Tell me about tool cabinets

[Beardy]

On the face of it, a simple problem to solve, getting enough space to contain all the tools you have. But I’m fed up of digging through a boxes of tools not to find what I’m looking for only to go back to the first box and find the damn thing. I’ve got boxes, cantilever tool boxes a few drawers, some open shelves and even a cupboard or two. I don’t want a tool wall.

So I’ve had a look and decided what I need is something with a series of different size drawers for the main stuff, and probably keep the open shelves for the power tools (many of which have their own boxes.

So, why are you asking us I here you cry. Well, have you had a look at tool cabinets on line? Machine Mart have 4 or 5 different colours of the same configured tool boxes. But the colours mean something, because their all called something different and the prices vary form just over £100 to a lot over £300.

Given that I no longer have the luxury of buying on price alone (under the assumption of you get what you pay for), I’d be grateful for any insight anyone can give me.

[BFC]

Tool chest/trolleys vary greatly in depth (front to back). Measure your location, and think about how far the drawers pull out into the work space/walkway/doorway, top boxes tend to be smaller than the base cabinets. In most cases bigger is better though, and more drawers better than fewer - very big drawers get very heavy and very cluttered when full of small items, but are useful for larger tools.

The wheeled units keep the bottom of the box off the floor (reduces condensation risk), and when something falls down the back gives a chance of recovering it. A full chest is extremely heavy.

Quality of drawer slides vary greatly, poor quality ball bearing versions are worse than non ball bearing variants (the balls self eject and leave a really bad slide with excessive play).

Quality and designs of locks and interlock mechanisms (that stop the drawers opening when lids are shut) is not very important in a private workshop, but lids have to be fully open to open the drawers with some designs. Becomes important if security is required (shared workshops) or if the units are moved around.  Open lids can get in the way of light switches and electrical sockets though, some designs (usually cheaper) use removable bars to lock the drawers rather than a linkage from the lid.

Proprietary drawer inserts rarely help and reduce drawer usable volume - they only work if you are buying into a single suppliers complete system (tools plus cabinent). Simple drawer dividers can help with small tools in large drawers.

If using battery powered stuff, consider creating a charging station/area.

Open shelves for boxed power tools etc is a good choice for a private workshop. Paint/Marker pens to identify the boxes can help.

[T42]

Design & build your own.  No I didn't, I like to hang stuff on the wall.

[pcolbeck]

I bought one of these a month ago after contemplating for ages.



All Beta roll cabs are on offer at the moment:

Beta 7 draw roll cab

Its great. Its swallowed all my spanners, screwdrivers and socket sets and I am trying to decide whether to use the bottom larger draws for power tools or keep those in the plastic boxes they came in.

[drossall]

I have a stack of tool boxes, and no garage (or space in the shed) to organise the tools nicely. I spend more time finding and putting away tools than I do fixing my bikes Can't find a good alternative though.

[rogerzilla]

I bought one of these a month ago after contemplating for ages.



All Beta roll cabs are on offer at the moment:

Beta 7 draw roll cab

Its great. Its swallowed all my spanners, screwdrivers and socket sets and I am trying to decide whether to use the bottom larger draws for power tools or keep those in the plastic boxes they came in.

In a few years, you won't be able to buy any more tools to go in it,then you'll wish you'd bought one from the VHS range instead.

[redshift]

When we built the workshop and I inherited many of my Dad's tools, we had a lot of sorting out to do.  We ended up with one wall of Dexion, on the bottom of which we have heavy duty crates (for bits of lathe and other heavy stuff), with plywood boxes on the upper levels.  Simple labels on the end: 'Hand drills, braces, augers', 'abrasives', 'files and rasps', etc.  Three boxes fit across a shelf, two layers high, stackable.  A quick glance locates the tool types, and you soon remember where the box is.  Exceptions: My leatherwork tools are in the house, and live in a red garage-stylee roll cab with a cupboard in the base for bottles and boxes.  The drawers are too shallow and deceptively small, but might be all right for garage tools.  The electronics and soldering stuff is all kept in the house, with the option for decamping out to the workshop if necessary.  There's a specific toolbox for bike tools so they're all together.  We appear to have multiples of most things, as Nick and I each had fairly comprehensive tool sets of our own before joining it all together. Dad's stuff was in addition to ours.

In the workshop we also have Bisley multi drawers full of Xcelite, punches, lathe tooling, micrometers and other small stuff - one A4 footprint to stand on, but 5, or even 15 drawers of 'stuff'. Some power tools stay in their original case on a shelf.  The wacky hex bit drivers and all the bits are in a small tackle box which can quickly be taken wherever they're needed. We have a large metal box for all the drill bits, sorted into smaller tins according to size and type. OXO tins are good for basic 'jobber' drill sizes if you have hundreds...

It took about 4 years, and in some respects is even now a work in progress, but we can make or mend a lot of stuff, and 'have a go' at more.

