toolbox drawers...
- Thread starter suda21
- Start date
I've not been able to do this on my Craftsman, but have on my Kennedy. The Kennedy has a modular system that has all the box mounted slides evenly spaced. I would say if a box has all its box mounted slide hardware evenly spaced than you shoud be able to move the drawers around to your liking. But this isn't always the case because it raises cost to have box hardware installed and not used.
caper
Well-known member
Yes, it should be possible. Did you look inside your box? You should see that there are two racks on each side with square holes at 1 1/2" increments (if I recall correctly) that the drawer slides are fitted into. Just re-arrange them like bookshelves.
r6_cannibal
Well-known member
This question had been floating around in the back of my mind for a while but always forgot to ask it. Good to know the drawers should be swappable.
Chris Adams
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2007
- Messages
- 2,117
Ok, on swapping drawers in a Craftsman, or Waterloo box, yes and no.
The locking mechanism at the back of the box makes the difference.
They use a pair of rails that hook on the back edge of the box to lock it.
On older Craftsman/Waterloo they had a LOT of the little hooks formed into the metal rails.
This allowed you to swap the drawers at will, moving the slides, which are easy to move, till you got just the setup you needed.
Unfortunately they started saving money on the latest generation of boxes. So if you pull out all your drawers you will see that the hooks are only installed as needed.
So if you have a box that came with one big drawer at the bottom and then three medium drawers and short drawer, the hooks on the rail will only fit that format.
In other words, the hooks are spaced out, saving a second or two of labor, so the hooks are not there to put a small drawer in a large space.
By saving a few seconds of metal shaping they limit the use of the box.
This also applies to chests, so if you have a five drawer you can't put the big drawer at the top.
EXCEPTION;
You actually can put any drawer where you want, but the locks will 'miss' some of the drawers.
So if you never lock your box, then you can swap them any way you want.
The locking mechanism at the back of the box makes the difference.
They use a pair of rails that hook on the back edge of the box to lock it.
On older Craftsman/Waterloo they had a LOT of the little hooks formed into the metal rails.
This allowed you to swap the drawers at will, moving the slides, which are easy to move, till you got just the setup you needed.
Unfortunately they started saving money on the latest generation of boxes. So if you pull out all your drawers you will see that the hooks are only installed as needed.
So if you have a box that came with one big drawer at the bottom and then three medium drawers and short drawer, the hooks on the rail will only fit that format.
In other words, the hooks are spaced out, saving a second or two of labor, so the hooks are not there to put a small drawer in a large space.
By saving a few seconds of metal shaping they limit the use of the box.
This also applies to chests, so if you have a five drawer you can't put the big drawer at the top.
EXCEPTION;
You actually can put any drawer where you want, but the locks will 'miss' some of the drawers.
So if you never lock your box, then you can swap them any way you want.