Please don't laugh

[cowchaser]

Ok here is the deal. I have a a few of tools, but they seem to disappear often. Don't get put back or just forget where I put them or wife gest something out and don't put it back.

I have a small craftsman toolbox, but it is one of the bottom line models and doesn't offer much room. You know the one with the door in the bottom that raises up then the top box sits on it.

Well I have decided I would like to start learning about working on cars and so on (still need to find someone willing to teach me). Anyway, I am wanting to add more tool space and get them off of the peg board and put everything into boxes instead of spread everywhere.

So my question is and don't laugh. How do you feel about the Harbor freight boxes? I know it's harbor freight and yes I have burnt myself on a few things there, but I also have found a few things I wouldn't trade for something that was name brand. I did search out some reviews and they run 50/50. Thing is I can't afford to buy a nice snap on or mac. I don't put alot of trust into online reviews becaue most of the time the people posting is just someone that is ticked off. To be honest I can't justify it either. Can anyone help out here?

Oh and just throwing this out ther, but if anyone lives in the Bartlesville, OK area and works on your cars some and wouldn't mind an extra hand at no charge I would like to learn from you and help if possible from time to time.

Thank you everyone for your time and Merry Christmas or whatever you may celebrate. Hope everyone has a great New Year as well.

 

[00S4Boy]

I don't have first hand experience with HF boxes, but i do hear they are better then your standard craftsman/husky/kobolt. Plus a better deal.(this coming from a snap on addict so i don't have a biased opinion)

 

[gc11090]

HAHAHA!!!!

Sorry i had to. Please search around this board, you will find many many discussions about the harbor freight 13 drawer roller cabinet. Many members on here have that, as well as the end cabs and top chest. Stay away from their cheaper ones, as they are pure junk.

Here is a thread talking alot about it.
http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53369&highlight=harbor+freight+drawer&showall=1

Welcome to Garage journal!!!!

 

[tonydanzah]

if you have a menards near you i would recommend you a masterforce or the hf box

 

[RLRRLRLL]

i have the harbor freight 4 drawer cart, and it is very nice. they go on sale for 99.99 usually and offer quite a bit of room if you organize good. hope this helps!

 

[crewchief888]

for a "1st" tool box i dont think you can go wrong with one of the HF or masterforce boxes.

if i needed home/garage boxes, i'd be looking at them closely.

and i'm kinda a toolbox snob, i've been buying SO boxes since '86

 

[jay50]

Since you are a newbie, and it is Christmas, I will spare you my infamous "not this **** again" photo.

 

[JC23]

Welcome aboard, cowchaser.

You have another option to the already good ones mentioned above. Seek out toolboxes on Craig's List (CL) and get more for your money. Use the pages of GJ to familiarize yourself with what's out there and go from there. Make yerself a hit list and start hunting CL, garage sales and flea markets. Maybe even a pawn shop or two.

The money you save can go for more tools - regardless of brand.

Good Hunting and watch out for them cows! (What am I talking about? I'm a city kid that can barely tell a cow from a horse!)

 

[creativecars]

Yeah, check around here and you will see lots of info on tool boxes. How old are you? Many community colleges have vocational programs that may interest you in automotive and other shop classes. By the way, peg board is a great tool for organizing tools. When you look around here you will see it used many times. For starters I would work on organizing what you have and put things away after each use if you don’t keep track of them on the peg board how will it be different with a tool box? You can get a lot of hand tools for the cost of a tool box. As an automotive instructor, that is my advice for people just starting out.

 

[bmxr4life87]

What types of repairs are you wanting to learn?

 

[TAMPAGT07]

Welcome aboard, cowchaser.

You have another option to the already good ones mentioned above. Seek out toolboxes on Craig's List (CL) and get more for your money./QUOTE]

Big time...I see killer deals on CL all the time. I have even considered buying a bigger one and selling mine...

 

[muskaman67]

I had the HF service cart before i just sold it to a friend and now i have the HF 13 drawer toolbox. I had the service cart, and was using it as pro use at toyota for over a year and i was more then impressed with it. Never had any problems loading up the drawers with weight and them not sliding in and out smoothly. Upgraded to the 13 drawer tool box for more room. Ive been very happy with the my upgrade and everything fits well for now. Only wish the drawers were deeper, but you should be more then happy with it. And its a great price!

 

[cowchaser]

Thanks everyone for your input.

