This cool 26-inch Craftsman roll-away just may be the ticket.

I’ve been putting off getting a “real” toolbox for years, choosing instead to store my tools in about a half-dozen ratty hand-held boxes. It’s been a source of much embarrassment over the years, but I figured since I was a writer (not a mechanic) I could justify it. My solution was to put all similar tools in one box. Ratchets, sockets and extensions in one box, screw drivers and pliars in another box, open-end wrenches in another, and so forth. But it was complicated, and depressing, like whipping out another keyboard every time you need to type a vowel.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my mother visited us, and we were walking through the Sears store. (I kept thinking it was 1969 all over again, and she was going to make my try on a pair of 6X Toughskins.) When I was a kid, I would’ve dragged her to the candy counter, but this time I tactfully steered her towards the tool department for a look see. In short, she ended up getting me a new Craftsman 26-inch roll-away and cab as an early Christmas gift. It looks identical to the one pictured here, and was on sale for $499 for the combo. (Thanks mom! You’re the best!)

Over the last few months, I’ve been unsuccessfully saving for a roll-away. Needs like groceries and the mortgage keep popping up, so I had been putting it off. The Snap-On stuff in our tech center is great, but I can’t afford a $5,000 40-inch roll-away. Before I got the Craftsman, I also had my eye on the 40-inch roll-away cab combo in the Summit catalog. It’s about $750, and has a lot of the features the big boys have. In my search, I also found nice 40-inch units at Home Depot, Costco, Lowes, and Sam’s Club (all in the $750 to $1,000 range).

The Craftsman I got isn’t the wider 40-inch box, but I like it because it’s got all the quality touches, like the roller glide drawers, nice locks, and the safety latch handles, and all for only $499. I’ll probably never miss the extra width of a 40-incher in a garage that’s already too small, and there’s still plenty of room to spare. As I started moving my tools into the new box and organizing it, it dawned on my how crappy and mismatched my tools are. There are also glaring deficiencies in my tool collection that I hadn’t seen before. (Where are all my 10mm sockets and wrenches?) Looks like I’m gonna need some more tools while I’m at it…