Technical Toolboxes & Tools....whatayagot and why

My main tools are Snap-on. My dad's cabin up north was next door to the Snap-on vice president's cabin. when I say cabin I mean vacation homes by the time both got done with them. Neighbors for close to 30 years.

He gave me a gold plated screwdriver once that all the higher ups got. said he would never use it so he gave it to me. To bad I used it daily, should have left that in the box it came in.

I do have other various tools though too. A lot of oddballs but the majority of the other stuff is craftsman. Being in Wisconsin working on rusty crap, you need a set of tools that are not real close on tolerances to get them to fit. Snap-on is great to use on clean stuff but try getting them on rusty bolts.

 

I just bought this stack from a friend of mine that restores them. Made 1950-55.

The below pic is a set from 1966 that he just finished. He cleans and repairs them and then powder coats them using the same color formula. Regards, Randy




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got this last week.

 

A few years ago, an acquaintance stopped by one day with a friend of his. We were in my shop when the "friend" noticed the quite large block of wood I had there that I had found plenty of use for.
His sarcastic comment...
"Oh yeah...just what every garage needs...a big block of wood."
I was momentarily very tempted to try yet another use for that block of wood.

 

i have the usual wide variety of crap bought at swap meets, craftsman, mac, snap on etc. but i will say this, our old mechanic at work retired a few years ago, he had been buying snap on since the 60's, and sold his whole stash back to the snap on man for more than he had in it, after 50+ years of use. this guy did 65-75 hour weeks all his career.

 

man I love those old boxes!

I just have a couple cheap boxes, Craftsman and Husky for the hand tools
and several file cabinets for larger tools and spare parts, got them throughout the shop, the better ones have nice ball bearing slides and can handle not only large stuff but a surprising amount of weight. old milk crates get the heavy greasy stuff

 

This is what I paired down to when I closed my shop:

100" wide, made by Tool Vault.

 

My "everyday" hand tools live in these boxes -seems weird now that when I got the original top box back in the 70's I couldn't imagine ever filling it. It's grown two drawer sections over the years since then; and there is another tool trolley round the corner with some of the tools that don't get everyday use.



The security chains and padlocks are just a sop to my paranoia after some thieves visited my shop one night several years ago -my long time insurance company expected receipts to be available for all that Snap-On stuff I'd collected over the last 40 years

 

So you’re saying you keep a Lista things you sell?


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Check out my avatar picture. That is my box at work. It’s the largest Mac tamale wagon they make with a small Craftsman top on it. It’s completely full of 60% Craftsman, 20% Mac, 15% Snap-On and 5% misc brands. My home boxes are my first Snap On that was part of my Tech School set, and my three other home boxes are all Craftsman. 90% of my home tools are Craftsman. Most of my air tools are Ingersol and Rand. I actually collect vintage Craftsman tools, the remind me of when Sears was a great place to shop and looking at tools with my Dad, Uncle, and Grandad. I’m a self diagnosed tool-hollic. It comes from my Dad and Grandad. My nine year old son has a Craftsman top and bottom and a Snap On bottom with a Mac top. I’m trying to start him out right. When he was born, I went to Sears and bought all of the USA made stuff I could find and put it away for him. He’s just starting to get into working on stuff, but I don’t think he realizes what I have for him. Sorry for the long winded post, but tools are one of my passions.


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Forgot one, got this OTASCO unit at an estate sale. I bought it mainly for the Nostalgia factor. Not very well made but brought back memories. Otasco and Western Auto were the go to places in small towns for tools and auto accessories growing up.

 

3 little black canvas bags full of tools.

 

So how many tool Boxes is too many, that's what my wife asks. I have 3 sets of top and bottom boxes (MATCO, Craftsman, SnapOn) I also have several small boxes for select tools ( Plumbing, Carpentry, Electrical) I still have the first box my Dad gave me 40 years ago, that's a Craftsman, it's on a shelf all by it's self.

 

Yes Harbor Freight does have good tool boxes. I needed more room awhile back and bought the 60" bottom chest and a small box for the top and love them

 

I don't own any thing as fancy as some of the tool boxes I see posted here, but I do have one interesting small tool box, which I discovered is the same as the box mounted on the running board of the Beverley Hillbillies old pickup.
You judge and I am guessing they were a pretty common box so maybe others here also own one...

 

I bought my younger sons cheapie tool boxes for their first tools when they were 9 & 12 years old so they could work on their bicycles, and then their go-cart.. Then I bought the older son a good selection of Craftsman tools, and for the younger son I bought him a similar selection of new S-K tools at 1/4 of the retail price. Now the older son has many Snap-on tools and tool boxes, and he works at an auto restoration shop where he uses his tools daily. The younger son owns a school bus company, and has several tool boxes, and tools which he also uses daily. My sons condensed my 5 tool boxes into my Craftsman top and bottom boxes, which is more than adequate for my needs at 78 years old. Some of my tools were from a $ 19.95 tool box & tools, Pennfield brand, that I bought when I was in the army at 18 years old. I still have most of them, and they have held up well.