As far as vocational classes, because of my shiftwork schedule I am unable to attend because I can't meet the minimum attendance record that's required. Sad part is the votech is just down the street about 10 houses. So that is out for me.

As far as repairs I want to learn. Right now it will be more of a maintenance type repairs and repairs I can do in my garage. Learning how to diagnose a problem and go from there with it. My first focus will be on a 1999 ford explorer my father gave me when I sold my truck to him that i didn't drive. Didn't see any since in having a 2009 ford screw sitting in the drive that I had for 2 years and only put on about 7000 miles. So I am going back to a paid off vehicle instead of paying for something I am not using. One of the issues I have with it is the back end sagging and a growling in the front end. It also has some other issues like the check engine light and I think the oil sending unit or a sensor is going bad. It won't show oil pressure until it warms up then it will shoot up to normal rather quickly.

Eventually I would like to work up to learning engine rebuilds and some auto body. I really want to build a car one day for my son with his help. He is now 5 so I have plenty of time to prepare. I never was taught as a kid how to work on a car. When mine would break down my father just wanted to do it and get it over with. In other words he just screamed at us the whole time till he ran us off so he could do it himself. Oh and someone asked my age. I just turned 36.

Again thanks for everyone's input and I have really enjoyed reading the forums. Also some of the great pics people have of the work areas and such.

 

[creativecars]

Your never too young to start, when my youngest son was 3 he was taking his older siblings skateboards apart when they were at school. He would find a 1/2 wrench or socket and ratchet and pull all the wheels off, and start on the trucks with pliers and screwdrivers. It took them an hour to put back what he took apart. We can all laugh about it now, but at the time they were pissed. lol. The big kids wanted me to beat him, but they all learned about hand tools early. He is 11 now and we just finished his minibike and a gokart is in the works. Now, he is a great helper in the garage.

 

[shampoop]

you can usually tell the quality of a harbor freight tool box or hand tool just by going to the store and trying it out. Just feel it and play with it some and it usually gives you a pretty good idea. I have the large 40" wide roller chest and absolutely love it for the price.

 

[shampoop]

Thanks everyone for your input.

As far as vocational classes, because of my shiftwork schedule I am unable to attend because I can't meet the minimum attendance record that's required. Sad part is the votech is just down the street about 10 houses. So that is out for me.

As far as repairs I want to learn. Right now it will be more of a maintenance type repairs and repairs I can do in my garage. Learning how to diagnose a problem and go from there with it. My first focus will be on a 1999 ford explorer my father gave me when I sold my truck to him that i didn't drive. Didn't see any since in having a 2009 ford screw sitting in the drive that I had for 2 years and only put on about 7000 miles. So I am going back to a paid off vehicle instead of paying for something I am not using. One of the issues I have with it is the back end sagging and a growling in the front end. It also has some other issues like the check engine light and I think the oil sending unit or a sensor is going bad. It won't show oil pressure until it warms up then it will shoot up to normal rather quickly.

Eventually I would like to work up to learning engine rebuilds and some auto body. I really want to build a car one day for my son with his help. He is now 5 so I have plenty of time to prepare. I never was taught as a kid how to work on a car. When mine would break down my father just wanted to do it and get it over with. In other words he just screamed at us the whole time till he ran us off so he could do it himself. Oh and someone asked my age. I just turned 36.

Again thanks for everyone's input and I have really enjoyed reading the forums. Also some of the great pics people have of the work areas and such.

I'm almost 23 and just finished tech school. I was never really interested in cars growing up, neither were my parents. Not even in high school. I didn't really know anything about them until i had to buy my own $900 car when I was 17. I didn't have enough money to pay a shop to work on it so i had to learn how to do things myself. It was the process of going on forums and learning how to fix my car that got me interested in them. After high school i didn't know what i wanted to do and was just taking general ed classes part time at a local community college for almost 2 years. During that time i got more and more into working on cars and found out they actually had a great auto tech program there. School is where you do all of the serious learning. For someone with no real car background it is essential. Also, most shops never actually do engine rebuilds. They will replace heads, and do small stuff, but if it needs a full rebuild, they will just replace the whole thing. We did learn rebuilds at school, but it is one of the least important things.

 

[cowchaser]

Again thanks for the replies. I appreciate you guys basically accepting me into your group and sharing with me. Unfortunately not to many people are willing to do that anymore. Especially somebody that don't know squat about cars.

