Machinist's tool chest

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mickri

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It's that time of year again. My birthday is next month and I have been thinking about getting a machinest tool chest. To be honest I don't thing that I really need one. And money is always an issue. I hate to spend money on something that would be cool to have but may not need. I know of a consignment shop that is selling off stuff from the owner's father's home shop. That's where I got my belt sander and a nice machinist's level. Stuck back in a corner gathering dust is an old metal machinist's tool chest. I briefly looked through it last time I was in and my recollection was that it was in decent shape. They are asking $75 for it. I don't know the brand. Going from memory it has 11 drawers, felt lined and one of the drawers is the perfect size for the machinery handbook and has the handbook. I am trying to figure out what I would store in a machinist's tool chest other than my micrometers and calipers.

What do you guys store in your machinist's tool chest?
 
I have a machinist's tool chest and I think its cool to have drawers sized to hold machinist's tool but to be honest, I think a good standard tool chest with ball bearing drawers is more useful. Even more useful is a good Vidmar that you can line with a soft liner and use dividers to create separate spaces within the drawer. Each draw of a Vidmar can take 400# of weight and still move smoothly. On the other hand, a Vidmar is going to cost you considerably more than $75.00 unless you get lucky.
 
I've sold all my Machinists chests other than the 2 Gerstners that have never seen MY tools . I believe I have had 5 or 6 full Kennedy sets , top , mid and roll arounds . In at work , I now just use the small Vidmar that I added castors to , and a large Kennedy mechanics box on top of that . This combo sits in the shop . I use a Snap On roller cabinet for getting out to the lines .
 
I have my father-in-law's father's original Kennedy 8-drawer that I restored; keep all my small tools for my pen work in it. For the machine tools, I came into a very heavy wooden cabinet that fits perfectly under the Logan's base, with three large open drawers. It came from a shop so already has the marks and patina of use, and it's big enough for everything. All the rest of my tools are in a couple of Craftsman tool boxes and a HF tool bag.
 
I got tired of trying to remember which box/drawer of my many tool /storage boxes had my machinist specific tools in. I see Kenedy and some Gershner etc on CL but but all of them look beat and most were expensive relative to their age and condition. To be honest I've never had a good wood box and never understood the attraction. And like Chuck $$ is an issue. But in a moment of frustration and weakness I broke down and bought a HF Gershner wannabe. I used one of their 20% off deals and got it for like $55. The nice thing is it's small and I could put all my mic's, DI, v blocks, special end mills etc in it. Yeah, the slides are sketchy, but the wood seems to have a stabilizing effect on humidity and I'm not getting the corrosion that was happening in my metal boxes.
 
There's just something about the feel of a wooden tool cabinet and though humidity isn't a huge problem in my shop there's absolutely no sign of corrosion in the one I made.
288455

Greg
 
That is way too nice for tools ! :encourage:
 
Woa, now THAT is a tool chest! Is that a copy of one of the many Gershner designs or your own? I get mixed up after reading the post about the different boxes here the other day between a chest and box but if you are not needing to move it around one without the top lid like yours would have been preferable. Nice job!
 
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