawling Ebay.

 

[eschoendorff]

Yes its all solid oak. I want it to last the rest of my life! (Big order I know, but I want to build something that will last years) The entire frame will be made of 4x4's and all the joints will be tongue and groove. All the joints will then be reinforced with corner supports inside and decorative supports on the outside.

I'm probably going to end up with 9 casters on it altogether. I don't know if I am going with a 4" / 5" or 6" caster for now. I'm leaning toward a soft rubber 4" or 5" for now. I don't really care for the solid wheels.

All the drawers will have a piece of flat stock on the back and a "T" bracket on the bottom of each drawer to keep it from bowing. All the drawer bottoms will be tongue and groove pine, laid at a 45degree angle to distribute the load, along with a piece of 1/8 Luon to give it a solid top. All the drawers will have a double front (again to help with bowing) and all the slides will be as big as I can manage them. The slides themselves will be bolted thru an oak 2x4 with a piece of flat stock to keep it from "Rocking" itself out of the mounting holes.

The sides and back will be 3/4" Oak plywood slotted into all the 4x4's.

If this things ever falls apart, I am giving up all future woodworking projects and sticking to fixing my Grand National.

Holy shitballs... That box is gonna be nice! Make sure you tease us with some pictures as you progress on this project...

 

[Moose-LandTran]

since coming on here I have been looking in workshops to see what the pros use...
I haven't yet seen anything other than Snap On.
But, heck, they are expensive in this country, even secondhand.
I will just have to keep trawling Ebay.

There are good deals to be had. I got my 40" KRA rollcab (top and bottom box) for £670 on eBay and the side box for £155. Cost of buying all that new is something like £3,500.

 

[Frank Elson]

There are good deals to be had. I got my 40" KRA rollcab (top and bottom box) for £670 on eBay and the side box for £155. Cost of buying all that new is something like £3,500.

true, but I keep getting beaten by people who will pay a lot more. You got a real bargain there.

 

[Rickster]

For starters, I would get rid of the top lid. Chances are you can't see into it, it stays open most of the time and it just collects dust and gets piled with more tools.

- BWP

AMEN! Wasted space that just piles up with stuff and looks messy.

How about repositionable drawers where the smaller drawers take one set of slides and the mid sized ones take two sets of slides and the deep take threee sets of slides. And grooved sides in each drawer to slide in dividers.

 

[dps]

AMEN! Wasted space that just piles up with stuff and looks messy.

How about repositionable drawers where the smaller drawers take one set of slides and the mid sized ones take two sets of slides and the deep take threee sets of slides. And grooved sides in each drawer to slide in dividers.

That's a pretty smart idea. So you could have 1 1/2, 3, and 6 inch drawers. Maybe even make extra drawers available.

With admittedly limited experience, I do think the 36" width (40"box) is ideal. Wide enough to hold a lot of tools without being so wide that the drawer gets too heavy or "see-saws" when opening and closing.

 

[Jononon]

How about repositionable drawers where the smaller drawers take one set of slides and the mid sized ones take two sets of slides and the deep take threee sets of slides. And grooved sides in each drawer to slide in dividers.

http://www.tracertoolboxes.com/?page=drawers&qual_nav=yes&ot_qual=no

Been done

 

[TheToolMan]

Snappy boxes do that as well

 

[goodfellow]

I prefer the old fashioned tool boxes. Back in the day, most every mechanic I worked with had pretty much the same setup, and the biggest boxes you saw were usually 36"

I worked in one place where company policy dictated how you should organize your toolbox and the accepted size of that box.

Top Box:

Under the lid -- all the chrome sockets

Lots of shallow small drawers in the top box for all the small parts and precision measuring tools a mechanic accumulates. It was easy to compartmentalize with that kind of setup

Then full-lenth shallow and mid-depth drawers for ratchets and socket accessories, torque wrenches, and specialty tools

Bottom Box:


On the bottom box there were lots of full length shallow drawers for displaying wrenches, screwdrivers, and pliers.

Further down, some full length mid-depth drawers for power tools, hammers, specialty tools, and impact sockets

Way on the bottom; full legth deep drawers for all the testing equipment, analyzers and boxed instruments that go along with the job.


