Husky 66" Tool Chest
- Thread starter doubleot
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Oldgloryfirearms
Well-known member
Oldgloryfirearms
Well-known member
Just got the email conformation that my box is ready for pickup. getting it on Friday!!
Have fun loading it. When I went to pick mine up, I figured they would be able to use a forklift to load it on the open trailer i brought. They brought the thing out on a hand pallet jack. Ended up having to do the unboxing in the parking lot, and rolling it up the ramps onto the trailer. I hope the people at your HD are more helpful.
kngelv
Well-known member
Been more than a month waiting for that more "definitive answer."
And I don't know why the "whoever says" in your post. I quoted and linked to exactly who said it in my post above. Jeff G. Holt in a May 2013 "Used and Abused" review column in Hot Bike magazine said the HF was 14 gauge, Jacob Jackson of Truckin’ magazine in another review said the HF was 14 gauge, and GeorgeFromPa here at GJ said the HF is 14 ga. Weighing those against yours has me wondering who is it who is "seriously misinformed". It does seem that someone is.
I was just going by what those others had said and that it makes sense to me that the Harbor Freight box is made of a thicker gauge steel as the 44" wide 18" deep HF box (no gauge listed at HF) top & bottom combo weighs the same as a Husky 52" wide 20" deep combo box (listed as 20 ga at HD) that has ~25% larger dimensions overall. I've also checked them out myself personally going back and forth - my local Harbor Freight is 2 blocks from the Home Depot - and I did not ever get the impression that the Husky boxes are as thick gauge steel as the HFs just by feel for whatever that's worth.
I also pointed out that even given that thought I personally do prefer the Husky boxes, or at least the newer thicker gauge all black textured Husky boxes with the improved capacity soft-close drawer slides, over the Harbor Freight boxes, but that's just me, and that's mostly based on the value of the extra storage capacity for the buck, and the nicer drawer slides, and I don't like the HF's crappy plastic latches that are prone to breaking, plus I just much prefer the black to the red. lol
Yep it has been more than a month. Life has been busy. Garage is messy but getting better. Took measurements a few hours ago. The blue cabinet is a Strong Hold, the gray one is a Lyon and the red box is a HF 56" combo. I measured thickness at a few different spots. There were very minor variations which I attribute to paint issues. Strong Hold measurements were .099" for the cabinet and .101" for the door which works out to 12 ga. The Lyon measurements were.072" for the door and .080" for the cabinet which is about 14 ga with the cabinet slightly thicker but not quite 13 ga. The HF drawer was .047" which is 18 ga and the side extension was .045" which is also 18 ga. The HF is definitely not 14 ga. Look at the pics below.
James
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Ign
Well-known member
Not only misinformed but inexperienced at building anything w sheet metal. If the HF box were built of 14 ga it would be insanely heavy. 14 ga is ridiculous heavy duty for something like a tool box, it would be like building a truck bumper from 3/8" plate.
edit: if anyone doubts it and cares enough look up weight per sq ft of 14 ga then figure up about how much sheetmetal is in the HF 44" and see what the weight would be. I don't care enough to guesstimate sq inches in the box and figure the weight but as a metal fabricator I don't need to to know I'm right. 14 ga would border on conspicuous consumption given how much space is available and how heavily you could realistically load the drawers.
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WWheeler
Well-known member
Thank you for the detailed reply. That definitely puts down the claims that the HF boxes are 14 gauge, and gives us something definitive to point to whenever confronted with the claim in the future, but it also does affirm my observations that the Harbor Freight US General boxes are a lot thicker than the Husky ones.
The older - chrome handle - Husky boxes like this "66" Tool Chest" thread refers to are 21 gauge. Your 18 ga HF box (0.0478") is ~45% thicker than the 21 gauge (0.0329") Husky.
The newer - all black textured - Husky boxes look to be a tad thicker than their predecessors in 20 gauge (0.0359") for the 52" chest combo and 19 gauge (0.0418") for the 60" workbench so your 18 gauge HF box still looks to be made of ~33% and ~14% thicker steel respectively than even the newer thicker Husky boxes.
