Alternate toolbox options?

[lilredwagn]

Looking for a toolbox or toolboxes that are the "killer app" for tool and part storage. Currently have a couple footlockers, a couple of the plastic tub-with-a-tray-on-top typical toolbox jobbies and a couple canvas toolbags. I have enough crap .. er .. cheap chinese tools.. that I should probably be looking for a rolling toolbox, but I live in apt., so that's not a terribly practical investment at this point.

Plus, I hate how cheaply they are made. The low end ($200-600(!)) ones are downright flimsy, and the ones that are halfway decent (not indestructible or precise, just decently built with bearings and the like) are $1k-2k. I realize you get what you pay for, but relative to the current economy, these things aren't worth half of what sears asking. For those prices, I would expect manufacture in germany and hand assembly in the US.

Then, when you get down to it, you're basically buying a couple large metal drawers, which aren't terribly useful for storing or sorting smaller objects.

Obviously the best thing to do is get a garage with a workspace, and have separate storage units. (i.e. one for hand tools, one for power tools, an organizer for nuts and bolts, an organizer for asstd crap).

I haven't the space for that, and I can't continue with the "coffee-can" approach, as it means I have to make a tremendous mess everytime I need to find one thing.

Is there a secret manufacturer/supplier of toolboxes and cabinets that makes some fantastic tool and part storage unit that has room for everything and is so ingeniously designed that it puts to shame the storage boxes and those wonky plastic "tote-all" carts that sears, lowes, home depot, etc. seem to have?

[RichP]

For apartment living the best bet is to get the Sears sets in the suitcase cases that they come in. Get the 100+ piece in it's carry all then add the sockets and wrenches that you need into another seperate case. The one my son picked up carries the sockets and wrenches in both the top and the bottom of the case.
Something like this
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?cat=Mechanics+Tools&pid=00935155000&vertical=TOOL&subcat=Mechanics+Tool+Sets&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes
Almost every craftsman tool I have ever bought came with it's own plastic case or had one available, all my craftsman torqe wrenches are in plastic cases that are form fitting for them.

As for a good cabinet and tool box, the Craftsman professional are pretty good, they are the ones that are the next step up from the homeowners models. I also noted some nice ones at home depot the other nite, $1,000 for the top and bottom sets. I have a sears pro line one, 6 drawer roller cabinet with a big storeage area under it, 4 drawer add on and a 12 drawer cabinet on top, thing is taller than my 6'6" and I keep a foot stool to step up to the top area. I actually need to buy another one I've acquired that many tools. I misplaced BOTH my 1/2" Milwalkee power drills and my hammer drill last week, took me 2 days to find them.

[TheAlmightySam]

I've got a Craftsman roll-away that I snagged for about $400, and it's all kinds of well-made. Ball bearing slides, nice beefy castor wheels, all-in-all, a well-made tool chest. I used to have it in my apartment, too, right next to the couch, and I just wheeled it into the elevator and down to the garage when I wanted to use it. The landlady thought it was a little odd, but it worked great.

Before I had that, I had a pair of Craftsman toolboxes - the kind with the lift-up lid on top and three sliding drawers. I think they were about $100 each. Nice thing was, on the top of each lid were a couple of little organizer bins that I stashed nuts and bolts and crap in. Worked really well, and I could keep all the tools I needed for a given project in there. The top bin was big enough for my drill, torque wrench, breaker, and hammer, and the drawers would hold sockets and box wrenches just fine. I eventually made dividers for one of the drawers out of black ABS plastic to help organize stuff too.

[ren]

I use a cuople of old gov't surplus file cabinets, an old surplus desk (just LOOVVEE the metal top, extra heavy duty build, and the 3 drawers), and misc. ammo cans. The main XJ has a pair of the over the wheel well boxes in it.

[8Mud]

Over the years I've tried everything I could think of. My trouble is, I pretty much have to be portable, many of the jobs I do (welding and metal work) are out in a farmers field someplace, farm machinery. if I tried to carry everything with me, it would weigh tons.
I found a sale on *Tough box* regular old plastic tool boxes, 18" long, 10 inches wide and a foot deep. Bought twenty of them on sale at the local Home Depot. Most all my tools are in kits. Files and chisels in one, impact tools in another, metal working tools in another, specilaty tools in another, sockets in another and end wrenches in another etc. The boxes are marked on both ends and lined double high under my work bench. I just grab whatever I think I'm gonna need and go. It actually saves time working in the driveway also, instead of walking back and forth to the roller cabinet, I just pick and choose from an assortment of boxes sitting near the work, put the stuff I'm using at the moment in the open lid.
For the big stuff, I bought a lot (pallet) of surplus metal storage boxes ( 2 feet by 2 feet by a foot thick (military) for night sites or something. I also have four or five foot lockers.
The kit concept works well for me, though some of my tools are double even triple (like hammers). Fast to organize, easy to carry, fast to load up, not too big or heavy, grab and go.

[98XJSport]

For some of the smaller stuff you can sometimes use tackle boxes, lots of trays and dividers in a compact case.

[Speed_racer]

I use a craftsmen 168 pc tool set in the suitcase style case. Always organized, always convenient.

I have a lockable thick plastic storage "bin" Ill be bolting into the back of my xj, so I can store it, extra liquids, shafts, and so forth in there :D

[Spudboy]

When I was a professional mechanic the good toolboxes were a necessity because of the daily abuse they got. Now that I just work on my own junk, I have the standard Craftsman cabinets, some with bearings and some with slides. I am of the opinion that for the average person the Craftsman and similar will last them most of a lifetime if they occasionally grease the slides and don't overload the drawers. I was just given a Waterloo base cabinet and topbox with slides that I know is at least 10 years old and works just fine.

YMMV