I have been testing this Craftsman 5-drawer rolling tool box for a long time now, and feel like I have fully explored it.
When it first arrived, and also after I emptied it, my first thought was the same – wow this is flimsy. The build quality feels light.
But in actual use, it was rock-solid or close enough to it.
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I loaded it with tools, parts and supplies, and then tools again. It was in my workshop, then the basement, back and forth once, and now it was time to prep it for a new user. So, as I do with other tool chests and cabinets, I removed the drawers to have an easier time carrying it between floors.
The first thing I was reminded of is that Craftsman went with mirrored left and right drawer slides. When you remove a drawer from a ball bearing tool cabinet or workbench, you often have to depress a little plastic lever to release the drawer-side slide from the part that’s mounted to the cabinet.
Almost always, and I do this a lot, brands use the same side-mounted drawer slides for left and right sides. Because of this, you have to press the plastic tab down on one side and up on the other.
Similar is true for temporarily defeating the soft-close mechanism so that the ball bearing tracks can be fully retreated into the cabinet.
Craftsman’s choice of using mirrored left and right tracks is a small but much-appreciated touch, especially considering that removing drawers isn’t something that most users will ever do.
At this time I should mention that I loved the quality of the drawer slides. No matter what I loaded into the drawers, whether light plastic parts or heavy aluminum extrusion cut-offs, the drawers opened and closed with ease.
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I was worried about the construction at first, but the Craftsman 2000 series 5-drawer rolling tool cabinet was a trouble-free joy to use.
No, you cannot (easily) rearrange the drawers. Here’s a pic from when it first arrived – the drawer slides are riveted in place.
Here’s how the casters are attached with large sheet metal screws.
Here’s a look at the full inner cabinet. If you have never removed the drawers from a consumer-grade tool chest or cabinet, know that they rarely look like this.
The inside is perfectly powder coated in red, with no splotchy or lightly rusted raw steel where the spray didn’t reach.
Does the inside need to be perfectly finished like this? Probably not, but it’s welcome.
This is the inside of one of my US General tool cabinets from Harbor Freight. You can also see the threaded inserts used for mounting the casters.
Craftsman has 2 versions of the 5-drawer tool cabinet – one that’s around 34″ tall and one that’s around 38″ tall. I tested the taller version, with the flat black handle.
I also tested some of Craftsman’s garage cabinets, and I like this mobile tool cabinet a lot better.
As mentioned, it feels a little flimsy, but it performs solidly. The user experience has been excellent.
Ideally, it would both feel and perform solidly, but the user experience is what matters more. Besides, any wobble went away as soon as I loaded the drawers and plopped some heavy equipment on top.
I forgot about the “wow, that seems a little flimsy” aspect almost immediately, until it was time to empty and move it. Not once did I think the same about the drawers while in use.
As you can see, there is only one set of slides for the bottom drawer. Often tool box makers will double up the ball bearing slides for the longest or deepest drawers. Still, it never bogged down and in use it never concerned me.
The cabinet has a footprint of 26.5″ wide (not including the handle), and 18″ deep. It’s spacious but also mobile. I see the smaller footprint – many cabinets now have 22″ or 24″ depths – as a benefit.
Here’s a view of the side with the pull handle – I like this version of the side handle better than the ones on my older Craftsman tool cabinets and the shorter model.
And here’s the back.
Would I buy this? Yes, if I were on a budget.
You can get larger rolling tool boxes, more premium ones, and certainly others that are more cheaply made.
I tested the red cabinet with black drawers, and you can also get it in black.
Craftsman manufactures these in the USA with global materials.
Thank you to Craftsman for providing the review sample unconditionally.
Al-another-Al
I’ve been looking at the 2000 series to replace a 1970s-ish red with grey drawers. I have a US General gen2 56″. I gotta say, I really appreciate the extra depth to fit more power tools and boxes of bits and blades. The 18″ is significantly less useful.
I have 4 of the 1000 series just as drawers to store parts, tape, and air hose attachments. They were more expensive than building plywood drawers. But cheaper if I had to count my time, which has been in short supply lately.
Any word if Craftsman will ever have deeper chests? I don’t move them but a couple of times a year for cleaning floors or rearranging the garage layout. So chests don’t have to be built like a tank for me. Built like my 1995 Civic would be fine. I had over 350k miles on that, and still sold it in perfect running condition.
Stuart
I don’t see Craftsman going to a deeper size top chest. They’ve tried to innovate before, and it was terrible every time.
Back when Waterloo requested FTC scrutiny on the product category – just before Stanley Black & Decker acquired the tool box manufacturer – their competitors rightfully argued that Waterloo wasn’t innovating and was just coasting along. The FTC investigation ultimately resulted in countervailing tariffs that drove up the cost of imported tool boxes. Tool box makers went with larger sizes and higher weights to satisfy loophole requirements that allowed them to escape the tariffs.
Craftsman roller cabinets are shallow, which means less material and lower shipping costs, which means lower costs and prices. Few brands can compete at this size or price point, giving them some competitive advantage.
The 3000 series cabinets were deeper at 22″. The V-Series boxes have a depth of 21″ https://toolguyd.com/craftsman-v-series-pro-tool-storage-2023/ . The similar width US General boxes are 22″ deep.
Thus, I don’t think we will see a Craftsman 26-27″ roller cabinet that is 22″ deep.
MKY
Stuart –
“Here’s a view of the ***side with the side*** – I like this version of the side handle better than the ones on my older Craftsman tool cabinets.”
Stuart
Thank you! *fixed*
TomD
“one set of drawers for the bottom drawer”
Either we’re missing an underwear shot or that should be slides 😜
Stuart
Brain: “Maybe I should say ‘slides’ instead of ‘drawer slides,’ to avoid redundancy.”
Hands: “drawers”
Thanks, fixed!
Jared
It sounds like good design and manufacturing techniques are adequately compensating for thin materials. That’s not a bad thing – probably lets SBD hit a certain price point while still selling a functional product. The inside of that cabinet certainly looks better than my Husky chests.
I’ve had occasion, more than few times, to remove drawers, and I just look to see which way the tabs go. So on the one had, that’s such a tiny issue that I can see why pretty much nobody making cheap tool chests would bother to have separate left/right slides. Still, that’s a tiny detail that is certainly better.