I know right! $300? I spent more than that on my last torque wrench.
I do very much see the ridiculousness in the Snap-On tool condos that cost north of five figures. In the end, it's just a bunch of stamped steel, with no more moving parts or complexity than the stuff for a fraction of its cost. Everything is just a little thicker, tougher, etc. You get to a point of diminishing returns when it comes to these things in terms of quality. And that point is around $1500-2000 I think.
Some guys on a machinist forum were talking about those Matco Rebel or Revel boxes, I would guess $20,000ish?, and I mentioned that these guys were trying to impress the other guys in the shop, since we all know that there aren't any chicks in machine shops.
And......Torque wrenches. When I worked for Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing, they were sponsored by, at various times, Marco, Snap-On, Travers Tool Company, and MAC Tools (yeah, what a bitch, having to use new, high dollar tools), and there was a drawer with, I would guess, maybe 75 1/2 in drive torque wrenches in it, ranging from new, to a few years old. And one of the guys said, there is a torque tester on the wall, make sure you check whatever one you used. I grab one and check, then another, then another. Out of that drawer, I think there was 2 torque wrenches that were even close. These weren't Harbor Fuckin' Freight. They were the best Snap-On, Matco and Mac had, and I'd say that 85-90% were unusable. After that, I assume that buying the most expensive doesn't guarantee that is is accurate, or will stay accurate. Like my KTM, more or less. They have these precision inch pound jobs where I work now, that are (supposed to be) very accurate, but they cost 10 times as much.
I've got a Craftsman Professional ball bearing bottom box, Proto ball bearing middle box, and a Home Depot cheezass top box. The bottom Craftsman, is decent, but it's a little older, not sure about the newer ones. The Proto is much higher quality, it was one sale and I think we bought 4 of them, $215 ea. The top box is a piece of shit, I had a drawer full of carbide end mills, not extremely heavy, maybe 30 lbs, and it almost wouldn't slide, I ended up putting them in the Proto center box. Oh yeah, I've got a Kennedy hang on side box, sitting on a furniture dolly sitting next to it. My work box.
At home, a Home Depot 42 inch stainless top and bottom, floor model, last one, $215, $250(?), somewhere in there. Total for both. I get it home, the bottom drawer in the top box was broke, I figured it was on sale, but called them anyway, they brought another one in from a different store and replaced it. It was fine for a couple years. I had a drawer with 4 complete sets of sockets, several ratchets, a whole bunch of loose sockets, probably close to 100 of them, I would guess there was 40 lbs in it. My wife walks by it, the drawer was open, she might have brushed it, just barely, and it collapses inward, and rips the ball bearing slides off the walls of the cabinet, and all the sockets spilled out on the floor. In my opinion, the drawer is too long, it was full length, the sheet metal too thin, it kinked in the middle and pulled the side walls in. I straightened the drawer, remounted the slides on the cabinet, and I don't put much in the drawer any more. And I've got the Harbor Freight tools caddy thing, with the open bottom and about 6 drawers, it is very heavy duty, with ball bearing slides, got it on a trade, and another Craftsman bottom , and another Home Depot top, plus, another Craftsman, real old bottom but not ball bearing, very heavy duty also, with a compound miter saw bolted to it.
Yeah, I have a tool issue.
