Kennedy - let's bury this dog!

[woodchucker]

Since C-Bag mentioned Waterloo...

When I started my current job back in 1997, the company had a program in place which allowed us to buy tools and boxes from Mac, Snap-on, and MSC on credit and make payments by payroll deduction. The first purchase I made was a Waterloo 14 drawer ball-bearing roll-around... it was $400...

View attachment 461616

About 4 years later, I brought that box home to use and replaced it at work with a new Waterloo 23 drawer ball bearing combo... the bottom was $450, the top was $350...

View attachment 461617

I still own both boxes... they have been good, solid boxes... with a few repairs here and there on the blue one.

However, the last time I checked the price on these, just the bottom box was over $1400...! They aren't worth that... not by a long shot...

As far as the Kennedy boxes... I have two roll-arounds and two upper boxes... I have a grand total of $200 in all four... they are very useable, but I agree that they are not worth what they cost new. They are designed to be a light duty box.

-Bear

so the inflation calculator agrees with you. They are double the inflation rate. They are proud of their products.
In my opinion, the snap on are THE most overpriced pieces cabinetry. The vidmars, and listas are a better value.

 

[Dabbler]

Lista cabinets are almost unheard of in Canada....

 

[GeneT45]

I forgot about Vidmar and Lista (because I own neither...). I always hear about people getting good deals on those, but I never find them myself. Of course the guys I know who have been most successful at it are those that haunt the government auction boards daily. I would love Vidmars, but at this point I probably have as many toolboxes as I have room for.

@Dabbler - My Kennedy boxes have seen extremely light use. I don't stack them with tools. Probably the heaviest drawer I have is the one that holds Machinery's Handbook. They've never been abused and they're in a relatively clean environment. Which is to say, they should still function 'like new' in my opinion. From the sound of it, yours may be older than mine and I *assume* that they must have been much better than my examples at some point, or they wouldn't be valued by so many.

GsT

 

[mmcmdl]

The last auction I attended was up at Tool and Die Specialties . One guy bought 32 Vidmars and they were not cheap . I figured I could pick up a few being there were so many . No deal . I couldn't keep up with the bidders online . HGR has quite a few on their site .

hgr vidmars - Google Search

www.google.com

 

[woodchucker]

The last auction I attended was up at Tool and Die Specialties . One guy bought 32 Vidmars and they were not cheap . I figured I could pick up a few being there were so many . No deal . I couldn't keep up with the bidders online . HGR has quite a few on their site .

hgr vidmars - Google Search

www.google.com

Problem is the resellers also want them. Some clean them up, but some just charge more for poor condition.
I saw a good deal in CA on ebay, but it would have been too much to ship.. Those boxes are heavy. They had a whole yard full of them outside. They were gone quickly, so I assume a reseller bought them.. Even though they were kept outside.. and CA had a lot of rain this year.

 

[mmcmdl]

If I could find a local place that had them available , I would trade my large ones for small ones . I'd take the wheels off the HF rollers and stack them on top of the Vidmars .

 

[Aaron_W]

I've been curious about the draw of Kennedy boxes. I've not been impressed with the ones I've seen, they lack the visual appeal of a wood Gerstner, and the ones I've seen never seemed all that great.
I just assumed the used ones I've seen were old, and used up. The few times I've seen new ones in a hardware store I thought maybe they were the bottom tier of what the offer.
Judging by the bulk of the responses maybe I was wrong and they just aren't that great.

I do think HF offers a very good value when it comes to tool storage options. I've looked at many of the "garage grade" tool boxes, Husky, Milwaukee, Craftsman and US General seems several steps above the rest. Even their cheaper Yukon brand seems at worst equal.
The HF wood tool chest is no Gerstner, but for $70 it is nice for small tools. I got one from the scratch and dent shelf for $50 to keep my model tools in. I couldn't find any scratches or dents, so the discount seems to have gone towards not having a box to throw away.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

The advantage I see with Kennedy metal boxes/chests over others are the shallower drawers: the crappy slides that Kennedy uses makes these slim drawers possible aiding in single-layer organization. Ball bearing slides are heavier duty but take up a lot of space so deeper drawers.

Gerstner boxes also have simple “slides” and shallow drawers (and are beautiful).

I have a really nice roller base here at work with the roller guides and the damn drawers will not stay shut.

Truck goes by, drawers open.

I eat lunch, drawers open.

Apprentice farts up the shop so bad I have to bang his head off the wall, drawers open.

Beautiful box otherwise.


ETA: I priced a new mid box the other day thinking I might buy one vs begging my boss or engineering for more storage, $750 ish.

Brought my knee pads in today, gonna go begging.

 

[pontiac428]

Boeing liquidates through a local auction house (Ehli cyberauctions) and feeds Vidmars to the market steadily. I watched the auctions long enough to see shill bids and re-lists, it seems they control their prices so that no Vidmar will be sold for less than $400, even if it was sucked through an engine on a jumbo jet. So even though I am close to a Vidmar fountainhead, it seems that I still have to cry if I want one.

My dad gave me a rebadged 7 drawer Kennedy chest that I used to hold my tools while waiting for the flashing green button shift after shift at the CNC shop before I joined the Army. It is secure and it locks. I still use it for stuff I don't access regularly. Everything else is in those decent US General boxes. I keep my pocket knife collection in a early-run 9 drawer Gerstner International. Nice box, same story about being good for what it is good for.

Can't really lump all these tool boxes into the same category. Light duty is light duty. A mechanic's box should hold drawers full of lead, but you can't expect the same out of what was meant to be a men's jewelry box for holding fine instruments.

 

[matthewsx]

In my old shop I had a Vidmar style box, forget the name now but when it was loaded I needed my forklift to move it. I got it from the place I used to work after it had fallen over and broken some of the drawer fronts.

It was nice, and great for stuffing lots of stuff into. But, very easy to spend 20 minutes looking for a smaller tool because of all the stuff in the drawers.

If I ever hit the lotto I'll have a shop big enough to get one of them Vidmar workbenches for each machine tool like a real shop. Until then it'll be new HF boxes, and used everything else.

As I get older I find I have less tolerance for searching through drawers for tools, I tend to keep some empty drawers to make organization easier.

John