Williams Tool Chests (1 Viewer)

[wapitimud]

I've had a few tool chests over the years, especially Craftsman, which comes in at least three grades, from poor to decent depending on price. New Craftsman is sourced now by Stanley, and is probably poorer than it was in Sears' heyday.

All aftermarket boxes are usually made by a few third parties, and from a farm store to a mechanics supply, you usually don't get a high-end product on an aftermarket or store brand.

Having said that, some of the Williams red boxes seem decent, and as William's is owned by Snap-On, they appear to just be older designs. The William's boxes aren't cheap, but at a big discount to Snap-On via a supplier like toolsdelivered.com

The price/performance of the HF US General boxes looks good, and they now have an " Icon " professional line of boxes out now that probably isn't any better than the William's, and it probably costs more.

Here in Canada, we have International boxes, their high-tier ones are good. We also had Beach-brand tool boxes, which were good, but closed years ago.

My vote is William's, Beach, or Vidmar Lista, if you can find them priced low enough.

 

[ntsqd]

Stanley makes a line similar to the Lista cabinets though not quite as over-the-top and for not quite the Lista price. Blanking on the name, Viking?

 

[mrsleeve]

Several options I can think of out there...

Check these guys out, though I am not sure on their ability to ship to Canada....
lots of good options and plenty of reviews on you tube and what not even lists construction gauge of steel and what not
Professional Toolboxes | Tool Vault | Montezuma | Extreme | Lista & more

Around my part of the world Mac boxes seem to sell for steep discounts on the used market and seem to sit around for a long time even a 2500us for 68"x24" box that is nearly perfect condition.....

Vidmar was stanley's industrial cabinet brand, then about 2012 they bought/merged/took over Lista and are running the brands concurrently. There is another industrial modular cabinet manufacturer out there that you should put on your list, and thats Lyon, they are every bit as good as any lista or vidmar, and also still made in the states. I have 6 of their drawer sets 3 came from a ford dealer that was relocating and clearing out, so I bought ALL of their Cabinets for about 250 each, I kept 3 of those and in selling the remainder were net free to me. The same guy owns another dealership and was expanding and redoing that stores parts dept, and contacted me about buying the 3 Lyon boxes that were in that store, so I did, mine have mostly worked out to be a STEAL of a deal and I will spend the most of my life trying to fill them lol....

I would likely skip the Williams boxes unless you can get a solid deal on on them, as you would have less in buying two 30"w x 60"H lista, Vidmar, or Lyon BRAND NEW, than even used truck brands in most cases .... they are industrial so they dont slide as nice as "tool boxes" but you can put 400lbs of stuff in EVERY DRAWER, and the slides will out last a truck brand box by 30 years and Store brand by a life time .

Ready To Ship Modular Drawer Cabinets Archives

Order Lyon Ready to Ship Modular Drawer Cabinets Today. We Keep These Popular Sizes of Modular Cabinets In Stock so You Can Get Them Fast. Made in the USA!

www.lyonworkspace.com

 

[wapitimud]

The Lyon looks good, i've never seen them here. A good tool chest doesn't come cheap, and you do tend to get what you pay for in material.

 

[Whiskerz]

Is Waterloo an option?

 

[wapitimud]

I'm quite setup with toolchests now, and mine are all International's top tier, which are excellent. The Williams, Lista, Lyon appear decent too, and there's maybe a dozen other store labels out there.

My post was meant to illustrate that instead of buying a pricey Snap-On box, you could perhaps buy a William's, and hopefully obtain the same quality. There are some older toolchests out there that do look quite like the older Mac boxes. I also note that Lista-Vidmar is owned by Stanley, as is Proto and Mac. I wonder who makes those Proto and Mac boxes then?

 

[Elbert]

I like most of the Williams hand tools and I have a few of them. I've never seen in person, the Williams tool boxes. If you had the chance to see the Williams boxes in person then it might be better for evaluation purposes.