One of the reasons I like working with my hands is I can step back and for my own selfish reasons say I did that myself. This will have to be a learn as you go type thing. I cannot attend any schools and that will put me at a disadvantage I am sure, but I have to put food on the table and pay for those new cars my wife and oldest daughter drives. So I will learn one way or another. I may see if I can find a shop somewhere that will swap me working in his shop cleaning up and so on in exchange for his knowledge as I have time and days off work to do it.

As you can tell I am a very eager person when I set my mind into doing something.

 

[deathbound]

I see you joined 2-1/2 years ago. Welcome & better late than never to start posting. Pick up a manual for your vehicle & good luck wrenchin. A lot of good advice on here if you run into problems.

 

[bad_religion_au]

if you've got the space, buy a junker, and pull it apart/put it back together. i never learnt off of anyone/schools either, just tried and tried until it worked.

 

[v7guy]

There is a harbor freight pass/fail thread here that is very popular and very useful, check it out. There is also a very lengthy thread about the harbor freight toolbox and it's current sale price.

As far as working on cars... in my experience there is no replacement for experience. Get a manual for the vehicles you work on and start working on it.
Also read up and understand how modern cars work. After you understand the systems and realize what does what you can have a good first hunch as to what is wrong.
Suspension and driveline hasn't really changed in the last few decades.
I've had no formal training, but with lots and lots of reading and some experience I'm pretty comfortable rebuilding motors and transmissions these days.

 

[JeepsAreBuilt]

Hey, I wanted to give you my input. Did you want to start a career in Automotive or just work at home ? I think you should find a job in automotive somewhere, washing cars, changing tires or anything.. and at the same time go to a community college and take courses and complete a program. This way you will get your experience, education and it will get you moving. It'll take a few years at least before you'll start earning some good money this way.. but its the best, fastest way.

 

[littlekillertoad]

Hey, I wanted to give you my input. Did you want to start a career in Automotive or just work at home ? I think you should find a job in automotive somewhere, washing cars, changing tires or anything.. and at the same time go to a community college and take courses and complete a program. This way you will get your experience, education and it will get you moving. It'll take a few years at least before you'll start earning some good money this way.. but its the best, fastest way.

That's exactly what my buddy's doing. He's working at a body shop and going to a community college. It seems like it's working out well for him.
If you're just looking to be a shade mechanic though, that may be a little much.

I've heard good things about the US General boxes but I've never owned one so I can't really comment on it.

 

[bonneyman]

Welcome to the forum!

Glad to hear that someone (#1) wants to learn, and (#2) wants to operate a business with his son! Those are two rare attributes in todays world.

You're in a good place to ask questions. (And there really is no stupid question.) There are alot of folks here - from many walks of life - that have already done 100 times what you're wanting to do. Worse case scenario is you don't get an answer. But you'll almost always get good advice with a fair amount of humor - and I'd say most of us have screwed up a thing or two
So, ask away!

 

[bobemmerich]

My advice is(for what it's worth):
1) Get a few general car books to learn what does what and what controls what. Learn about how stuff works.
2)Find a dedicated forum for the type of vehicle you'll be workking on-there will be more info there specifically to the vehicle in question
3)Get the Factory shop manual for your vehicle. This will have more info in it than the off the shelf books at the auto stores.
4)Don't be afraid to ask questions.
At the smaller mom-and-pop parts stores sometimes those guys are willing to help you out with questions about a particular job if they have the time.
In my opinion there's no substitute for actually doing the work, start small-oil/filter changes, drive belts, spark plugs, tire rotations, brake jobs(if you feel comfortable enough-after all brakes ARE a life/safety thing).
As for a tool box, I've looked at the HF boxes, and for a first time box the price/quality are good and will last for a while. I'm even looking at the 13 drawer roll away for myself...http://http://www.harborfreight.com/13-drawer-red-industrial-quality-roller-cabinet-90320.html

 

[cowchaser]

Oh, I guess I might have said something that confused a few. I am not wanting to do this for a living or start a business. Not to sound like an ***, but being a mechanic wouldn't even come close money wise to what I am making now. I will stick with my day job.

I just want to learn for personal knowledge and for my own use and hopefully be something I can pass on to my son one day. I want him to have the knowledge that I did not growing up. I think I could have been useful many times in my life and saved me a truck load of money in the process. There is nothing I hate more than having to pay somebody 200 dollars to fix a 5 dollar part. Hope that makes more sense.

