discomikey Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Hi All, for a while i have been umming and arring, looking at a larger toolbox to replace my (good, but full, and not manly enough) halfords pro rollcab and topchest. one of the brands that kept popping up over and over again more than any other brand, was US Pro. not to be confused with U.S. General pro, or sealey's American Pro. I had, however never, ever seen one of these toolboxes in the flesh, at any shop or workshop i have ever visited. loads of great ebay reviews, but not even any youtube videos of the brand. The prices seem extremely hard to beat. SO. to cut a long waffle short. i decided to dip my toes in the water by making this purchase - a service cart with a couple of drawers (which is the correct spelling by the way, but still looks massively wrong to me). i wanted a service cart for a while now because i was fed up of doing jobs on opposite sides of the car and then forgetting the tools, or not having enough hands to move them all from one side to the other. i looked for a short while at these on ebay, origionally at those red 3 shelf tin things which IMO would do the job but be very rattly across my very bumpy cattle shed spec workshop floor so something with a bit more quality was a MUST. These go for around £130 on a buy it now, but i got mine in an auction from the same distributor for £80 including shipping- there was a blue one for less but i wanted it in black and DEFINATELY not red as the red on toolboxes just seems to fade so fast. so i got a little over excited towards the end of the auction and ignored the blue one because i didnt want blue, and i wanted it to arrive home before me at the weekend. (i had let one the same go the day before at £97 as i didnt want to pay that) ANYWAY - thats me cutting a long waffle short. I paid up all excited, and got home at the weekend to find it had not arrived, i suspected it may not but was hopeful, meanwhile my £30 brand new engine stand had. but thats a different waffle. but that was a bargain!!! upon opening (the weekend after) i had to assemble it partly. the legs and undertray needed fitting along with the castors and the handle. only 10 mins work. the castors are the hard plastic type and not the greatest ever, also only 2 are swivel which i expected, as thats what most come with, although 4 swivel castors would be nice. - one day i may replace these castors with some decent quality all swivelling castors purely because it will follow me round the workshop and needs to be manouverable but smooth(ish) i dont like unnessecary noise. so some nice soft rubber castors would be good. The drawers (Still doesent look right) have a little catch on the right hand side of each pull, which is really good and there seems to be a rubber buffer behind the drawers so there is always some tension on the catches meaning the actual drawers themselves cant rattle. I really enjoy these features! although they dont come with the thin foam liner like the halfords box did, it did have a rubber mat for the top, which has raised edges (by about 1") which are a great idea as they arent too deep but stop things rolling off!!! ball bearing runners (of course - i cant be dealing with those friction slides they do my nut in!) and it is really sturdy, especially considering the legs and undertray are bolt-on. Pictures: overall view: top view: the catch thing which is awesome: having now removed my 1/2" drive socket set from the very top of my (now pink) top chest, i have a permanent space for my workshop laptop (before i was moving it out the way every time i wanted 1/2" driveness) this now lives in the top drawer of the service cart, along with the drain plug key set and some other tools will follow when i work out what is best living in which box. - waffling again - i drilled a hole, then cut the top out as a slot for my laptop power cable, which i glued a grommet onto so now it is a nice tight fit and cant be "pulled out the laptop" when you inevitably trip over it! (it was wrecking the plug before) im sure you wanted to see that pic!!! and finally, a background pic of it in use. only done an engine stripdown and already LOVE it, and how handy it is to have there as a storage space! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 P.S. i wouldnt mind it if the top drawer was as deep as the top drawer in the halfords rollcab too, then i could fit my 1/2" windy gun in there!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 Personally that would irritate me, having my tools split over more than one place. Tool organising makes a HUGE difference to space in the chests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I went on holiday and when I came back my work tool box looked like james May had been in it. All the tools were lined up in size order... It didn't last Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 Ross, I'm a huge fan of tool organisation haha I spent ages sometimes just moving things around in my box, still not big enough. It would be if I took the sockets and spanners out of their presentation trays but they are just so useful and look perrty. Mind, a set of sharks teeth racks would probably save more space but look nice. The idea isn't to have tools.in boxes all over the shop I would prefer all in one but this seemed to be a good solution. Although I do like the idea of all common service tools being ready in the cart to wheel over and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 I went on holiday and when I came back my work tool box looked like james May had been in it. All the tools were lined up in size order... It didn't last Surely that means someone's been in it! I usually find myself organising them when I arrive back to the farm on the Friday, and by the next week a certain father has managed to spread them across the farm! Most frustrating. I spent hours the other week looking for my no.2 copperhyde and then dad said, oh that... Yeah its in the middle of the yard I used it on Tuesday. Grrrrrr! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I'll try and remember to get some pics of the inside of my big black halfords boxes. Thick, single strand wire coiled up works perfectly for spanners! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I always leave it open... Sometimes things are borrowed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotts90 Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 One of my mates has a huge US Pro rollcab and top box, it's about 2m high and the same wide. He replaced his snap-on rollcab with this with some of his redundancy cash. It is exceedingly well finished (it's a blue one lol) and I must say I have tool box envy...his previous employer supplied nothing but the best in tooling. The service cart is a great idea....I tend to have the tools "in use" on a piece of carpet to drag around the vehicle...which is fine until you start tripping over them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 One of my mates has a huge US Pro rollcab and top box, it's about 2m high and the same wide. He replaced his snap-on rollcab with this with some of his redundancy cash. It is exceedingly well finished (it's a blue one lol) and I must say I have tool box envy...his previous employer supplied nothing but the best in tooling. The service cart is a great idea....I tend to have the tools "in use" on a piece of carpet to drag around the vehicle...which is fine until you start tripping over them Would love to get his views on the box especially after coming from snap on I have been eyeing up the 42" stack set Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotts90 Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 Would love to get his views on the box especially after coming from snap on I have been eyeing up the 42" stack set I'll get his thoughts on Wednesday and let you know how he rates it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneandtwo Posted September 27, 2014 Share Posted September 27, 2014 Personally I don't think you can beat snap on when it comes to tool cabinets. I had a drawer which had a failed runner replaced on my 26 year old roll cab recently free of charge, they must still hold all the spares in stock as it was even the correct drawer with the two holes for the badge, and a new badge included. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted September 27, 2014 Share Posted September 27, 2014 Maybe, but not everyone can run to their ridiculous prices frankly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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