Tool Storage

W

Whitewash

Member
This section has been quiet of late so i thought id start a discussion.

how do you store your tools in the garage?

At the moment i dont have any storage at home because being mechanical i keep my tools at work! ive got a halfords industrial roll cab (cost me £230 on trade which cant be beaten for a decently made roll cab, id love a snap on box but you pay too much of a premium for the name (as you do with 90% of the snapon range) although the choice of box sizes, colours etc is unrivalled.

Lista cabs are where its at but again above my current financial standing, they are well made, durable and just generally really good.


When i do need to bring tools home I have a small spider briefcase style box which is all laid out with socket rails and clips for tools, a hangover from my time as a rally mechanic where everything needed to be easy to hand.


so what have you!? boards, boxes expanding cases or even a carrier bag full of tools!
 
Whitewash said:
Lista cabs are where its at but again above my current financial standing, they are well made, durable and just generally really good.
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I'll agree with that! I've got one, and TBH they knock anything else (Including Snap-On) into a cocked-hat. Mine is an 8 drawer rollcab, with a max capacity of 200kg per drawer! One tip, don't allow it to roll over your toe.
I could have got you a good used one for what you paid for the Halfords one.
 
I had a bolt fall down the back of my lista at my old work, the only way to get into it was to holesaw a section out of the top to get a magnet down to pull the bolt out, thats security and a half, unlike things like duras where a couple of screws has the back off it!

ill have listas when i get my own garage, at work the halfords one does fine for me, it'll get bashed to buggery when it gets loaded into the van so its not an issue!
 
You guys have it made, I'm a plumber so at the moment working on My car with my plumbing tools and bits of old spanners I have had for years. Building my car tools up slowly though. Where do I keep my limited collection Er in my kitchen oh how I wish for a garage. Count your blessings you never had it so good. By the way is their a socket made to remove all spark plugs from a V8. I have to use 3 different ones to get to all the plugs. So annoying
 
The tool supplied to remove spark plugs on a V8 is a box spanner
You may get away with a socket set plug spanner but you'll need to grind away the outside so it fits in the recess in the head
 
Hi, I have an old box spanner with an old 3/8 drive socket welded
in the end. I know it sounds horrible but it does the job perfick!!

Colin
 
Yep, Snap-on stuff is very expensive. I am lucky enough to have a few Span-on spanners and sockets (nearly all metric unfortunately). They were given to me cos there was no way I could justify the price for home DIY mechanics. They are good tools though & I can understand why the trade guys use them. I know one or two mechanics who are happy to pay the premium as they come with a lifetime warranty - if you break it or wear it out the Snap-on man will just excahnge it no questions asked.

Recently I have bought some Halfords Professional sockets which seemd OK. Not the best but the quality seemed good for the money?

In terms of storage, I have to keep two tool boxes - one metric and one imperial, otherwise I would get in a right muddle! I have certainly found that it pays dividends to keep tools well stored and properly organised. I hate it when I go to do a job and spend most of the time searching for the right tool. What I hate most of all is when I find I have lost something like a 19mm 1/2" socket, so I buy another one. Of course, what's the first thing you stand on lying on the garage floor when you go to put the new socket in the tool box? Yes, the 19mm socket you "lost" the other day. :twisted:
 
You know you've got too many tools when you go out and buy a torques bit set, only to find exactly the same set already in one of your toolbox drawers !

not that I've done that, obviously....... :oops:
 
DaveHerns said:
Very expensive too, no doubt !
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Yes, they are, but sometimes a good quality, expensive tool to get a specific task done is a worthwhile investment, because after you have bought the cheapie, had it turned down/ground/welded/whatever to make it work, you may as well have bought the more expensive one and got on with the job.

I am a helicopter mechanic by trade and have amassed quite a collection of tools from Snap-On to Kennedy and with the exception of my Craftsman stuff, all are perfectly acceptable for use. The Craftsman spanners/wrenches are a bit weak on the open part and my 1/4" and 9/16" have opened up under load.
 
webmaster said:
You know you've got too many tools when you go out and buy a torques bit set, only to find exactly the same set already in one of your toolbox drawers !

not that I've done that, obviously....... :oops:
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When I was fitting a kitchen, I needed some pin punches so went to B&Q (it was a Sunday)

On entering the place, I spotted a 200 piece drill bit set which included 40 odd screw driver bits, HSS bits, masonry bits etc for £40.00. As there were around 50 of these sets, I went off to find the pin punches, and thought that I would buy one of these sets on the way out - didn't want to carry it round B&Q. I eventually found some after half an hour of looking for them, then a further half an hour looking for someone who knew what a pin punch was, and where they were.

When I got home, I had a good look at the drill bit set, and was very pleased, until I saw that there were 4 pin punches in there :shock: :twisted:

Richard
 
200 piece drill bit set which included 40 odd screw driver bits, HSS bits, masonry bits etc for £40.00
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Sometimes the stuff you get in these sets is of reasonable quality - especially if it is just for occasional DIY use or when you don't want to abuse your good tools. What amazes me is how the stuff can be produced, transported and then reatailed so cheaply? £40/200 = 20p per bit! Even if the items are being knocked out in a sweat shop by someone on $20 per month, how can they sell the stuff so cheap? It's the benfit (or downside, depending on how you look at it) of mass production, capitalism and the "throw away" consumer society. If you think I have deviated from the original topic, fear not........ At such low prices, you don't need tool storage. Just use the tool once and then throw it away !:D
 
What about the oldest tools in use ? I'm 58 and still have a junior hacksaw I had in junior school to make balsa wood models
Makes it 50 years old and I have other tools 40 years old
 
My dad bought me a Yankee screwdriver when I started my apprenticeship in 1976. I still have it and use it today. Now that's good value
Have had the same yard brush for 15 years. It's had 5 new heads and 3 handles in that time though :D
 
Still have a 1/2" homemade spanner that my father gave to me when I was a boy. It came from his father who worked in the Clyde & Belfast shipyards. I still use on 1/2" copper pipe compression fittings.
 
I have some Moore and Wright bearing scrapers and other tools my Dad had, and as he started to served his time at a garage specialising in Rolls Royce, Daimler and Minerva in 1934.... They are fairly old and still work, although I haven't scraped a bearing for many years.
 
I have a screw driver in regular use that I think dates from the late 1800's, I found it under the floor boards of an old shed in the first house I owned when I pulled up the floor to renovote it, the house was built about 1906 and the shed the same, the only way the screw driver could have got there was in the sheds origional construction. It was in 1983-4 that I found it and it was immeadiatly cleaned up to new looking condition (it still has the origional wood hand grip side peices) and has been in use ever since mostly to adjust my chainsaw blade tension as it is a perfect fit for the adjuster :D
Maybe I should take a picture and put it up for posterity 8)

Next on the list would be some of the tools I got from my late father many of which would date to the 30's and 50's

Graeme
 
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