 

[cowchaser]

I have thought about my last post some and it appears as I read it that I may come across conceited and that is not the intention.

What I am trying to say is I am a very frugal person. I could never leave my day job to take up a career as a mechanic. I guess it is a matter of being in my comfort zone. I am sure there are mechanics that make more than enough money to live comfortably.

What my intentions are is to learn a skill that I do not posses and hopefully pass that on to my children. I understand what everyone is saying by experience and I do agree with that. In fact I am more of a visual learner. You can tell me to read something 50 times and I may not grasp it or retain the information, but show me 1 or 2 times and I will retain it for the most part. I hope that makes since. Anyway please don't take anything you have read as sounding like I think I am better than anybody. That's the bad part about the interent. Unless you are a skilled writer it's hard to put into words what you are meaning to say. Hard to add emotion or anything like that.

Again I would like to thank all that have responded. I will research the different boxes you have pointed me to and try and make an educated decision. From the thread I have read here there is more mechanical knowledge that I have ever possesed. Hope everyone has a happy new year and that is a better year for everyone. Lord knows this past year at my house has not been the best for everyone. Thank you.

 

[mrholeshot]

Oh, I guess I might have said something that confused a few. I am not wanting to do this for a living or start a business. Not to sound like an ***, but being a mechanic wouldn't even come close money wise to what I am making now. I will stick with my day job.

I just want to learn for personal knowledge and for my own use and hopefully be something I can pass on to my son one day. I want him to have the knowledge that I did not growing up. I think I could have been useful many times in my life and saved me a truck load of money in the process. There is nothing I hate more than having to pay somebody 200 dollars to fix a 5 dollar part. Hope that makes more sense.

You would have probably done well to delete this post. Some people can start out with 50 dollars worth of tools and turn it into an empire. Sometimes it takes years of experiance and a few thousand dollars worth of tools to replace a 5 dollar part depending on where it's located.

 

[cowchaser]

Well, I won't delete it becaue I didn't say anything wrong. I am sorry if it offends someone. All I was saying was I don't want to have to pay for that. I want to be able to do that. I said nothing to offend anyone, but appears it might have. I am not down grading anyone's knowledge or anything else, but like I said most of the time the internet does not accurately display a persons emotions and tone of voice that a normal conversation exhibits. So if anyone was offended by me saying that don't be.

Would you rather learn to repair/replace that 5 dollar part or would you rather pay someone else 200 dollars to do it. What is so bad about me saying I don't want to pay someone else? I don't get why I would have been better off to delete that. I didn't put anyone down for the dollars worth of tools the have or how many tools they have or brand.

Doesn't matter I will move on. Thanks for the help people have provided.

 

[texasmike74]

As everyone else has stated, for a beginner any box will work. Again, you can save a few bucks by viewing CL and Ebay. For experience on cars, are any of your friends gear-heads? If so, when they say they are doing whatever project, ask to lend a hand or use your explorer as a base to start.

 

[bczygan]

I don't know a better way to convince you of the value of a Harbor Freight box than to highly recommend you go to each of the stores and put your hands on each box. Open and close them. Rack the drawers left and right and lean on them. Look at the edges of the drawer boxes and try to bend them. I did this and hands down, the Harbor Freight 13 drawer roller was the strongest. Not as pretty, but it has a certain rugged beauty. I did NOT look at Snap-on as they are out of the question because of cost. If you can't afford the 13 drawer, look at the 5 drawer service cart. It's going on sale for $159 I believe.
Look into going to your local technical high school as an adult ed student. I didn't finish high school and got to go as high school completion for free. Also, find and talk to your local parts houses. There are some very experienced guys who used to wrench, but now sell stuff over the counter. Go in on off days and hours when they aren't busy and pump them for info. I used to have a guy who could diagnose over the phone from a verbal description better than the local shop did with the car in their shop. Find a good local shade tree mechanic and go with him and help with some jobs for free. You will learn tips and tricks and the right tools to have for different jobs. If you have a car that isn't a necessary daily driver, that you can afford to play around with, don't be afraid to try to do some repair jobs on it. The first time you may break something or do things the hard way with the wrong tools or methods. You will learn. I was afraid to try to fix a break line. Got a swedging kit and did a perfect swedge the first time.........then I realized I had forgotton to put the ferrule on.........took 5 more trys to get another good one! But I learned.

Bill