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I'm thinking this guy has some manly issues...

10K views 65 replies 17 participants last post by  496CHEVY3100 
#1 ·
Just saying....



Brian
 
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#4 ·
I had a boss with a huge box at the last shop, no kidding there were drawers with ONE tool sitting in them that would roll around when you opened the drawer.

I know one that bought his box many years ago and it was $8500, yet he has Harbor Freight tools in it. Don't get me wrong, he has a few quality stuff but most is HF, just why would someone do this?

I understand there IS a "Professional tech" unwritten rule you HAVE to have a quality box like SnapOn or Mac. I understand this, now with some very nice boxes out there made by others it's unfair, but it still stands, the unwritten rule still stands. But you don't need a giant box, you just don't. I worked for years with a box that isn't much bigger than what a lot of guys have for their "go to box" that they roll around the shop leaving their monster up against the wall. I got by with that smaller one rolling it out into the parking lot and all.....FULL of ONLY the tools I needed, no SAE (at work) no plannishing hammer, ONLY the tools I needed to do my job. No broken tools, no duplicates, just the tools needed for the job and with that, my little box Mac 1100 was plenty big.

I paid about $1200 for it around 1990 and I just saw a used one on the back of the SnapOn truck (a trade in) for $2000!:pain:

But really, I just don't get it. I am sure there ARE some guys who really do need a big box, there are jobs were you DO need to have all the SAE and Metric tools and that Plannishing hammer and you need a big box. But I have never seen it, it's just an incredible waste of money if you ask me. This guys box in this magazine, DAMN I wish I had the money that thing cost! I could LITERALLY double the size of my garage! NO JOKE!

Brian

 
#5 ·
Can't imagine how any tool box that was higher than my shoulders wouldn't end up being a total pain to work out of? Besides, that tool box is way too clean to ever really be used! Looks more like a publicity stunt, than something he uses.
I have numerous smaller boxes, plus a roll around with the open bottom shelf for parts. I've always preferred multiple tool boxes over those monster single boxes that take a forklift, or a small crew to move around!
 
#6 ·
I remember back years ago my brother was at one of his first jobs at a dealership. There was a guy with a three high "Mechanics box" and he was up on a step stool getting something out of a top drawer when the box rolled backwards and hit a railing with the top boxes falling off down into the grease pit below. YEOW!

Brian
 
#7 ·
When I worked at the local Cadillac dealership, there wasn't a guy there who had a tool box over 36" wide. Very few had more than one box also. All the pros' boxes were stuffed with tools, and of course everyone had Snap On, and Snap On tools.
As you mentioned before, there's a lot of peer pressure in a garage to buy tools from the truck that drives up to the door. Never had the other tool trucks back then, so Snap On was the only game in town. He also carried Kennedy tool boxes for their "economy" line, and that's what I had back then.
 
#9 ·
Working as a mechanic at a Ford dealership for the last 9 years I guess I have a "big box" compared to some of you but it also has to double as my workbench and is long and deep but only 48" high. But that box is just stupid and pretty useless. Not to mention it looks like it has a snap on decal so I have to say its probably close to 60k just for the boxes as I priced a triple bay bottom with a top box and a full size locker and it was 20k. And he has two of them in that setup.
 
#10 ·
Like I said, there ARE some people with a use for a large box. The one in this photo, come on, it's a collision shop for goodness sakes. I work at one who does close to 4 million a year in sales, we typically have 50 cars on the lot any given day and I am pretty certain we could put EVERY tool in the entire shop, all 6 techs, all of their tools AND the shop tools, every single one of them in this box!
The painters and preppers each have a box, you could put all their stuff, all the paint guns, every single tool in the entire shop! Heck, you could put all the computers, all the brooms and dust pans, you could darn near put the friggin frame rack and alignment rack in that box! LOLOL
Come on now.

Brian
 
#14 ·
I currently have the smallest box in the dealership where I work also.
As Ogre said....big boxes at the shop have drawers with only papers and junk in them.
I have a Matco (waterloo) , (see picture) and it is a bottom roller with a full length top drawers and big and small drawers under it side by side.
It is chocked full of tools.90 % snap on because there product works.I also have 8-9 other plastic carry boxes that are not in the box, and a lot of other carry boxes in the tool box. Since the picture I have added a upper shelf with light,power strip, a few charger stands, my scanner satys up there etc.

I could use a bigger box.
I have tools at home, like my sawzall and grinders and other stuff I would like to have at work.I just don't have the secure place to put them.
Did I mention I need a bigger box?
I like this box however...as it fits in the back of my pickup (just barely) cross ways between the rails( against the back of the cab which leave plenty of room for other stuff).I have hauled it cross country a few times.
 

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#15 ·
The thing is DO you need a bigger box? Go thru every drawer and look for stuff you haven't used in a year and bring them home. You will very likely see you have a bunch of new space.

It's so funny, back a year or so ago the tool guys came in and had a price war on those little roll around boxes. Something like this..



EVERY single guy in the shop got one! Now, the funny part, they now hardly ever go to their "Condo" tool box! LOLOL they put all the tools they REALLY use in this little roll around the shop, they roll across the shop to the frame rack and stuff like that. But they put all the stuff the REALLY use daily in it and the big box sits there covered with dust and hardly gotten into!