So, cabinets? they're probably fantastic if you're kitting out a business from the get-go with all matching stuff that fits the drawers.  If you've got lots of 'stuff' and none of it matches, or you have repeats, I found it better to
1) Make up a portable toolbox with all the stuff for one type of job (bikes, leatherwork), and use duplicates to
2) Box everything into sensible related collections so that tool types are together, and grab a load of cheap 2nd hand Dexion to put the boxes on, and
3) Make a small tool carousel or holder for 'ready-use' on the workbench (Adam Savage's idea of 1st order retrieval is valid, I think).  Populate that with snipe-nose pliers, 6 or 8-inch combination pliers, sidecutters, spudgers, or other small tools you know you always need immediately to hand.  Likewise a small wall hanging set of basic spanners and one of screwdrivers.  Hang your hammers on the end of the workbench near the vise.  YMMV depending on what you normally focus on in the workshop.

[Kim]

I have assorted boxes and drawers in different parts of the house, depending on what the tools are used for.  So upstairs I've got a small tool box of smaller screwdrivers and wire strippers and crimp tools and things for mostly-electronics fettling.  There's a couple of drawers of multimeters and soldering tools and heatshrink and stuff. Sewing box in the bedroom.  In the front room there's a box of bike tools (decent allen keys, spanners, etc, as well as bike-specific stuff).  There's another toolbox of more generic DIY/woodworky tools weighing down the wonky shelves in the dining room.  Power tools live in their boxes wherever they fit (mostly the front room with the bikes).  There's a specific case of things for fettling network/telecoms wiring and light elec-chickening, that used to mostly get used away from home.  And a box of car-specific things (spark plug wrench, jump leads, etc) gathering dust in case we get a baby elephant in future.  And there's a nasty screwdriver in the bathroom cabinet, because getting stuck in the bathroom by a b0rked door latch isn't funny.

Steel tape measures and cheap pliers are liberally distributed throughout, because you don't want to be too far from either.  (Barakta uses pliers a lot to make up for lack of grip strength.)

Oh, and I've got a (not particularly successful) clamp-breeding programme going on in the cupboard on under the stairs.

It's entirely normal that I'll wander upstairs to borrow some side-cutters for fettling cable-ties on a bike, or have to go downstairs for werid-size allen keys to fettle something electrical or whatever.  And there's that uncanny habit of software projects deteriorating into wood/metalwork.


I suppose owning lots of tools but not actually having a proper workshop space is very tail-end-of-GenX.

[campagman]

I still use the tool box I made in my apprenticeship.

Sent from my moto g(50) using Tapatalk

[Jurek]

All of the stuff below was bought SH and I've been using it at three different addresses since the early 90s.

Behind me are two metal cabinets on top of which is an elbow-height worktop.
One cabinet has five 150mm deep drawers.
The other has seven 100mm deep drawers.
The 150mm drawers have a swl of 42kg each.
The cabinet with the 100mm drawers won't let you open more than one drawer at a time - to prevent it from toppling.
Both of the cabinet's drawers are of good quality, ballbearing, telescopic runners.
Inside, the drawers are divided up by a combination of proprietary dividers and boxes.
Biscuit boxes in the deeper drawers, plastic cat litter trays in the shallower ones.
Between the two cabinets is a Bisley type A4-footprint cabinet of 10 drawers for all the teeny stuff.
Power tools tend to to live in their original cases/boxes wherever I can accommodate them.
I have two tool caddies.
One lives on top of the Bisley type cabinet and is of the type that an office cleaner might use to cart around their cleaning products.
The other is a hard case from a massive Hilti SDS drill, where I have cut out all of the flanges which support the tool and accessories, to take advantage of the space. This is a 'just-bung-everything-you-need-in-here' type of approach. Other than power tools, most things fit. It gets used when I go over to Mother's to do jobs.
I've been living here for nearly 20 years.
My studio/office/workshop has a board on joist floor.
The floor has definitely taken on a slant towards the centre of the room in that time.
Nuts, bolts, other fasteners and all the really small crap goes in the little plastic drawers on the wall at the end of the worktop.
The shed has a Dexion tray with a handful of basic/sacrificial tools in it to prevent too many to-and-fro journeys to-and-from the house.
The shed is where all the stuff with a worryingly low flashpoint lives.
Comme ça:

[Luke]

I have a cheap old wardrobe in my spare room that I use for tool storage. Power tools go underneath where the original drawers used to be. Inside the tool wardrobe is a tool bucket. Some tools are in the bucket others are around it.   

There is also stuff piled on top. I’m amazed the whole thing hasn’t collapsed.

I am thoroughly ashamed of my set-up.   

[PhilO]

About 25 years ago my then employer had a major clear-out of their office and I acquired 2 A0 plan drawers (almost identical to these) which are still full of tools and scrap metal in his garage.  ISTR I paid a fiver each... 

On a much smaller scale, I use an A4 bisley drawer cabinet for my spanners, screwdrivers, etc.