Hand Tools! (Page 2 of 2)

I have an old Snap-On three drawer road type top box, but when I needed more storage I picked up a US General rolling cabinet from Harbor freight, fairly heavy gauge metal, slides seem to be substantial enough, and with a coupon was only about $300, more than enough room for most of my crap, and my boss (wife) did not beat me when she saw the prices of some other cabinets I was looking at.

For hobby use around the house I like it, not a Mac or such but... My 2 cts.

Stu3

The Snap-On vs. Craftsman horse has been beaten to death, but why not put another bullet in it... the real deciding factor between the two is whether or not you will be getting paid to use them.

For power tools, a friend of mine has turned me on to a Hitachi outlet website with excellent prices. I just bought this kit:

http://www.reconditionedsales.com/

For a whopping $144!

18V Li-Ion, 2 batts, cordless drill and impact gun, charger, case, and doofy flashlight.

I haven't used the kit much yet, but its by far the best price out there. The "grade C" stuff looks like it has about a weekend's worth of use on the outer plastics, but brandy spanking new internals. My buddy has been using his stuff for more than a year now, it's holding up great.

Plus (with a few exceptions) most of the stuff comes with a 5 year warranty.

Sure there are better brands/quality stuff out there, but this stuff is a really good value.

I have black-drawer, red side Craftsman boxes with the non-roller slides.  I started with a 10 drawer top box that was a 60% off scratch-n-dent model.  Later I added a discontinued roller unit with six drawers, a tray, a side shelf, and a flip-up door.  Later I added another top, bottom, and middle combination.

I can second that.  I have the same thing, and I'm happy with it.  The casing is more heavy duty than our DeWalt, and it's held up to being used for everything. 

For the hand tools, I was given a large set of Stanley sockets and box/crescent wrenches in addition to my Craftsman.  They're similar in dimension and finish to the snap-on, but don't seem to have the same tolerance for fit as my Craftsman.  While they don't give that elusive 14mm round, they do leave their mark more than the others.  But, they haven't broken or bent after years of use. 

We also have a Hitachi drill, but it's pretty much relegated to house stuff like drywall and wood screws.  I wouldn't expect it to handle much metal.  Even my 19v Craftsman doesn't like more than a couple of hole saw uses on metal.  There just doesn't seem to be a better option than an older drill which uses that ancient power cord when it comes to the metal work.

the problem in that situation isn't so much as safety though as convenience. Most of the jobs I have to do, It would just be an annoying pain in the rump to drag out yer cord, find an open outlet, pull the cord up a ladder, etc just to make maybe 3-5holes, then pack it all back up again. throw the same situation into being in a paddock at some of these tracks where there's no power on site, and you have to drag out the generator too. that $80-$150 cordless power drill starts becoming worth it's weight in gold. That all being said, I got a nice, meaty DeWalt corded drill for making short work of holes in counter tops.

I've had excellent luck with my Craftsman Mechanic's set (335 piece?) that came in an injection-molded plastic box.  Best part about it?  I can look into the drawers and instantly tell if I'm missing a tool/socket/whatever, and I can also easily find them.

Bummer?  When you're out in the desert (sand) and you knock your 1/4" drive drawer over.  Needed a large magnet to find all of the sub 5/16"/8mm sockets.  Grrr.

Also, my "Earthquake" impact wrench from HF is the bomb!  700lb-ft of bolt-snapping torque FTW!  I've also got a HF 220v welder that fuses metal together as well as my buddy's Hobart.

HF sawzall is CRAP.

I've got the HF red tool cabinet and I like it. The drawers slide easily and there's tons of room. The price was good on sale. I haven't been disappointed.