Is it me or are tool chests kind of a rip-off? I've been looking around for a decent 40" lower/upper tool chest combo, and was planning on spending a grand or less. This is for the home garage so I don't need anything too spectacular, but I'm hoping that whatever I buy, I'll have 20 years from now. Below is a list of what I've seen so far and my impressions. So far I'm a little disappointed.
Maybe I'm delusional, but I was expecting "more". Something that when I move a drawer side-to-side there isn't a large amount of play. Something with thicker metal, and that feels "substantial". Do the Snap-On/Matco boxes deflect a fair amount if you wiggle the drawers? Hell, I haven't opened a snap-on box in about 15 years. Anyway, for a thousand bucks or so, I'm just not that impressed. If anyone has some other brands worth checking out, or thinks I'm wrong about any of the one's I've looked at, let me know. I'm also keeping an eye out for used Snap-On boxes, but those seem to be out of my price range. I've seen used Lista and Stanley-Vidmar boxes on ebay, but shipping is too much.
Or, maybe I'm asking for too much and setting my sights too high. Let me know if I'm smoking something, and I'm not going to find anything that great for a grand or less.
Craftsman 41" upper/lower, on sale this week for 1000. Rollers had a nice smooth glide. But it just feels kind of wimpy. Metal is thin, large drawers only had one slider on them. The grip latch is probably a good idea, but I could see my self bending the catches.
Home Depot - they had a combo for about $800. Same thin metal as the Craftsman, but had some sort of magnetic (or spring loaded) drawer pull thing that required a strong effort to open up drawers, and conversely, when closing, the drawer would take over and automatically close quickly with a loud thud. I think I would get annoyed with this, but the drawers won't pull out accidentally.
Waterloo Series- local Farm and fleet had the "Pro" series chests on display. Again, flimsy feeling.
Harbor Freight - The had a combo at catalog pricing of around 800. This may have been the beefiest unit, but the drawer action was very inconsistent on the floor model. Some felt good, most weren't the smoothest and some were hard to open/close. Not sure what that means, and I didn't think to see if the slides were adjustable. The powder coating was a thick textured finish, which I may be the reason the steel looked thicker. I think the texture may be a bad thing as it would get dirty easier then a smooth gloss. The Drawers were roughly the same thin gauge metal as everything else.
Sam's Club - they had some chi-com SS setup for around $700. No better then the rest. The drawers front surface was diamond plate which I didn't really care for (the look).
Lowes - they had a SS (chi-com probably) upper and lower combo for about a grand. This one seemed the best of the bunch IMO. Smooth slides. Subjectively speaking, this seemed a little sturdier then the rest, but it's hard to tell as I'm not doing a side-by-side comparison. I'll probably go with this one if I don't see anything better.

Maybe I'm delusional, but I was expecting "more". Something that when I move a drawer side-to-side there isn't a large amount of play. Something with thicker metal, and that feels "substantial". Do the Snap-On/Matco boxes deflect a fair amount if you wiggle the drawers? Hell, I haven't opened a snap-on box in about 15 years. Anyway, for a thousand bucks or so, I'm just not that impressed. If anyone has some other brands worth checking out, or thinks I'm wrong about any of the one's I've looked at, let me know. I'm also keeping an eye out for used Snap-On boxes, but those seem to be out of my price range. I've seen used Lista and Stanley-Vidmar boxes on ebay, but shipping is too much.
Or, maybe I'm asking for too much and setting my sights too high. Let me know if I'm smoking something, and I'm not going to find anything that great for a grand or less.
Craftsman 41" upper/lower, on sale this week for 1000. Rollers had a nice smooth glide. But it just feels kind of wimpy. Metal is thin, large drawers only had one slider on them. The grip latch is probably a good idea, but I could see my self bending the catches.
Home Depot - they had a combo for about $800. Same thin metal as the Craftsman, but had some sort of magnetic (or spring loaded) drawer pull thing that required a strong effort to open up drawers, and conversely, when closing, the drawer would take over and automatically close quickly with a loud thud. I think I would get annoyed with this, but the drawers won't pull out accidentally.
Waterloo Series- local Farm and fleet had the "Pro" series chests on display. Again, flimsy feeling.
Harbor Freight - The had a combo at catalog pricing of around 800. This may have been the beefiest unit, but the drawer action was very inconsistent on the floor model. Some felt good, most weren't the smoothest and some were hard to open/close. Not sure what that means, and I didn't think to see if the slides were adjustable. The powder coating was a thick textured finish, which I may be the reason the steel looked thicker. I think the texture may be a bad thing as it would get dirty easier then a smooth gloss. The Drawers were roughly the same thin gauge metal as everything else.
Sam's Club - they had some chi-com SS setup for around $700. No better then the rest. The drawers front surface was diamond plate which I didn't really care for (the look).
Lowes - they had a SS (chi-com probably) upper and lower combo for about a grand. This one seemed the best of the bunch IMO. Smooth slides. Subjectively speaking, this seemed a little sturdier then the rest, but it's hard to tell as I'm not doing a side-by-side comparison. I'll probably go with this one if I don't see anything better.

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