McLarenblog

This is a type tool organizer that is found in garages to hold auto and home tools.  These are typically two separate units purchased separately and most often married into one push around tool organizing contraption.  A tool chest which typically has two hand holds on either end and can be carried around is placed upon a roll around cabinet that can be treated as a separate tool storage unit device.  The bottom cabinet typically has wheels allowing it to be moved around the garage at will.  Some cabinets come with a hand rail to more easily allow the cabinet to be grasped for movement.

Tool Chest Model: Husky 1000 937 536
26 inch 5 drawer.  Each drawer is held closed by some friction device until opened.  You can only open a drawer if the top lid is lifted.  The whole device can be locked with a key.
Heavy duty
$119.00

Tool Cabinet Model: Husky 1000 937 540
5 drawer.  Each drawer is held closed until opened.  The whole device can be locked with a key.
2 fixed wheels and 2 rotating wheels with ball bearings for wheel pivot.  The two pivot wheels have locks so the cabinet will not slide around the garage.
$179

Total cost for both units with liners was close to $300.
Liners cost extra.  3 thick liners each cost $12.97 = $38.91.  1 thin liner cost $6.97.

This is a “Limited Edition” which I was told by a sales person increases sales  but is nothing special other than the added logo.

This was a surprise birthday gift from my family.  I had been wanting to buy a tool organizer for years but just could not pull the trigger.  I had not yet done my typical Internet research to find out which brands were the best and which were the ones to stay away from.  When I first was given this gift I was torn.   I typically buy good to excellent quality and features which was taken away from me.   I was appreciative that I now had a tool organizer but was it any good?  I got the organizer late at night after a birthday dinner so I had the next day to go over to Home Depot, where the organizer was purchased and look it over.  It seemed smaller than what I think I needed but Internet reviews shared the view that this organizer was a reasonable size which is a good point.  Some tool organizers may require a crane to lift.  The Home Depot web site gave this organizer almost a perfect score (Home Depot owns Husky).  Some of the reviews seemed suspicious.  I got the impression that people with vested interests seemed to write some of the reviews.  Other reviews read more honest and also gave this organizer high score so I felt better about not starting an exchange for a different organizer.

My daughter and I opened the bottom cabinet and attached the wheels.  The wheels and mounting screws seemed impressive.  While I had the cabinet on its back and the wheels on, I oiled the two wheel pivot bearings.  We attached a handle bar that you can use to steer the device around.  There were no problems with this unit.  I did notice that each side of the cabinet end has its metal side ends sticking out a bit which is rather odd and looks cheap and stupid in my opinion.  A person could slide in an art board on any of the 3 sides with these metal wall hooks helping to keep the art board in place.

 

By myself, I pulled the chest out of its box and put it upon the cabinet.  I noticed that the cabinet would rock.  The bottom was not level.  A front metal cabinet tab was incorrectly welded.

I then found that the whole left top side of the cabinet was bent inward.  I could not open the top lid.

 

The box that the chest was pulled from was pristine.  This tells me that the chest was defective when it was placed into the box.  I suspect that quality control is non existent or incompetent.  For this reason, that I do not think Huffy has adequate quality control.   I recommend that you purchase from a local Home Depot store and not the Internet unless you like to perform heavy item returns.   We found our local Home Depot was terrific for handing this return.  The second unit was perfect out of the box so my only next concern was drawer liners.

The drawers do not come with liners.  Most tools are metal.  The drawers are painted metal.  If you like to see that perfect painted drawer surface scratched up, omit the liners.   Husky sells rolls of liner material but I did not like it because the liner material has holes, allowing bad stuff to collect on the top of the metal drawer.  I want a continuous solid liner surface.  Here are my choices:

Tool Chest Liner: Con-Tact Brand Grip Premium Liner, 18 in x 4 ft, non adhesive, black.  Kittrich Corporation.  This is a thinner liner than what I put into the tool cabinet.  I figured smaller lighter tools requires a thinner drawer liner and I thought was a bit cheaper, but not.  It is easier to cut to size.  I did not like this liner because it had a noticeable chemical smell.

Tool Cabinet Liner: Step Guard, Utility Matting, 27 in x 72 in, black, Multy Home, LP, is actually a floor mat with ridges on one side and a flat surface on the other.  I put the ridge side facing up.  I found this at Home Depot part of the store where they sell rugs.  I put one liner on the top of the tool cabinet so the tool chest places on top would not scratch the surface.  I then put this liner in each of the cabinet drawers and some of the chest drawers.  This liner is more expensive than Con-Tac Brand but seems way more rugged.  I did find out that each Step Guard roll end was not cut at a right angle.  I used a framing square and using the blue tape, made sure the end was at a ninety degree angle before making any more measurements and cuts.

I chose black liners so cutting it posed a problem for marking where my cuts should be.  My daughter came up with a terrific, near brilliant, solution.  She said to use the blue painters tape.  I used short pieces to mark where I needed to cut at each end of a liner and then used a long straight strip of tape and pressed it down so one edge of the tape was the cutting edge.  I then cut along the edge of the blue tape.  This worked perfectly.  I guess I should stop telling blond jokes (my daughter is blond).

 

 

Summary:  Finally, the tool organizer seems to be functional. The price is very reasonable.  The drawer liner purchase, cutting and fitting was a bit of a drag but I felt necessary.  Why should a birthday gift come with added work?  As for the device, I am not impressed with Husky.  One might think that sticking Home Depot to deal with defective merchandise is inexcusable but Husky is owned by Home Depot so boom on them.  They, Husky/Home Depot, failed for a list of reasons:

• The first chest front bottom left metal tab was a production mistake.
• The first chest top left side of the chest being bent was a glaring alleged production mistake and should not have been offered for sale.
• The prior two errors should have been spotted and the device should have never been shipped.  My point here is this points to an alleged quality control problem.
• Sticking the customer with detecting the defect and making a store return is inexcusable.

Husky would not be my choice because they allegedly seem to lack product pride and integrity.   Once I received undamaged tool organizers and put liners into them, the whole system seemed to be functional.  The one main plus, as stated before, is price.  These organizers are inexpensive.