Ultimate Machinists Tool Chest

Thank you Mike. For the record, Sophie and I have 6 children, 4 boys two girls. My oldest daughter is a teacher. My youngest son is a computer programmer. The other 4, 1 girl, 3 boys, are all machinists. My legacy is already there.

"Billy G"
 
My kids have little interest in my hobbies & I don't have a career but just a job. I was wondering the other day when I die if one of them will want my machines or if they will be a burden fit them to get rid of. My oldest has a mechanical interest so I'm sure tools will get passed on. They all have an interest in firearms.

The thing I value the most & hope that will be passed on as long as my name will be is my value of family. My things are just things & have no real value.
 
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If by some chance any of you has a neat story connected to this thread somehow, please feel free to add it to this thread. We are gonna keep this thread as loose as possible.

"Billy G"
 
...not really much of a neat story here...I will just add in "our" Machine shop (Toolroom) with up to around 30 peeps (a "Go fer"/swamper, usually 2 or 3 Apprentices cycling through, Operators, Machinists, Toolmakers and a couple of Programers for the CNC areas)...(mostly a carbide drypress compaction tooling, general Machining and some progressive tooling and injection mold shop...(EDM's, wires, diamond wheels yada yada)... Kennedys held about 90% of the floor box space, a few had nice Gerstner top boxs...and I was the only that had and still have my blue 50+ yr old Huots!!
 
Really, offending someone is not what I'm about, but I fear it might be the case.

Why is it all these "ultimate" tool chests seem to be for woodworkers? I'm not big in woodworking beyond a tablesaw (or skillsaw!)

Machinists get a "stack of drawers". My brown Kennedy boxes and rollaways are just a stack of drawers. Granted, my 50 year old oak Gerstner is a sweet looking stack of drawers, but it's still just a stack of drawers. And for a big stack of rollaway oak drawers, the Gerstner site wants over 8 grand!

Why isn't the ultimate machinist boxes full of robots and and stuff? Okay, fine, if i think it should i oughta go do it, but I don't have much in the way of imagination along those lines. I just think an 'ultimate' machinist box should be far more involved, like a machine, than a woodworker's box.


Wrat
 
I bought my Gerstner tool box back in the 1960s when I was an apprentice, I bought the biggest one they made at that time and filled it, as I was unmarried at the time and had bucks to spare! I think the box cost only $76 at that time, when journeyman wages were about $5 per hour. Mine is made of walnut and is still pretty. I later bought a lower unit to go with it. One thing I did with the upper box was to make a divider of 3/8" thick hard white felt, carefully cut out to separate all my micrometers, so one drawer can safely store all my mikes to 6" and my depth mike with it's rods without getting them dinged up, and also all the standards and adjusting wrenches are provided space nested in the felt.
I never liked metal boxes, in the shop that I apprenticed in and worked in as a journeyman, perhaps 1/3 of the men had wood boxes, the rest metal, and a rough shop, perhaps metal is the better choice, being more durable, but I think fine tools are more at home in wood; the old timers said that metal boxes can sweat and your tools can rust and that there is much less tendency for this to happen in wood.
 
benmychree said:
I bought my Gerstner tool box back in the 1960s when I was an apprentice, I bought the biggest one they made at that time and filled it, as I was unmarried at the time and had bucks to spare! I think the box cost only $76 at that time, when journeyman wages were about $5 per hour. Mine is made of walnut and is still pretty. I later bought a lower unit to go with it. One thing I did with the upper box was to make a divider of 3/8" thick hard white felt, carefully cut out to separate all my micrometers, so one drawer can safely store all my mikes to 6" and my depth mike with it's rods without getting them dinged up, and also all the standards and adjusting wrenches are provided space nested in the felt.
I never liked metal boxes, in the shop that I apprenticed in and worked in as a journeyman, perhaps 1/3 of the men had wood boxes, the rest metal, and a rough shop, perhaps metal is the better choice, being more durable, but I think fine tools are more at home in wood; the old timers said that metal boxes can sweat and your tools can rust and that there is much less tendency for this to happen in wood.
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I hear that benmychree although our Toolroom (Machine Shop) was pretty good temp/humidity controlled over the years (had to be for our tooling for products made) so rust wasn't really a problem for machines and tooling and anybodys "stuff"...Although just in case I kept/keep all my stuff wiped down after use or at least from time to time with a rag that I kept "charged" with Starrett instrument oil (especially now that it's in the garage)....I still plan on pictures here sooner or later of my drawers (Not as perty' as many I've seen with various cut outs in drawers that fit perfectly for their tools from various materials in nice Gerstners, but my box's are still perty' nice, full, with many wood box's and original Starrett, B&S, Mit. box's etc., organized, and efficient...
PS When I 1st started metal out in 74' thru 75', I quit at the jobs I was making $3 to $3.25 an hour to go to the job (where I spent 35 yrs) for $3.65 an hr to start and where I "won" and served my Apprenticeship...and my retireing supervisor gave me my Huot box's (He got new Kennedys) (It was kind of a tradition for retiring guys to give some stuff to the Apprentices when they retired) ...I weren't' married then either, had a 66' GTO and a 36' HD Knucklehead, and an apartment ($59 a month) and all was gooood! LOL
 
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Wrat;

No offence taken. All good questions. The Ultimate Tool Box is what you personally perceive it to be.

Answers:

#1 Wood shows skill. It is also eye pleasing and easier on the tools we have.

#2 We are machinists and tool makers, not robotics technicians. We do what they can't, so no robots in the boxes, we think, the robots don't.

"Billy G"
 
Bill Gruby said:
#2 We are machinists and tool makers, not robotics technicians. We do what they can't, so no robots in the boxes, we think, the robots don't.
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Point taken. But I've worked on a couple of progressive Class A dies that weren't very *far*from robots.

Regardless, it might be an interesting undertaking. What with all the CNC functionality out there, it seems a toolbox could be had that showcases machining instead of woodworking.

Even without CNC, it'd be fitting.

Of course, I tend to selfishly think that woodworkers have much more idle time than a good machinist so they make tool displays. Good machinists have no spare time to be dallying about with fancy casings, so theirs are much more utilitarian.

Wrat
 
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