Thanks for the feedback. I have an old Waterloo, and an older way more beat up Snap On that’s too big for the spot.
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They’re both at work and both have wonky drawer slides.
How old? Old enough (or cheap enough) to have friction drawer slides, or are they ball bearings? If they're bearings, condition is everything. If they're friction slides, ASSUMING the overaggressive friction pinch on the 27 inch US General wears in some, you'll be in heaven the slide department.
I've got 3 brands of boxes. All are of similar construction and perfectly fine for my use. Minor considerations: I like to label drawers, older Craftsman had no provision, older HF had slotted pulls with clear slide-in covers but no retention mechanism and they constantly slid part way out.
That's a valid consideration that I had not thought of. At work, I've never considered labeling the tool boxes, as 35 years of working out of the same box and later boxes, I don't have to remember why I even walked over to the box, a muscle memory that'll open the right drawer to remind me. When I'm at home... When I'm at home- That 5 drawer cart has ONE place you can put a label and still see it from arms reach, and that position implies the wrong drawer..... That's a valid frustration point.
The series 3, 27 inch one I'm working on, that has options. Gotta be label maker stickies, but they can sit on top of the handle or on the drawer front, and be seen from a "comfortable" distance, and make sense.
The mechanism that holds the drawers locked requires the bottom drawer to be a deeper one. (like they come) But I wanted that deeper drawer up higher in the stack. Which can be done since the guides are on a modular system. BUT putting a shallow drawer in the bottom location doesn't allow it to be reached by the lock bar. Newer HF fixed the sliding out problem of the labels. But they reversed the up-down relationship of the key from prior models. (still works fine but why?)
You mean the "clocking" of the barrel lock? That can be fixed. I did. I've got no less than eight locks at work. 3 keyed alike MAC boxes (a maximizer and hutch that's 34 years old, and an MB1700 that's 44 years old), three keyed alike cabinet locks on my work bench storage bench/cabinet/peg board rack that I built because I ran out of tool box money, and two HF barrel locks, one on a 5 drawer cart, one on a Home Depot Milwaukee top box that sits on a Mac box. ALL of them (even when it's wrong), ALL of them turn the same way.
Modifications: Took the end handles off the ones I rarely move to save space. Put ¼" melamine coated panel on top of one cabinet for easier cleaning rather than the rubber mat. On the newest cabinet I made a laminated 1¼ thick white oak top that hangs over one end to give me a clamping area. It is located by grooving the bottom to fit over the small ledges of the back & ends.
My 27 inch box is headed to work to replace the 5 drawer cart. The requrement for the top to be open to get at the drawers does not work for me. I want a work space. The only "mod" I did to that cart was to put 4 swivels on it. It's good, and well thought out. It didn't need "mods", it just wasn't the right form factor for what I wanted. I thought it "might" be the one, but wasn't. It was a gamble, and I knew it, I bought it in my "at home" color, not my work stuff color. Big change, as I worked the previous 15 or so years off a 2foot by 4 foot wooden cart, two tray type shelves.It was good, and did what I built it for, but time moved on and I wanted, then needed drawers. Plus as the equipment gets bigger, space gets tight, and that thing was huge.
So I'll be swapping those casters from the cart to the 27 inch box as I unload the one and load the other. They're not the same as the tool box, but they take the same pattern, and the caster offset is slightly less, so less tipsy if I don't clock the wheels before I open all the drawers at once.
Outside of that- this tool box, to make it a cart, is getting a side tray from the cart line, (It does NOT fit...), the spray can tray (that doesn't fit either), some foldaway hooks for the tire spoons, big prybar, that sort of thing. I have energy chain, SJOOW, a solid and CONVENIENTLY mountable USB/120 volt power strip, everything except the backwards receptacle, and I'm CONSIDERING (not as sure as I first was) so their might be a charging drawer down at the bottom. And a couple of swingaway hooks for the tire irons, big pry bar, the "real"torque wrench, all that four and five foot stuff that isn't out enough to have a home on the cart, but needs a place to sit when it is.
Cool accidental discovery- My stuff at work is built to work. Perfect does not bother me. This tool box is green. (That's my color at work for anything that's new enough to have a color option). I went to my shelf for some (any) green spray paint (I don't care) to cover up the first "improvements". Pretty sure I had some John Deere green, but I don't. Honestly, the "flugget" though had already crossed my mind, and I was deciding what I had extra of, deciding between John Deere Yellow or Ford Blue, (you really have to understand how much I just don't care, the appearance of my cheap tool storage is not an issue. These are a functional piece to me, I take pride in their function). But there in the archives, I've got long forgotten can of Snap On extreme green touchup..... (Not original finish, touch up in a spray can). Dead nutz... Gotta be careful, it wants nothing more than to run on the finish they put on the harbor freight box, but when it dries..... Bam. That's the one. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but there it is. You can buy tiny spray cans of touch up paing for forty bucks each to fix up a price point tool box...
Observations: I don't need any more roll-around-storage cabinets but I still look at the displayed ones. A newer "feature", on some brands, is "self closing" drawers. They require quite a bit of extra initial pullout force to cock the return feature. I don't think I'd like to have to pull harder each time I had to open a drawer. I don't need help to close a drawer.
I both agree AND disagree. Rolling things, I kinda like the "passive" lock they give you. Friction or self closing. It's wrong, dangerous, and morally reprehensible, but sometimes I don't close it all up and lock the drawers before I release the brakes (that I always set fo course.....) It's kinda nice in that use case. For stationary storage that "could" be moved but it's not gonna? Yeah, I hate 'em. Although, the "self closing" type? I got those in the heap o crap Milwaukee/Home Depot top box. (Which I bought when they introduced it at the introductory price, six months later I would NEVER have paid that price for a cheeze grade heap o' crap box). It's a nice cushion when you push the drawers shut. Poorly organized stuff like the little connector depinning "screwdrivers", fuse test point adapters, loose pins for repairing connectors, all that little stuff doesn't shift around when I ask the new kid to grab me something... That soft close part is kinda nice.
The bottom line though is that what works for the owner is what works for the owner. Buying tool boxes at the prices these are going for, It's not a matter of finding a perfect tool box, it's about finding the one with compromises that you can happily live with, otherwise you're just getting by....