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kngelv
Well-known member
Yes the HF boxes are a bit thicker. The newer 19 ga Husky and the Milwaukee boxes are pretty close though. I'm in the market for one more 56"-60" box. I have a workbench that is 37.5" high and I could slide the Milwaukee next to it and have a nice long bench setup. The HF 56" is much higher. The HF has been a good box. The only negatives are slides that are a bit flexible and the stupid plastic locking mechanisms on the drawers. They are a bad design and very annoying if you open your box alot.
James
James
Ign
Well-known member
Hell my pallet racking is 14ga and odds are all that pallet racking in places like HD and Costco is too.
This is real warehouse pallet racking, albeit the less common Rigid Rack style (vs teardrop). I've cut up 8' crossbeams to section them and they're 14ga too (rated for 6000# per pair uniformly loaded). It IS true that a big pan (drawer) is far more flimsy than the shapes of pallet racking, but the point is that 14ga is structural if properly shaped and your life depends on it every time you stroll Home Depot.
This is real warehouse pallet racking, albeit the less common Rigid Rack style (vs teardrop). I've cut up 8' crossbeams to section them and they're 14ga too (rated for 6000# per pair uniformly loaded). It IS true that a big pan (drawer) is far more flimsy than the shapes of pallet racking, but the point is that 14ga is structural if properly shaped and your life depends on it every time you stroll Home Depot.
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Oldgloryfirearms
Well-known member
Good luck on the bench. How difficult was bringing the thing home?
Oldgloryfirearms
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not bad at all the guys at home depot had some sense and forklift skill. Then when i got home me and two guys used my fourwheeler ramps to slide it off the truck. This is what it replaces
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hope this isn't too much of a hijack. A lot of talk about HF boxes and workbenches here in this thread. I have (about 140" without measuring) a spot that a bench is going to go wall to wall. Does anyone know if the 56 & 72" HF boxes are 'minus 2 inches for the handle' like the '44' 42" box?
nice to know the husky box is 66" without the handle. I do like the 24" depth but I hate the single slides and weight rating.
nice to know the husky box is 66" without the handle. I do like the 24" depth but I hate the single slides and weight rating.
Greg85mcss
Well-known member
Those are without the handle. There's a YouTube video where a guy measures one and iirc it's a little over 56".
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Do any of you guys who own this box mind taking some In depth pics of this box with tools in the drawers? Really considering this box, but can't actually see it first hand because they don't carry it in the store
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No stores carry it. We went by the measurements and tried to figure it from there. I'll try and get a picture or two tomorrow.
fordgasm
Well-known member
I really like the drawer layout of that box.
You the man! I'm definitely sold on it now... Does the very top drawer have a middle slide underneath?
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Yes it does
I see that Ohio state logo in the background... O. H.
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Only complaint is the thin paint. I now have 2 small blemishes on it. One is from a saw blade that scratched and removed some paint inside the large bottom drawer when removing it. The second one is I used some brake cleaner to remove the label on the right side and it messed with the color of the paint a little. That is what you get for not wanting to walk back to the house to get the goo gone from under the sink. I wish these were powder coated.
I really wanted one of these, but I've had three delivered to store, and all three have been significantly damaged when I went to pick it up. Interestingly enough, all three in a similar location. Where the metal under the wood top meets the side (where the rail meets the style for the woodworkers), the style is bent enough that the metal has split and cracked.
My guess is that something happened on the ship from china to get three of them that have similar damage.
FWIW, the box didn't look damaged at all, but I checked them out thoroughly in-store. It was actually easy to miss the damage. Once I noticed it, I could feel the bind it was putting on the drawers.
If you want to roll the dice and order one thinking you can just fix it, make sure that you negotiate the damage. I told them that I'd take the last one if they would take 50% off. They were willing to go 40% off for the damaged ones.
I gave up and didn't re-order. I'm a good 45 minutes from a home depot store, and my time is worth more than what I've already spent. I've been trying to get one of these since the beginning of the summer.
My guess is that something happened on the ship from china to get three of them that have similar damage.
FWIW, the box didn't look damaged at all, but I checked them out thoroughly in-store. It was actually easy to miss the damage. Once I noticed it, I could feel the bind it was putting on the drawers.
If you want to roll the dice and order one thinking you can just fix it, make sure that you negotiate the damage. I told them that I'd take the last one if they would take 50% off. They were willing to go 40% off for the damaged ones.
I gave up and didn't re-order. I'm a good 45 minutes from a home depot store, and my time is worth more than what I've already spent. I've been trying to get one of these since the beginning of the summer.