 

[wapitimud]

From what I have seen, most Williams hand tools that are USA-made are made at the Snap-On plant. The foreign ( Taiwan) Williams tools likely share the same lineage as Blue Point. My lowest prices on USA-made Williams has been toolsdelivered.com

 

[wapitimud]

Williams 55" 11 Drawer Roller Cabinet Red

Made of high quality class I steel to enhance strength and finish Double wall construction provides strength Reinforcement corner gussets add strength and reduce racking 2" mounting centers provide flexibility in arranging drawers to individual needs All drawers equipped with 75 pound full...

m.snaponindustrialbrands.com

 

[Elbert]

I've bought many things off the tools delivered web site. I have no issues with the williams tools ...I probably have a couple of $$K in that brand of tools. I'm not sold on the tool boxes though. Look at the casters for one and the model posted seems to resemble some of the tool boxes sold in the US at Lowes. I personally would want to see some samples before I spent major $$ on a tool box (brand) that I had never seen before. I have a couple of snap-on boxes and they are/were pricey, the two I bought new and I bought one used from a friend. I did buy a husky roll-around box for a reasonable price and it seems to be made on average quality scale but I could go see samples of the item at the local Home Depot (USA). I'm not saying Lowes or Home Depot is/are a great source of tool boxes, in my case it was a trade-off on functionality vs. cost and while I appreciate quality, I'm no longer willing to jump off in the the big $$ on a snap-on or mac box, unless I come across something used in good shape. Some of the husky stuff at Home Depot is a reasonable trade-off in my view, but everyone has their own perspective. Over time I've come to the opinion that you are well served to get one of the very large bottom roll-around boxes that has multiple deep drawers and a large wide deep drawer or two on the two top drawer locations, to serve as your socket / ratchet go-to point, and has a wood or metal work surface on the top, and few large drawers on the bottom for kits, larger air tools and whatever else that is large or stack-able within the drawer. Then have a conventional stacked tool box for your other stuff (something like your pic shows). It pays to get something that is deep and wide in the tool box world, because the narrow and shallow stuff is too awkward and not very stable in my view.

I bought a husky box like this one I'm linking to, I don't really care the the top is adjustable ( removed the adjuster) but I like the space and layout. I'm not sure this is the exact one but it very similar. If you have Home Depot in your area you might want to check their stuff out, but some of the tool boxes are order items only.

Husky 72 in. W x 24 in. D Heavy Duty 18-Drawer Mobile Workbench Cabinet with Adjustable-Height Hardwood Top in Matte Black HOLC7218BB1MYS - The Home Depot

The Husky 72 in. 18-Drawer Mobile Workbench adjustable height matte black tool chest has a revolutionary feature that allows you to adjust the height of the solid wood work surface. A removable crank handle raises and lowers the top anywhere between 39 in. to 52 in. above the floor. This...

www.homedepot.com

 

[wapitimud]

I just got back from Miami, and visited the Harbor Freight store, we don't have that in Canada.

I inspected the new ICON tool chests. They are very heavily built. They have a big price tag on them too, although much lower than Snap-On. I still haven't seen a Williams box to compare.

 

[g-man]

I bought a Lowes Kobalt rolling tool box about 10 years ago for around 600US. Like this:

Now after loading it up heavily with tools I find the bearings in the drawer slides are set in plastic strips that are breaking. Even the upper drawers that only have screwdrivers and hand wrenches. The plastic bearing retainers are falling out along with the bearings. It is just a matter of time before it will be worthless. I'd like to know more about the bearings and what to look for in a higher quality box. This for my home garage (read: not a professional mechanic) Pretty sure I can't afford Mac or Snap on unless I find a used one for a steal.

I do have a few heavy air tools (impact wrench, air ratchet, 5lb hammer etc) in the bottom drawers that seem to challenge the flimsy metal. I can see that a quality box would have heavier metal drawers at the bottom.

 

[wapitimud]

Thanks for sharing that, it gets to the root of my post. The Lowes, Husky, most Craftsman boxes are usually all of poor quality sliders, cheap rollers, and sometimes very thin steel.

I could drive a truck into that ICON box, and only damage the truck. Most Snap-On/ Mac/Proto boxes are really expensive here, even used, and you're paying for a name.

The ICON, Lyon, defunct Beach, and perhaps Kennedy and Williams? are all high-tier, non-tool truck boxes that will give decades of industrial use without breaking.

Lista/Vidmar is a Stanley-Proto company, and their boxes are as expensive as Proto new, but can be a steal used. I saw a fellow's heavy duty box he used on the job as a heavy duty mechanic in Africa. The box was from Tool Boxes Inc., heavily built, professional grade too.

