Modular Tool Boxes

[RunForTheHills]

I travel back and forth between my job in Northern California and my home in Southern California. I have a lot of tools spread across half a dozen tool bags and some more molded set cases. I also have a 40 year old Craftsman rolling tool chest in my garage. Because my tools are so spread out, it is getting hard to keep track of where a particular tool is. Does anyone have experience with the new(ish) modular tool boxes being sold these days? After spending some time researching them, I feel like this system could work for me if I use a PTouch labeler to mark the drawers. It seems that Milwaukee Packout is the industry leader, but has some issues. After spending a little time researching them, I think the Klein Modbox drawer boxes may work the best for me. Or maybe this is overkill and I just need to reorganize my tool bags.

 

[stompandgo]

Although the shop that I work in has every tool imaginable, when I'm going to be working on bikes, I bring my own tools. I looked into the Packout, Klein, Husky, Ryobi, and Dewalt modular tool cases at the time. I concluded that I had too much weight to haul around in one container, wheels or not. I ended up with two large Hercules (Harbor Freight) tool bags and two Rugged fabric rollup bags. One bag has mechanical tools (hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers, etc.) and the other has bike specific tools. They are easy to carry with the load split, and if I'm in my basement shop, I only need the bike specific tools down there. The rollups are organized by tool or function type, which makes it just as fast to find as a modular toolbox with drawers.

YMMV.

 

[RunForTheHills]

Weight is definitely a concern. But the modular design sort of solves that. I have basic tools at both locations and only tend to carry a few specialty tools back and forth. My main objective is getting more organized. My bike specific tools are in two bags because those bags are fairly small. And some of the larger tools that I don't use very often are in a plastic box in the garage. Like the wheel stand and the dishing tool. I could get a large bag to hold all of them (except the larger tools). However, things like allen sockets, screw drivers, and wrenches are in an entirely different bag. My wire and soldering kit is in its own bag, but the diagonal cutters and needle nose pliers are with my standard tools. Mostly. Once in a while I put them away in the electronics bag.

I want to buy it, but I am trying to justify it in my head (and to my wife in the near future). It's probably about $600 to get the modular tool boxes though. I don't use the tools professionally much anymore, and I have a small kit with the tools I need for work. So if it takes me five minutes to find the tool I need, it is frustrating but not something that costs me money. I used to own a business (IT consulting), where I could have easily justified it and wrote off the purchase.

 

[stompandgo]

Don't ask me what my race official's bag looks like. It's a disaster. Completely unorganized. Takes forever to find anything. I have no good solution for it.

 

[Base]

since moving form a house with a separate workshop/bikeshed (6 meters of workbench with dito wall-toolspace) with 2 workstands and one bike hoist.... to an apartment I had to re-arrange the tool collection. So my main tools are now on a small wallboard in the utility room (eg, wash-, sparebed-, second officeroom) which also service as an indoor workshop for clean-er work... and I use besides the wallboard near the backdoor (so I have the tools at hand when working in the backgarden) two tool boxxes for the lesser used tools and a stanley tool trolley system

the one with the three drawers.
Works fine, tools are organized, the trolley can be split in three separate parts and with the heavy tool in the lowest part the trolley is very stable, I can put the wheel truing stand on it to work on wheels.

What I really mis is a proper bench vise... so currently working with some clamps or a small portable vise for lighter work.