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Craftsman tool box advice needed

18K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  Rob Keller 
#1 ·
I received a couple of Sears gift cards for Christmas and have decided to put them towards the purchase of a rolling tool box for my home garage. I went to Sears today to price some of them out and now need your advice. Do you think it is worth the money to get one with the ball bearing drawers? I know that it would be nice to have but is it worth an additional $200. I looked at two 13 drawer box combos. One was with the standard drawers and cost $300. The other had ball bearing drawers and cost $500. Is the cost worth it for a box that will only see everyday home use? Thanks for your help.
 
#2 ·
If you have a lot of tools to put in this tool box I would suggest going with the roller drawers. After a while the sliders start to get hard to open with weight in them. You should check out the Snap On box for sale in the classified section, for the money its a good buy.

Steve :welcome:
 
#5 ·
I have a regular Craftsman slider chest (13 drawer). Now, I don't have a lot of tools like the rest of the guys here, but I'm working on that. Some of the drawers are loaded pretty good with the big stuff. They open and close fairly easily. Probablly not as easy as a roller drawer, but I can live with that. I think for simple, weekend, home use a slider type would be fine until you can afford to upgrade to the rollers.

Chris
 
#7 ·
I dont know how many times ive seen guys with the sliders pull on that special draw and throw their tools on the ground left holding a drawer

it gets to be hysterical after a few times :thumbup:


look at getting a decent size box you can trade up or add on to nothing sucks than running out of space other than having someone steal your tools :smash:

SR66 :thumbup:
 
#8 ·
I have the slider 10+ years old loaded with tools and I have no problem with it. I just put a light coat of grease on the rails. Its your choice, I'd go with the slider and use the $200. for additional auto thinggys for the project. JMOHO lol

Al
 
#9 ·
I personally would get the box with the rollers. They will, as said, make opening and closing the drawers alot easier. Although I have Craftsman boxes, you will notice that most, if not all, of the Name brand boxes(Snap-on, Mac, Matco, etc) have rollers in the drawers. They make things alot easier. The drawers will be filled with heavy tools eventually. You won't want to have to go out and buy another set later, just because you have to fight with opening and closing the drawers. Working in the profession, alot of guys just figure on "trading in" their old boxes when the time comes. I don't know of a Sears store that takes "trade ins".

Aaron
 
#10 ·
I have two Craftsman roll arounds, one that is over 20 years old and is the Sears Home brand the other the middle of the road Craftsman that's about 5, both with sliders. Both are loaded full and I've never had a problem with the slides, a little grease and you are good to go. Rollers would be nice, but for me not $200 nice.

Another thing owning both I have found that they are the same box, the only differance is that the Home brand uses a padlock and bars to lock up the box, the Craftsman has built in locks. If I were to do it again I would probably save a few more $ and just go with the Sears home brand as I never lock the boxes anyway. Either way you go there's nothing better than a place for everything!
 
#11 ·
Roller slides? Everyone knows you need rollers to open that pesky drawer with a impact hammer in it! I couldn't tell you how many times I've had to pry my box open with a porta power becuase I didn't upgrade to rollers slides.

(insert smarta** comment here)

(and here)

Save you two hundered bucks for a extra space.
 
#13 ·
I'll be the oddman out and say it.
I think unless your opening n closing drawes 100 times a day, Id save the 200 bucks.
If your box is unweathered and you keep it in good shape youll be ok.
Plus think of what 200 xtra bucks can buy ya in tools. HG
 
#14 ·
Hemmi,

Thanks for being the odd man out. I was having this same conversation with my buddy at work last night. I think I am now leaning toward getting the box with the standard drawers and using the extra $200 to replace some old worn out hand tools.

Thanks for everyone's advice.
 
#15 ·
HEY!!!

I usually resemble that remark :D

If your working at home save the $200.

If your gonna be in a shop some where spend the extra money
because I don't think you will do this long with sliders



SR66 :thumbup:
 

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#16 ·
HemmiGremmie said:
I'll be the oddman out and say it.
I think unless your opening n closing drawes 100 times a day, Id save the 200 bucks.
If your box is unweathered and you keep it in good shape youll be ok.
Plus think of what 200 xtra bucks can buy ya in tools. HG

I said that already. There ya go again, trying to take cresit for someone elses words. Kiddin with ya bro. lol

Chris
 
#20 ·
I do have to say that I use my tools to make a living. Having collected tools for 30+ years, I tend to wait until the box is way over loaded before upgrading to a larger box. I have several boxes that have sliders in them. People that I know that only use the boxes at home, and don't over load them, probably won't have a problem.

My wife thought that me spending $1000 for the Craftsman box that I have now was excessive for something to store tools in. Then again, I always have felt that people spending many thousands on Snap-on or Matco boxes are a little excessive. I did pay the extra $200 then for the rollers, but can write it off on my taxes.

Aaron
 
#21 ·
I too worked professionally and my box was small and it sat on a table in one of the bone yards i was at

A buddy of mine asked me to get his Snap on Pry bar fixed and I brought it in the next day the tool truck shows up and his bar is GONE! because it didn't fit in my box then i noticed a bunch of other stuff missing too. so I had to buy a new one for my NOW ex buddy

Here's the kicker I was always first in last out so I;m sure it was the yard Foreman because they wouldn't let me see the surveillance video{which was directed right at my work area}

So I went to sears I had excellent credit but they wouldn't approve me for $1800. so I spent $4200.on the Mac truck took years to pay it off but its payed off it & its my personal home box now in a bigger box it all STAYS LOCKED UP & NO TOOLS LOANED NO EXCEPTIONS





(no thats not me thats the foreman's brother at least 10 years ago)

SR66 :thumbup:
 
#22 ·
I also make a living out of my tool box, and I for one will never skimp on roller bearing for the drawers. You wouldn't buy a car with 4 wheel drum brakes if the exact car next to it had 4 wheel disk brakes for $200.00 more would you? Just makes sense to buy the best you can afford. Here is a picture of my money maker.
 

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#23 ·
Dutchman said:
Now, do the next best thing.
Find the Sears scratch and dent store in town. You will find the old style boxes (last years model) for sale. You can save a lot of cash and get a great set of boxes.

Dutch
I had some tires put on a sears yesterday and I found a 12 drawer box marked 50% off in the scratch and dent isle. It was a return and the key was missing. I bought it.
 
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