Caterpillar has an extensive tools catalogue. Some of their low-end, economy tools are made overseas, and nothing special. Some of the high-end tools in their book are made by Snap-On, Proto, but without any discount for selling as CAT.

A fellow could potentially buy those specific high-end used or new/old stock tools online, and dodge the cost of a tool truck brand. For Caterpillar, a part number like 1U7113 for a 1/2" ratchet is significant against another part number like 4C-9592 wrench. One or neither of those part numbers is a premium part. The inclusion of U, C, B or "X" means something for Caterpillar tools, and is used to denote either economy or high-tier tool manufacture.

The same may apply to tool chests.

 

[g-man]

took the plunge on a new HF U.S. General 44" box today.

$499 but 50.00 off for the coupon. 22 inches deep, heavy duty casters mounted on some solid steel on the bottom of the box. The drawers extend completely out compared to my old Kobalt which annoyingly kept the drawers about 3 inches recessed inside the box. There is no power strip on the side so I bought a power strip to sit on top of the box. The upper and lower drawers have double slides to help it hold more weight. I believe the metal in the drawers is slightly heavier maybe 16g. It came with locks, drawer liners and a handle that can be installed on either side.
The box comes on a plywood crate and in cardboard with some heavy cardboard "L" angle to protect the top edges. If you want to inspect the box before you leave the store you have to completely remove the cardboard. Once you start cutting it up ...the rest just falls off. This leaves you with only the pallet at the bottom for protection. I decided to remove the cardboard once I got home but before I took the 330# chest out of the bed of the truck. I had read some reviews about buyers finding out only after getting to the house that the chest was damaged. Apparently HF stockers can get rough and in a hurry unloading the trailers at the store. The store does have a 90 day return policy so you could take it back for another. The plywood crate that the box sits on goes up and under and takes most of the weight off the wheels. Easiest way to remove it is to put a board under the chest and lift with floor jacks then slide the crate out.

I did notice some of the display boxes in the store had deformed drawers where people had been pulling on them. Like small dents or outward creases that you can feel under the handles near the middle. I guess they are not as heavy duty as a $3000 box so if you want to yank the heck out of it to test it ...yeah it will bend.

 

[PAToyota]

The HF boxes seem to be a great deal for the money. Yes, there are better boxes out there, but you spend considerably more to get them.

 

[roma042987]

I've been shopping for a bigger tool box for the last month or so. I looked at all the new big box brand stuff out there and I looked at used high end stuff. I came close to picking up one of the 72" husky boxes that are about a grand. I think stainless top was actually cheaper than hardwood. I'll say they were 850-1100 plus tax. What I concluded is if you look hard enough you can find a name brand box for not much more than that. I picked up this 3 year old Matco that was $9800 new for 2k. I did have to drive 720miles roundtrip to pick it up. I'd found another Matco that was a 6s yellow 75" (3"longer) with a hardwood top for 2300 that was a bit closer.

 

[wapitimud]

Good find there. I'm not usually a fan of Matco, but it seems their boxes come from their Jamestown, NY plant, which used to produce boxes for Mac Tools. I wonder if that plant has an outlet store in Jamestown with any discount scratch & dent units?

You could definitely cut a piece of butcher block or bamboo block for the top there as a work surface to keep the box new.

 

[roma042987]

Good find there. I'm not usually a fan of Matco, but it seems their boxes come from their Jamestown, NY plant, which used to produce boxes for Mac Tools. I wonder if that plant has an outlet store in Jamestown with any discount scratch & dent units?

I've worked around them all and I'd say matco, mac, and snappy are all pretty much the same quality wise.

 

[PAToyota]

That was a great find. What I see around here tends to look beat and they still want top dollar.

 

[Elbert]

yeah....good deals on used Snap-on, Mac, or Matco would be life-time purchases for the average person. As noted above...I would recommend you buy/look for large bottom boxes that are wide and have deep drawer space, you'll get far more utility out of that type of box. Yes they are heavy @#$^ but that generally denotes some level of quality vs some of the lighter weight stuff. Likley you'll be able to secure far more "stuff" as well.

Access to a trailer like this might be helpful.