If you were a seasoned vet, chances are you had a side cabinet and an intermediate box full of specialty equipment, homemade tools, and "rare" manuals (only the tall guys went for intermediate boxes)


I just described the the old 70's vintage MAC/MATCO/SNAP-ON and "SEARS Best" 36" chests/cabinets. They were my favorites --

 

[russlaferrera]

My suggestion is to go with a Stanley Vidmar, or Lista set up. You can spec the drawer hight and partition the drawers in any configuration you want. Plus the size of the cabinet.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Are there any kind of boxes with certain configurations that Snapon, Craftsman, Mac, etc, used to make that they no longer do and you wish they did?

And a question on drawer slides...do you guys think ball bearing slides are a must have on home toolboxes (nonwork)?

Most of my boxes are around 25-30 years old. The Waterloo boxes I have seem to have good configurations in terms of drawer depth and layout. All my boxes are for home use, have friction slides, and I've found as long as I keep them lubed, they work fine.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

I prefer the old fashioned tool boxes. Back in the day, most every mechanic I worked with had pretty much the same setup, and the biggest boxes you saw were usually 36"

I worked in one place where company policy dictated how you should organize your toolbox and the accepted size of that box.

Top Box:

Under the lid -- all the chrome sockets

Lots of shallow small drawers in the top box for all the small parts and precision measuring tools a mechanic accumulates. It was easy to compartmentalize with that kind of setup

Then full-lenth shallow and mid-depth drawers for ratchets and socket accessories, torque wrenches, and specialty tools

Bottom Box:


On the bottom box there were lots of full length shallow drawers for displaying wrenches, screwdrivers, and pliers.

Further down, some full length mid-depth drawers for power tools, hammers, specialty tools, and impact sockets

Way on the bottom; full legth deep drawers for all the testing equipment, analyzers and boxed instruments that go along with the job.


If you were a seasoned vet, chances are you had a side cabinet and an intermediate box full of specialty equipment, homemade tools, and "rare" manuals (only the tall guys went for intermediate boxes)


I just described the the old 70's vintage MAC/MATCO/SNAP-ON and "SEARS Best" 36" chests/cabinets. They were my favorites --

was that so the service manager knew exactly where to 'borrow' tools to fix his little project ?
I hate being dictated to [unless it includes extra pay !]

 

[daveblank]

AMEN! Wasted space that just piles up with stuff and looks messy.

How about repositionable drawers where the smaller drawers take one set of slides and the mid sized ones take two sets of slides and the deep take threee sets of slides. And grooved sides in each drawer to slide in dividers.

http://www.matcotools.com/toolboxconfigurator/detect.html

with the 6 series you can customize the drawers. You might not get exactly what you want but you can get close.

 

[goodfellow]

was that so the service manager knew exactly where to 'borrow' tools to fix his little project ?
I hate being dictated to [unless it includes extra pay !]

Almost , it was a European independent shop that specialized in exotics. The owner was an "old school" German trained master mechanic (imagine Sgt. Schultz with talent and brains). He was one of the most innovative mechanics and automotive machinists I've ever seen (even designed and built his own tools), but he had his quirks.

We were required to wear "white" smocks over our street clothes, and a european style company hat (can you say PITA) at all times. He was a "neat freak" and the mantra was that "if you got your clothes too dirty, you weren't doing your job right".

 

[Moose-LandTran]

If i were to design my own box it'd be a lot like a 53" KRA box. Except the top box would have the split drawers on the left, the bottom would have some split drawers and some full-width. The box would be 24" deep instead of 19". Shallow drawers would have one ball-bearing slide, medium two and deep would have three. Maybe some of it would have tool control foam too.


I think that's about it. I like my KRA box, there isn't much i'd change about it.

 

[senlow]

Since there is no single perfect box design, I will just list some design features that are important to me.

Larger diameter casters are helpful for rolling on rough surfaces. They also make it easier to move a heavy box. Roller bearing casters are also helpful for moving heavy boxes.

Repositional drawers are nice to have. Many commercially built boxes have too many deep drawers. I hate wasted space.

Any box less than 35" wide should have full width drawers. Narrow drawers are a waste of space, a waste of money (added complexity), and make it more difficult to arrange tools in the box.

