Do any of you guys own or use the new tool boxes that dont have drawers? They look like thay would be good if you worked in the field.
i'm not familiar with what you're talking about. you got any pictures of them?
a tool box without drawers sounds like a bin?
I think he's talking about one of those triangular ones. http://m.northerntool.com/mt/www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200367737_200367737 They look ok for sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers, but look like they take up a lot of space for the tools they hold. Also, it doesn't look like it seperates misc tools at all, and has little space for them. But, no, I've never tried one, only looked at pictures.
They are alright for operators and part time farmers but would suck for a normal field mechanic Dont hold near enough tools, are heavy, no place to put sockets that are on rails....... As a + I saw one that fell off a truck and it survived with just a little road rash (he needed a new set of cheep tools though) also for guys that cant seem to put their tools up there is no place to just throw them so they tend to get put up and a missing socket is rather noticeable.
I work part time in 2 diffrent places. Both places have the biger stuff that i can use but i have to bring the smaller hand tools. I was thinking of buying one or building one and liked the ideal that my tools wouldnt be sliding around geting disorganized. Heavy Metal made some good points i think ii could easyly make it hold socket rails. I have tools from 40 years ago so i must be good at puting them up but i would sleep alot better being able to easyly see if i had every thing after a job.
I have a montezuma stadium toolbox and I love it. http://www.strictlytoolboxes.com/mo...ional-portable-crossover-tool-chest-36in.html
Those are called motezuma boxes, yes I have one, have had for about 20 years now, but I didn't buy one, I built one, changed the door from flipping up to flopping down, works great as a work bench to hold tools, mine holds far more stuff than my old 12 drawer upright tool box held, has things organized and know what's missing and the lid holds everything in place when shut, but beware the wrenches swing and make noise, drives my help nuts at times to hear them jangle and jingle around, but for holding stuff it's great. If your going to put it in a truck, its far better than any pull out drawer chest made, today or ever. There is one brand I would buy though, I did buy the roll cabinet of the swivel pro box, instead of pulling out and having junk slides, the drawers swivel on a rod, work great and are are a far better design than any pull drawer ever was in my opinion. I also have some smaller motezuma style boxes I put on machines for having a basic wrench set on them, not as happy with the purchased boxes as I am with one I built though, just not as heavy and durable I guess you could say. My built one has been on three or four trucks now, has been used abused and misused so much I almost forget about at times, but its the first toolbox I ever had that lasted and took the abuse. I got so upset with all the drawer pull boxes I had I either sold them or threw them away, I will never again buy another drawer pull box on slides, glides or ball bearings ever, with the design of as the drawer pulls out the slides extend outward too. On my service truck we had some drawers made specifically for me, all the drawers have angle irons under them, with a poly liner in them and a shot of oil on them, even with 5-600 lbs of stuff in them we can slide them out and stand on them even loaded or have about a 8-900 lbs of stuff on each drawer slid out. We keep my daily use wrenches in the montezuma style box I made and the rest of the stuff goes in drawers. But to answer your question, yes they do work good, are a decent design and have their purpose, but to find one worth taking home is another story, the first one's made were built tough and designed right, but now every tom **** and harry is making them and have cheapened them up so much its not funny. The reason I built one at the time was there wasn't one of any size on the market to buy, they only offered a smaller version of what I have. I see now you can buy a larger one, its made of pop metal tin and is lightweight and not very durable, mine empty takes two full grown men to even lift and move, if its made of aluminum which I see now you can buy, pass on that completely unless you want something to nice in the back of your new diesel pickup and don't intend to actually use it.
I would like to see a picture of the one you built Randy88.
Randy88 I would like to see the box as well as the drawers.
Old Doug and dad5, my kids got some pictures loaded before on here, in the shop section here, under service bodies, I have pictures of my service body and tool boxes, in post 18 and post 19, I should be able to upload them here but for the life of me I can't do it, I have no problem to admit I'm computer illiterate. In post 18 the last picture with my welder shown, the tool box I made like the motezuma box sits behind the welder cabinet and is painted white, the lid flips down not up and has a chain to hold it in place. I'll try to get the kids to take some pictures this weekend of the box on the inside to show what it looks like now after 20 something years of use and abuse. It was pretty simple to make actually. All I did was lay out a set of combination wrenches and took measurements of them for height and width and they went up to 1 1/2 and had room for up to three larger wrenches on each hook, then did the same for the sockets and I used rods and used my milling machine to drill the holes in flat straps and just welded the rods into them, then welded the rod racks into the box. Had a machine shop use a press brake and bent up the steel and I took it home and welded it together, and then fitted bins where I wanted them, welded them in and have retrofitted it a few times over the years as the needs changed and now its no longer big enough, that's a surprise to most who have tools. Its nothing fancy but gets the job done for not many dollars invested. As for the drawers in my service truck, each drawer has three pieces and the frame work is just simple angle irons welded into the cabinet with plastic angle's bolted to the steel angles and we put some oil on them to slide nice and the twelve drawer on the drivers side took me a little over a day to weld up, a machine shop bent all the steel for me in one morning and I took the parts home and welded the drawers, cabinet and angles into it and bolted on the hinges and then disassembled it to take in for hot dipping galvanized and when I got it home, bolted the hinges back on and bolted it onto the truck. Nothing tough what so ever, the ones on the passengers side we pull out and stand on to reach the hose reels and short people use them to stand on to see and reach into the top boxes, oh I'm sorry its height impaired is the politically correct term for short I'm told. Not that I endorse the practice but some around my operation pull the service truck up beside things to fuel them up and use the drawers, pull them out in a stair step arrangement so you can climb up the drawers like a ladder and stand on them to reach things to fuel the machines up, I'm told they work better than a ladder and are far handier, not sure mac or snap on endorse that practice with their boxes let alone you'd want to stand on a full drawer five feet off the ground but its done all the time in my operation. Some height impaired even carry their own boards to lay over the top of the open drawers to stand on so they don't step on anything in the drawer when its full, I did the math once and it came to the neighborhood of 800 lbs on the drawer pulled out as far as it goes, including everything in the drawer, anything else on the market take that much weight, want to do that with those roller bearing slide out drawers on your shop box, pull it out all the way and climb up on it and stand on the outer corner on one side to climb onto a machine? How about those cabinets in service trucks today, pull out your wrench drawer all the way and stand on it to reach something? The swivel pro box's I bought can be googled and it should come up, they've been on the market a few years and a really nice box, the roll around shop box is about the best box I've ever seen, from construction to use to durability, its fantastic. I got the five foot roll around for my son's graduation from diesel mechanics school so he had a box at work, he uses it for a workbench and its tough enough to pound on, I think the top is one piece 1/4 or 5/16th's steel, the rollers are set up on a crank mechanism where you can set the box down on four legs and crank it up on the wheels, slickest thing ever, no brakes to use or have to worry about it rolling around. The drawers swivel out and in, on one rod, a grease zerk on each drawer and its the nicest box and drawer mechanism I've ever been around bar none. I wanted to build one for myself so it was heavy enough to safely hold about 700 lbs per drawer, right now they won't take that much weight, the drawers are not heavy enough steel, but far better than anything else on the market by far just the way they are. Hope this helps you some, I'll work on more pictures if my kids show up this weekend and we have time to snap a few pictures.