Richard Ferguson wrote:




I have finally realized that I really need a large rolling toolbox. I
have been buying and building tools pretty steadily for a few years, and
now I need to organize them. I need a place to put auto body dollies
and hammers, a place to put homemade stakes, blacksmith tools, a place
to put the accesories for my homemade power hammer, you name it.

I figure that what I want is a set of drawers of varying depths, mostly
3 inches deep or less. The common style of toolbox has a smaller
"portable" toolbox on top of a large rolling toolbox. This sounds OK,
as would a large drawer unit that was one piece. I would prefer a unit
on casters, but that is not a hard requirement.

I looked at Sears toolboxes the last time they were on sale, and the
only one that looked acceptable to me was one with ball bearings. I saw
a Husky toolbox at Home Depot that looked about the same quality. These
ran around $500 for the set of two toolboxes, but did seem a little on
the flimsy side. Realistically, I probably cannot afford to spend a lot
more than $500. I probably have been spoiled by commercial drawer units
by Lista and others, which are sturdy and slide very smoothly on ball
bearings. I have not looked at what is available as high end toolboxes
today. One that is very large would probably not fit into the available
space very well,

So, which brands of toolboxes should I look at? Any tips in evaluating
them? Any brands to stay away from? Should I look for used commercial
drawer storage units?

Richard,
Take a look at Waterloo. I've found them to be very durable. They have a new
series called Promaxx toolroom series. The PMX4009 is the top box. It has 9
drawers (50Lb ball bearing), keyed lock, internal locking bar, 6,621 cu inces
of storage and weighs in at 146 lbs. The roller PMX4113 is an 11 drawer tool
cart on 41/2" casters. It also has ball bearing drawer slides. It weighs in at
204 Lbs. with 14,566 cu inces of storage. Total price for the pair in the J&L
catalog is $514.87.


Dan