Drawers must not have built in dividers. They are always in the wrong position. I prefer configurable divider systems like Lista uses. Besides, the built in dividers are really just drawer stiffeners. I say just design the drawer with adequate stiffness without resorting to dividers/stiffeners.

Accuride ball bearing slides.

Top boxes should never have a lid. I prefer a top box configured more like a tall intermediate box.

The standard 9" deep machinist's top boxes are useless. No box should be less than 12" deep. I prefer mechanic's boxes to be 18"-24" deep.

I would use galvannealed steel for construction. It has a smooth paintable finish, and a thin zinc coating for corrosion resistance.

I would use a powder coated finish for it's durability.


That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll post more thoughts as (or if) they come to me.

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

haha , I bet schultz paid real well

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

instead of casters
tires -whoa , that would be cool

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

like a nascar war wagon

 

[wilbilt]

The owner was an "old school" German trained master mechanic (imagine Sgt. Schultz with talent and brains). He was one of the most innovative mechanics and automotive machinists I've ever seen (even designed and built his own tools), but he had his quirks.

I knew a guy like that. Factory trained Mercedes tech, and German, too.

He had an independent shop, specializing in Mercedes (what else?) and had a 4-post lift out back and a steam cleaner.

Before he would touch a car, He cleaned it top to bottom. He wore the Hazet-style coveralls, and had at least three for each day. Dirty, cleaner, and clean.

He would send cars to our shop for tire and alignment work. His shop was about a mile up the road (4-lane, divided main drag in SoCal). He would leave his shop wide open and haul *** down to our shop, flip a U in the middle of the street, lay on the horn, and one of us would run out and jump in.

If we were lucky, we could get the door closed before he hit the gas. We would ride back to his shop and return with the car. Quite an interesting individual, but his knowledge of Mercedes Diesels was awe-inspiring.

 

[nissan_crawler]

instead of casters
tires -whoa , that would be cool

I had 10" pneumatics on my toolbox for about six months. I had to replace all 4 tires every 3-4 weeks, the sidewalls would zipper. It was great for going over cords and hoses, but changing tires all the time got old. I gave up and went to 8" Colson casters.

 

[chammyman]

the Snap On TUV's have tyres on them.

But wheelign around the box in a shop where theres metal shavings, rivets etc lyign abotu would as nissan crawler said get old very quickly.

 

[nissan_crawler]

the Snap On TUV's have tyres on them.

But wheelign around the box in a shop where theres metal shavings, rivets etc lyign abotu would as nissan crawler said get old very quickly.

Wasn't from damage, it was from weight.

 

[eschoendorff]

Its funny that this thread just started today, as I just started building my own toolbox today.

I too was not a fan of any of the current tool box layouts / designs out there. So I'm going to make my own.

The current $ figure as of now is around a $1000 bucks complete. Around $400 - 500 for the wood (Oak) and another $400 - 500 for the drawer slides and misc. hardware. (Either brass or polished nickle)

The box will be 8' L x 45" H x 30" D

It will have 1 bank of 40" drawers and then 2 banks of 20" drawers, there will also be 4 20" drawers along the bottom.

All the drawers will be lined with heavy dark green felt and most of the tools will be held in place with wooden organizers.

I'll try to keep everyone that wants to follow along with the build informed as to how it turns out.

Wish me luck!

That sounds like you are building furniture... maybe you'll be able to convince your wife to le yo keep it in the house...

 

[eschoendorff]

I knew a guy like that. Factory trained Mercedes tech, and German, too.

He had an independent shop, specializing in Mercedes (what else?) and had a 4-post lift out back and a steam cleaner.

Before he would touch a car, He cleaned it top to bottom. He wore the Hazet-style coveralls, and had at least three for each day. Dirty, cleaner, and clean.

He would send cars to our shop for tire and alignment work. His shop was about a mile up the road (4-lane, divided main drag in SoCal). He would leave his shop wide open and haul *** down to our shop, flip a U in the middle of the street, lay on the horn, and one of us would run out and jump in.

If we were lucky, we could get the door closed before he hit the gas. We would ride back to his shop and return with the car. Quite an interesting individual, but his knowledge of Mercedes Diesels was awe-inspiring.

Great story... I think I spewed some cereal on my 'puter