Evenin' All,

I've been looking at tool chests recently, mostly for work as I'm in sheet metal at the moment and enjoying myself! I do have a huge array of tools accumulated over the years and the wife doesn't want to be seeing them in the flat!

Long story short after much investigation I discovered Halfords have a selection of reduced stock on a variety of chests and cabinets (and some small ones too). I just got a big black Halfords Industrial chest for £170 with ball bearing rollers, each draw has a locking handle thing, liners, tote tray, etc. Bloody bargain I think considering Snap-On or Brittool would want the wrong side of £500 for something similar! I just wish she would have let me get the roller cab too

See ya,
Adam.

I have a halfords one... was about £113.

The runners dont hold too much weight, as one of my drawers is saggin on the runners ie too many Imperial spanners in that drawer. Also the drawers are not very high on the top portion, hence you cant get larger tools in them like Screwdrivers with large round handles.

I suggest you take a few big tools and try them in the drawers before you buy. ie shove all your screwdrivers in one drawer and see if you can open and close it!.

other than that its taken a little abuse, and is not too bad for the money. The better ones have ball bearing sliders on the drawers.. and are better (IMHO).

I've had the pleasure of working in a number of different trades over the years My father and grandfather were plumbers, started out with them, then moved into a welding and millwright position, finally settled in as an automotive technician. I've used and worn out a number of tool boxes in the last 30 years or so. Its a matter of the right tool for the job. I open and close every drawer in my work boxes many times every hour day in day out. It's a Snap-on box. Its made of heavier metal and has roller drawer slides that open smoothly and quickly with less wear than a normal drawer slide. Its built to withstand the use it receives and has a liftime warranty to back it, along with a dealer that takes good care of me. My home box on the other hand is only used the one or twice a week. Its an old Sears box I bought used for less than $200 (was pretty nice back then). I wore it out in less than 5 years at work and retired it to home. Its been rewelded and repaired many times, and might look a bit the worse for wear but it serves perfectly for its intended purpose. It keeps my crap all in one place so I can find it when I need it, and stays locked so its there when i need it.



[Edited on 21/7/05 by madman280]

Currently I use a couple of the cheaper machine mart tool chests (the most expensive of the 2 costing £70). I don't use tools in quite the same way as madman280, but still the tool chests are in regulare daily on family farm.

Neither of the tool chests have given any cause for concern, both working well as they shoyuld do.
Only advantages i've come accros when using Snap-on, Mac, Beta etc. are
Ball bearing draws are smoother
Lock on the side for improved security
and
Internal mechanisms to prevent 2 or more draws opening at a time.
Most of which incidently can be had on a MM tool chest for not much extra cost.


My conclusion is that unless your going to use a chest every minuit of every day, its not woth spending excesivce amounts of money, especially as the tool chests seam to be one of machine marts better products.

By the way Snap on start at £451, compared to equiverlant MM which costs £90.

.......................and the new Machine Mart heavy duty ones are roller bearing and just as heavy duty as the Britool ones anyway. (though they are a bit more expensive than the usual MM prices!)

[Edited on 21/7/05 by NS Dev]

i bought a teng 6 drawer top box a few years ago for £100 (the one with the teng eyes/logo on the front) it has done me well so far and still looks like new.

i wanted a roller cab too, but at present am making do with an old chest of draws with the feet cut off. granted you cant put too much weight in the drawers, but the larger/bulkier items take up so much space you can't fit as many heavy bits in the drawers anyway!

Ned

Teng stuff is bloody good Ned, always forget about Teng, even though I have a fair few of their bits in the workshop!