Self closing tool box drawers . . . . am I the only one that does not like them ???

[BillK]

Hey guys,
I have been thinking about a new bottom / upper combination to consolidate some of my tools in one place. Don't flame me for this but I was looking at Craftsman boxes at Sears. That is what I have now and they have worked fine for many many years. Anyway . . . I don't mind the idea of self closing but it seems like you have to break your wrist to get them open ? That is a pain in the rear end to me. I am used to reaching over and pulling the drawer open easily and closing it the same way.

Have we become that lazy that we cant close the drawers on our own ? Am I the only one that feels this way ?

Just curious,

 

[The Cobbler]

like it or not, soft close is the rage with things now.

 

[rijndael]

I would dislike soft-close a lot less if it didn't impact the open.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

My friend has a Milwaukee box, the soft-close only grabs in the last few inches. Do the Craftsman drawers **** themselves back in at any extension? The Milwaukee box is more of an anti-slam feature IMO.

 

[CafeTools]

The Milwaukee boxes have that feature. I didn't like it. I also didn't like the nonglossy paint. I sold them and got the harbor freight box. Much happier with the drawer layout on the HF 44.

 

[CafeTools]

Honestly who worries about slamming a drawer ?give me easy open any day!

 

[1982fxr]

I hate soft close.

 

[CGarage]

Compared to dealing with a Kennedy style drawer, (great boxes but the drawer tracks ****) I will take soft close. Particularly nice for folks lacking attention to detail and who act like a bull in a china shop with handling everything they touch (not a fan).

 

[MrSurly]

I’m on the fence about them but leaning strongly to the ‘hate em’ side.
What they’re good for: they stop your tools from sliding toward the back of the drawer, taking your liner material with them, bunching it up and eventually making you unload the drawer to sort it out.
What I hate: in order to have the spring energy stored to self-close, that energy is exerted by YOU each time you open the drawer, adding resistance. So the drawers are literally harder to open than they would be w/o self-closure. Yes it is a small tug to overcome and yes, some will claim only a ***** would whine about it.... but if you are working out of the box all day and opening drawers, what, a few dozen times? The cumulative extra efforts are annoying AF.
I have two boxes with the ‘feature’ but the much heavier drawers on my KRA are pleasantly much easier to open a hundred times. I do have to re-position the liners occasionally


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mikeske]

I have always classified that as a gimmick as I rather have a durable box without it. I don't know if it is the fact I went 40+ years without the soft close feature or the fact that I hate high resistance force to open a dang burn drawer.

I like the self locking feature that the higher end boxes have and the US General 56" and 72" have but that is not also really needed but nice to have. I don't have that on my 44" US General boxes so simple is actually of more value to me as it is one less thing that can go KAPOOEY.

 

[MikeF2316]

I don't have that on any toolbox I own, but do have it on some "inside the house" furniture. I don't think it belongs on toolboxes.

 

[m6z]

Honestly who worries about slamming a drawer ?give me easy open any day!

This.

 

[txvwnut]

I have a Craftsman roller cab for my machine tools, it has the soft close drawers. I can tell you that soft close drawers don’t like to be loaded heavy as they can’t really pull themselves back in. The lighter loaded drawers work fine but you do have to overcome the detent when opening them. The heavily loaded drawers you don’t notice the detent as much when opening them but have to help the soft close when closing the drawer.

 

[Lassen Forge]

I've worked with those things, and I don't like them either. If I want a drawer closed I'll close it. If I want to leave it open, I don't need a toolbox to outguess my intentions.

Actually, what I'd like more is a friction device (not a lock, a friction thing) controlled by a foot pedal or bar, that if you let it up, the drawers will hold themselves in whatever position you leave them in, and when you push the pedal it releases the friction and THEN they can close on their own. NOT BEFORE.