I set up drawers with tools laid out in them and put the most used in the top drawer, second most in the second drawer and so on. I then worked out of the box and moved things around that I found I used more or less according to this plan. I found that a LOT of tools I first put up in the most used didn't get used at all. I am amazed at a few like like the great little offset screwdriverratchet things that I loved so much, they are in the top drawer still today just because I don't feel like changing it being I don't work out of the box every day anymore. But there they are, I THOUGHT I needed them, I VERY seldom do and they should be in the very bottom in the "MUST have but used very rarely" tray. If you start looking at it honestly and leaving all the SAE at home for instance (1/4" and 5/16"are the only two you will ever run into that you can't use a metric on anyway) unless you are doing serious stuff like suspension where you MUST have the right tool for proper torque and all, if you are working on cars made after 1977 you don't need a single SAE tool, yet I see guys with those tools in their roll around cart! Why in the world would a guy have a dual SAE and Metric socket set in this roll around cart, that is taking up space for a tool that he REALLY would use. I got it down, I got it down to JUST the tools I needed every day, and it sure doesn't take a big box! We are talking doing full on body work, replacing quarters and floors and frame rails, doing all the body work, replacing suspension parts, radiators, wiring, glass, doing every single thing needed in the shop, one little roll around box is all it took.

I was just honest with myself, what I didn't REALLY need, went home. I did have one cabinet up on the wall with a few big tools like an 8" Makita grinder and a coil spring compressor and my mig helmet, but other than that, it was ALL in my little box I could roll out in the parking lot and often did.

Brian
 
#16 ·
This is what the top three drawers of my box look like.



Notice that the air tools that go with the sockets are in that drawer and not in a drawer full of air tools like we did for years. I have many more tools that "could" go in these two top drawers, but did I use them every day, nope, so they weren't there. The standard screw drivers off to the left, realistically those could have been moved to the "seldom used if ever" tray in the bottom drawer, I mean come on, other than for prying or something what is a standard blade driver used for on late model cars?

And the hammer drawer.



Realistically I used most all the dollies regularly but the hammers, omg I used three or for for 90% of the work with a few never touching them for a year or more.

But really, I had to really work to clear out the un-used tools I had in my box, I had to look at myself honestly and move tools out I THOUGHT I really needed, or I had for years so I had an attachment to, but when looking at it honestly had to face the fact that I never used it.

I didn't throw them away, I simply moved them home or to the very bottom of the box where I didn't have to go very often. Now, the funny thing is, I am not using this box at work anymore and when I brought it home, a bunch of stuff got changed, all the metric went out to another little box on my bench and all the SAE went back in because I am working on my old classics out of that box now. I moved my sanding blocks from the "basement" drawer up onto shelf in the garage with the sand paper and filled that drawer with tune up and brake tools and stuff I never used at the body shop at all.

But it wasn't easy, I won't say it was, I had to work hard to remove those tools I had been looking at for years, all the extra clip tools I never used, the extra extensions and ratchets (that "palm ratchet" in the top drawer, it should go, I NEVER use it).

Brian
 
#17 ·
I just noticed, this was when I first did the foam cut outs and they changed seriously changed over time. That second drawer with the old Snap On clip tools just to the right of the "Gear wrenches", those are GONE, LOL, the door handle/window crank clip remover, LOLOLOLOLOL, GONE, that didn't even stay in my tool box at all and went home. Yeah that whole area was redone with a new foam cut for the tools I REALLY needed.

The floppy ratchet with the black handle on it in the top drawer, it got moved home and the torx sockets that I used more got put there, you see what I mean, it's a constant evolution if you want to keep ONLY what you are using in that box.

Brian
 
#18 ·
Good food for thought Brian.
I guess I could follow your guidelines for tools that stay or go.
Pretty good thinking.
I still have a bunch of tools that I would have to put somewhere. Problem is, I have a small basement and it is full of tools and Pontiac Parts...:thumbup:
I really need a garage , but that is not gonna happen soon enough...sooo.
I have a roller cart at work ,that I fill with stuff when I am at the car. Saves on trips back and forth and is a good catch all for parts etc.
I guess I should inventory my stuff, and thin the herd.:D
 
#27 ·
my box (lower and upper) is 5'10" tall and 6' wide and is chock full, the 2 side boxes 6'x2' are full,the 5 draw cart is full, the 2nd lower box 36"x4' is full and that's with the body working tools in a 4'x3'x3' truck tool box parked in the corner.. and there are still tools I don't have but could use..
 
#30 ·
You don't need ten 3/8 ratchets, I am telling, this guy needs meds.



I will bet a crisp $100 bill that he uses 5% of those tools in the average year. Unless the whole shop works out of his tools and no one else has any, 5 maybe 10%, MAX.

Brian
 
#33 ·
I am guilty here I have about 20 rachets that I use regularly that includes 1/4 -3/8 and 1/2 and 3/4 drines,,sone are regular 9in some are telescoping some swivel head the 1/4 and 3/8 I use the most and have the biggest selection...I don't use them daily but do use them ,,Heck I don't even work daily .:thumbup::thumbup:
 
#36 ·
i think the owner has a napoleon complex :D
my bud has the same bottom box and locker on top, i'm a foot over that combo
he is also one of those with tools rolling around in empty drawers or parts in there

MY TOOL BOX IS 50 FEET BY 50 FEET, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME :D:D:D

:D

i worked construction for many years. i have carpentry, woodworking, fabrication, plumbing, pipefitting, electrical and mechanics tools.
 
#37 ·
Ha...some of the ratchets are cheapo Crapman ratchets. Filler...or eye candy...that's all.
The box is way overkill.
I really want (not need) a bigger box, but I am not buying one.
The box I have now is gonna have to do.
 
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