Does anyone have a suggestion on tool boxes?
I was looking at the
Anyone have any other suggestions?
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Milwaukee boxes have been good. Their powder coated ones anyways
Expensive
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Lista, vidmar & similar are great. Watch for them at auction if you are patient enough of buy them new. You can set them up almost anyway you would like.
I have an older Bott/Kennedy that I can stand in the drawers without a problem.
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I also recommend looking for used Stanley Vidmar, Lyon, Lista, Kennedy/Bott industrial cabinets in auctions or for sale on Craigslist or other online marketplaces. If you are patient you can pick up some incredibly well build and heavy duty cabinets for a good price. The older cabinets use heavier gauge metal and are rated for much more weight. My home workshop is filled with them. Currently there are 72 tool drawers between 12 cabinets.
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What is a reasonable price range for these toolboxes. Also what do you look at to tell if they are worth buying. Is there anything I should look out for when buying them used?
I have paid between $250 and $500 per cabinet for all but one cabinet. The four big drawer and rougher looking Stanley-Vidmar was only $40.
Rust would probably be the biggest thing to look for. They are built like a tank so they generally are in good shape even after 30-40 years of use in a machine shop or factory. Sometimes the runners at the bottom are very rusty from sitting on a damp floor.
Currently I am in the process of cleaning up, repainting and getting the rollers all moving again. The grease often dries up and seizes up the rollers. Currently using brake cleaner to help free up the rollers and then relubricate them.
They are very heavy. Pulling the drawers and the subframe drawer supports can make them easier to move. Many have a safety feature where only one drawer can be opened at a time. You will have to reach in and toggle the actuator for each drawer so you can reinstall a drawer or open the next.
Awesome, thanks for the advice. I always want to pick up some of the used equipment just do noy know how to tell good from bad.
Most of them you can rebuild pretty easily. I know the current lista cabinets are modular in design. So you can replace say 2 7” drawers with 1 14”. I believe the others are the same way as well. My 27 drawer Bott/Kennedy cabinet can be modified that way.
Also the pricing really varies. I bought mine for $300, but its not uncommon to see them fetch almost $1000 or more depending on the audience.
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The Harbor Freight boxes are also pretty great for the money.
What I would recommend no matter the box you get is to use Kaizen Foam to organize your tools.
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I have a Husky rolling tool box from Home Depot. Has glass door fronts and lights inside. It wasn’t super-expensive.
I would NOT recommend it. The drawers are flimsy and the glass fronts are a PITA because they aren’t glued into their plastic channels.
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I recently bought a Harbor Freight and it’s really nice. It was one of the 32 x 22. On sale it was it was about $280. I had to pre-order it and it took a couple of weeks to get in. It has full extention ball bearing slides that are really smooth and seems really sturdy. It was really heavy so you need help un packing and setying it jp. Much better than my 50 year old Craftsman. I think it will out last me. I may get another one.
Did you laser cut the Kaizen foam or use a X-Acto blade?
Robert,
Strictly Toolboxes are a great product and have great service & for professional boxes they are inexpensive(cheap in fact) when compared to other boxes of the same dimensions and features.
It depends on what you want - professional mechanics want the ones in the link you posted due the drawer dimensions (front to back) for longer tools hence the 25" to 30" cabinet widths. You won’t find anything like them from Horror Freight or Milwaukee.
Lista is good but not for 3 or 4 times the price(new)
Vidmar is good too - but again very costly(new)
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Horror Freight gets me every time! 
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And their sister store, Horror Fraught. 
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I used a box cutter with snap off blades. Just like this:
It is honestly way easier to cut it out with a knife than the laser. If I were making a bunch of the same cutout then the laser makes sense but not for a one off.
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