I’m thinking about buying a toolbox for a young guy who enjoys working on his car (1980s vintage), but will probably be living in a succession of apartments and houses over the next five years.
Currently he lives in an uncle’s house and works on his machine in the street, in the driveway, and occasionally in the one-car garage. His tool are mostly from Harbor Freight and are scattered (somewhat) around the garage. I’m not a car guy myself, so I’m not sure if there’s an ideal toolbox style for a guy who will moving around and doing repair work in less than ideal settings.
My inclination is toward a big,cantilevered steel box; 22” or so. But maybe a small multi-drawer unit would be better — he could put it atop his massive wheeled tool chest when he finally settles down.
my thoughts are to tell him what you want to buy for him, what your (his) budget is, and then let him pick it out.
he’ll appreciate it either way, it’ll just work out for the best if her chooses it.
that way he’s more likely to like it and use it, not use it because his uncle got it & he kinda has to. and if he ended up not happy with his choice, it’s all on him.
I’m a mechanical type that’s had mechanical hobbies & mechanical jobs my whole life. I’ve got tons of tools. many well intentioned people have tried to purchase tools (or related) things for me many times over the years (for holidays, birthdays, appreciation, etc… ), rarely did it hit the mark.
and if you must buy something for him, and you love him, get him a good hydraulic jack & jack stands (if he doesn’t have a good set) and make sure he knows to never, ever get under a car without it being properly supported.
A big tool box with everything in it can weigh a great deal, so my theory is to have multiple tool boxes which carry a more specialized category of tools, so each tool box filled with its category is lighter. So you might consider getting two or three simpler tool boxes (not the fancy cantilevered tool box you are thinking of). Thus wrenches in one box, carpentry tools in another–whatever.
That’s sort of what I was thinking. I have an ok sized tool bag from Home Depot. I could really use a bigger one, but the one I have right now in my trunk, is really friggen heavy. And if I toss a drill and some other tools in it, it’s gotta be pushing 30+ pounds.
Now, if he’s an mechanic and just going to be keeping things like box wrenches and meters and stuff in it, it’s probably fine. But a big tool box like that, loaded up with heavy tools, is almost meant to stay in one place. Either in a workshop or in a pick up truck.
Another thing to consider is that it’s bit personal. By that I mean, a tool box like that wouldn’t work for me. I need one with a soft sided one with an open top and a shoulder strap. I need to keep my ‘normal’ stuff in it, but toss big/random things in there when I need to without having to try to close it. For others, that one would be perfect.
As others said, find out what he wants, get that for him. Ask him to pick one out or take him shopping. Even get him a gift card for a local store that has a nice selection and tell him you want him to spend it on a nice tool box/bag.
You probably wouldn’t want someone to buy a new wallet for you, he might not want someone to buy a toolbox for him.
OTOH, it’s entirely possible he’s not as picky as I am. I’ve been in the market for a new/second tool bag for like two years and still haven’t seen one I like.
ETA, depending on how much you’re willing to spend, he may got a lot more use out of a (properly sized) air compressor. That’ll go a long way if he’s working on old cars and if you keep your eyes open you can find some halfway decent deals. Just make sure it’s big enough and puts out enough CFM to drive those air hungry tools.
I’ve got a few from veto pro pac and i like them quite a bit. a little spendy (several hundred dollars), but durable.
read the reviews though. my bags are years old & just fine. I seen to remember a few people complaining about the zippers on one or a few of their newer models.
You really can’t go wrong with Craftsman tool bags. If you want to be really nice, get him a cordless impact wrench. Working on cars became much more enjoyable and productive once I finally sprang for one.
For years I was in the same boat, I lived in base housing and also had to transport my tools to friends’ houses and racetracks, so a cart wasn’t a good option. I lived out of an older equivalent of this 26" Craftsman box. It was great because it’s long enough to fit breaker bars/torque wrenches/pipe extensions in it, but small enough that I could carry it around and throw it in the trunk if I needed to be mobile. I had some other bags for tools I used less often but I could basically replace an engine with everything I had in that box. If you want to be helpful, you can also get him some tool storage options to keep everything organized inside it – there’s roll up bags for wrenches, those modular sticks that you attach sockets to, and I found that having a bunch of various sizes of zippered canvas bags kept everything much neater.
I’m sure he’ll make good use of any tool/box bag you give him. Guys with tools usually have multiple tool boxes and even when he gets a big tool chest some day he’ll still need to pack up a smaller box with tools to carry some day.
A gift certificate is always nice but if you do give him some kind of tool box he’ll probably remember that for a long time. I think people tend to remember the gift certificates but not necessarily what they purchase with them so much.
Unless you really understand the tools he has and the ones he uses most often, I’d go with the gift card and let him know that you were thinking a tool box may be useful but didn’t know exactly what he needed. A toolbox to a mechanic is kind of like a glove to a baseball player - very difficult to buy for someone else and get it exactly right.
Any time I use something cantilevered it seems to tip over more than once. The ground is either never flat enough, I kick it, or I remove the wrong heavy tool from one side. Splitting tools up into smaller boxes or bags seem to work out as I can take the usuals in one bag and not lug about the once a month items.