It now seems to be common to see wheeled tool chests in both pro and private garages usually with a further drawered tool box sitting on top.
Halford have inexpensive sets, their proffesional sets with ballbearing runners, did not look that strong to me and their industrial sets which to be honest did not feel that much heavier on inspection. I did get a Halfords tradecard off then that lowers prices on these items.
MachineMart have their Clarke Mechanic set which is their entry level and their HD set which from a WEB inspection appear to be a bit heavier but as yet I have not seen them in the flesh.
At the local garage today the mechanics all have large SNAPON cabinets at around £2,500.
I have loads of tools and would consider myself a heavy private user, not a proffessional user but having a two post lift as you can guess there are a lot of guest cars turning up and using the tools.
I want something that will last say 15 years and by that time I will let the motor trade take over the car maintenace.
Has anyone purchased this type of kit in the past few years.
I have the Halfords prof toolchest for around 6 years now and find it excellent. The only downside is that on mine the top hinges up to give further storage space, but I always have so much stuff stacked on top I cannot use it.
I have the base and the larger cabinet, not the 3 draw in the link below;
When I went looking for mine, (See Photo)there was a lot to choose from, nearly all the tool shop carried them. Mostly they all have ball bearing draws and good quality roller wheels.
brand name does not mean a lot, as a lot are made in the same factory and rolled out as different brands for different stores.
Mine was on special and was around AUD$450.
I know this was in Australia, but should be no different in UK
I started looking at Snap-on, but ended up with machinemart (i.e. Clarke) tool chest kit, similar to image above but much better value than SO in my opinion for the non-pro tech. Heavy Duty with ballbearing runners. 15 years later kit looks /works like new. Check out here
Big thumbs up for the Halfords Pro stuff. I have a stack of three up in the workshop, and a top chest on a smaller unknown one in the garage.
The garage pair I've had for 18yrs now, including four working part time in a BMW bike workshop.
Good quality with a good guarantee and if you catch them right like I did two years ago, all three for about 35% of the advertised price..!!
Loads of stuff out there, not always reflecting the price in the quality stakes either..
Try many, choose one.
I can second Halfords Pro range, i bought a set 15 years ago and still as new bar the dust. I brought mine when they had an offer on which made them excellent value for money.
Sealey retro in cream looks fabulous - Ive got a mixture of ONS. A snap-on top case and my old industrial drawers below.
The Halfords professional range is really good and well priced and everyone tells me how good Costco kit is but l can't say not having a card to get in the place.
I bought a Machine Mart Clarke tool chest set for the eldest son a good few years when he was tinkering on his bike and kept wanting to borrow my tools
Can't recommend the quality of some of the tools - the screw drivers and pliers being pretty poor but the chest itself was and is still is going strong
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