Sunday, September 25, 2011

Tools

My hand tools were split between four small toolboxes and a small bureau (the American thing with drawers, not the European thing with a writing surface). When working on my last project, tracking down the exact tool I needed when I needed it was a PITA. So when Cheap Chinese Tool Place sent me an email with a coupon for this thing for $150, I jumped at it. Needless to say, it swallowed the complete contents of those small toolboxes with no problem, as well as the two drawers of the bureau that were filled with hand tools as vs. things like a collection of light bulbs, random hardware, etc. Too bad the section on the bottom isn't big enough to fit my travel toolbox (the one that goes in my Jeep to fix anything that breaks while I'm offroading), but at least it's big enough for my tap/die sets and my backup socket wrench set.

-- Badtux the Tool Penguin

8 comments:

  1. Was a master mechanic for many years, now, as often as not, I pack my tools around in a plastic bucket.

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  2. Now you'll have to buy more tools to fill it up. I just wish I could get all of the tools I've accumulated through the years into one tool box. My hope is that after I die that my wife will sell all of my tools (and camera equipment) for what it's worth and not what I told her I paid for it.

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  3. Dave, sad to say, it's already full, other than that compartment at the very bottom. Now I know why I had so many little toolboxes (eep!).

    BBC, I basically treat the toolbox that goes in my Jeep like a big bucket, it's just a bunch of pouches with writing on them to tell me what's in them tossed into a toolbox the exact right size to fit behind the passenger seat lengthwise. The only loose tools are the big ones that are easy to see. I know someone who does the same thing with a duffel bag, because it molds to the shape of the Jeep better than a rigid hunka plastic. My main problem is one of geometry -- getting everything to fit into the Jeep that needs to be in the Jeep when I'm off-roading and / or camping. I've finally arrived at a selection of containers that fit exactly behind my front seat, and a bucket isn't one of them, too tall and too round.

    - Badtux the Tool Penguin

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  4. Ohhh, tool porn!

    You just stepped off the cliff onto a never ending slippery slope son.

    I got to visit my tools yesterday, they are at my folks in a shed.
    3 full sized roll aways, completely full.
    It would cost me over a hundred grand to replace them at this point, I have been collecting them for thirty years.

    I have little quarter inch drive Snap On wobbly sockets that cost 35 bucks apiece.
    Screw drivers that cost 25 bucks, each.

    Good on ya, one thing that is so nice is that you aren't digging through a bunch of stuff trying to find that one wrench ya need any more.

    BTW, I still have my first little Craftsman roll away that is just about the same size as your new one, after thirty years and being dropped out of the back of a truck multiple times.


    I won't give it up just for nostalgic reasons.

    Bustednuckles, the tool whore.

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  5. An infinite number of toolchests wouldn't hold mu husband's tools; they breed at night, or whenever he visits the local hardware store. However, that's just an observation, not a criticism; he could very well say the same about my beads.

    Karen the Beader

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  6. Nucks, some folks, when they go to visit, go to visit relatives. Takes a special kinda person who goes to visit his tools when he's in a mood to visit. I like :). BTW, this toolbox is bigger than the photo makes it look. The top is roughly even with the bottom of my neck.

    Karen, that toolbox doesn't hold *all* my tools. There's some in the toolbox that goes in my Jeep, then various other tools that don't fit, like all the electric tools and their respective bits / blades / etc. , or the three foot long crescent wrench, or the three foot long pipe wrench, etc. etc.

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  7. See?
    I told ya, Slippery slope my friend.
    BWAHHHAAAAAHHAHA!
    Ya already need a bigger box.

    Welcome to my world friend.

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  8. Yeah, well, apparently I was already there, I just didn't know it ' cause I didn't have all my tools in one place. As I organize and re-arrange things I'm finding stuff I forgot I ever had 'cause it was scattered all over creation, heh!

    - Badtux the Organizing Penguin

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