 

Hello,
Our massive collection of 1959-60 Craftsman Tools, from sockets, to box wrenches, crank handles, to pliers and screwdrivers all went to our niece’s family. They have their own tools, but they are always in the market for a historic brand of tools. Plus, despite the Craftsman Tools being sold and guaranteed for life, Sears is falling by the wayside. They probably know the people still selling Craftsman Tools that still guarantee any defects in the tools.

The last tools I got on the lifetime guarantee was a screwdriver with a slight chip in the edge and they gave me a new one. Then a week later, one of the most used (20 year usage) sockets had some slightly rounded edges and made tightening difficult. The store replaced them with a smile. But, these days, the usage of our drag racing/hot rod building tools does not get the weekly usage as they used to, so off they went to someone who would appreciate the significance.

Jnaki

We did sell our old Craftsman Metal Tool Box with some duplicate tools in it at a neighborhood garage sale. So, now I have a tool bag with only tools necessary to repair something at my granddaughter’s house or something in their garage. “Grandpa can fix it…don’t throw it away”, is a statement heard quite often when our granddaughter was growing up. But, even that tool bag, currently, has some dust settling on top, sitting in a cabinet.

At these later days in our lives, there are other things to do besides crawling under a car or leaning into the engine compartment killing our backs. The local mechanic can fix anything, so he has taken over that statement. “Bring it in, we will fix it for you.” The tools? My wife’s idea is that if I haven’t used a socket or wrench for a month or two, there is nothing else necessary (to buy) to clog up our tool drawers. She has enough trouble to just finding a small Crescent Wrench to tighten up a nut or two. A nut? Me??

Addendum:
In a recent total garage cabinet clean out and replacement adventure, we found these last remnants of the 1959-60 Craftsman Tool kits. They had seen their days being active in the hot rod/drag race builds over the years. The wrenches were in a bunch of odd tools and got completely hidden from sight…(My wife: typical hot rod garage tool hideouts.) But, cleaning out an old box into the new drawers, it was not just dumping the old stuff into the new drawers. This time, it was completely organized and out went the old tools or left overs.

We gave away our original Craftsman stuff from our original 1958-60 tool kit. The niece’s husband had his own modern tools, but liked the old time stuff. The next time we see them, these four will join the other cousins in their tool box or rolling drawer kits.

Found open end and box wrench left overs, still under warranty…After all of these years of bruised knuckles, cuts and usage…they are still viable commodities.

 

I'd need a road map

 

My work toolbox. We have required tool control so all the tools in the box are "foamed" out.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I have different boxes and different tools depending on the job and location. I have 7 top and bottom combinations,all metal, that I use the crap out of, but here are my favorites when there is something precise to be made. I know I have a problem, but I am working on it. LOL.

 

Red Fordson Tool Box with a few odds and ends

 

I cherish my tools and always clean them up and store away in my roll cabs at the end of each days work, maybe I am a bit OCD?? They are mainly Snap on because I used to be a "Snap on Man" . I always found it interesting to see the differences in how guys treated their tools and what they meant to them. I've seen it all, from the obsessive must have the best, to the I don't give a damn.
I had a Aircraft Engineer in his 60's jump up in my truck one day and handed me his 1/4" Snap on ratchet and asked if I could repair it as it was getting loose and sloppy. I said, wow this is old you've had this a while, he then explained that his father gave it to him and he got it during the war. I checked the date stamp and it was a 1944 ratchet that was issued to the services in WW2. I couldn't find a repair kit for it so I said because its so sentimental that I will make sure I find all the parts and repair it for him, he then said "don't bother its only a tool, I don't really care". Well I reached up and picked a brand new 1/4" ratchet and handed it over to him and said here you go I will swap you. He was over the moon and very happy with his new shiny ratchet and I was equally happy with my new beat up ratchet.
On the other end of the scale I had customer that would step into the truck every week a put down a $100 bill on the bench and wander around the truck. Some days he wasn't in the mood so he would ask me to put the money on his tab. He always had to have something new.

 

I bought this box about 35 years ago when I was wrenching for a living. Last summer I scuffed it and sprayed it satin black.


Then I covered the drawer fronts with carbon fiber automotive wrap.



Good for another 35 years...

 

Photo by @Ryan

 

My home toolbox. Pair of Matco 900’s on a base that was marketed by matco back in the late 80’s to turn two bottom boxes into a work station before they made such a thing.

The top is my transmission bench.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

I was wondering, how do you hold your Doughnuts ?

 

Machinists used to like the wooden boxes because they kept moisture away from their precision tools....but the felt lined metal boxes were cheaper in the 70s. At $2.33 an hour as an apprentice, guess which one I bought. Thinking back, I also went to Sears and purchased my first "calculator" and had to make payments on it. Can't remember for sure but seems like it was about $89. Needed it for the apprentice school training. Nice collection!

 

Just picked up this crusty old box at a yard sale for cheap, thinking with a bit of creativity it could turn into a welding cart for the tig..

 

you can never have too many tools,organise