20 Best Tool Chest Under $1000 (2023 Updated)

I was gifted both the bottom and top chest for Father’s Day a few months ago. The combo has been great to store my tools. I have found myself rearranging the top more and more, just because I find myself using the top chest more and more.

The open hutch is great. I have a few different battery systems and I am able to charge quite a few in the hutch and it serves as a great storage spot for batteries and chargers (unplugged and detached of course).

The different sized drawers are also nice in that I am able to mix and match to fit a ton of tools in it. All in all, I was surprised in how much I have used and liked it.

I went Lowe’s and purchased one to go with my bottom tool chest, thinking I would get the set. I had just brought home a 1970 Craftsman toolbox from my late father’s house and it with tool in it needed more space.

I started at a Lowe’s north of my area and spent 30 min with a nice worker that was unable to find one on the many shelves he went through. I then move to a Lowe’s that was closer to my house where I found online they had 3 in stock.

After getting to Lowe’s it took 30 minutes to locate someone to help me and to get if down from the shelve. Getting this hime I found both side very badly bent. I of course took it back and exchanged it for another.

Opening the box looking to make sure the side were not bent on the exchanged one I took it home. After completely removing it from the box I found the bottom corner bent up and worse then the first one.

I gave up and took the exchanged one back and ask for a refund. I will never buy another Craftsman tool back again.

This is a cheap tool box and it shows. Mine was not assembled correctly so the drawers don’t work right. I can fix it but if I didn’t beed a box with these exact dimensions Id send it back. I wanted the same size in the 300 series but that one is on indefinite back order and I needed it as soon as possible.

My recommendation: pass this one by. The say “made in USA and maybe it is, but if that’s so it doesn’t mean what it used to.

Wow, this chest is extremely thin and flimsy. I’m a retired cabinet maker and only use my tools very little now. I currently have a old larger craftsman chest for the majority of my hand tools. I wanted a smaller one to put on top my workbench for smaller tools.

This Stanley chest is at best suited for a child as a toy. There is no way the drawers will support upto 25 pounds as the details specify, the thin sheet metal drawers started dropping with the weight of just a few tools in them, no more than 5 pounds tops! They bent down so bad they were rubbing on the drawer below, so that one now could not have been opened! I returned this Stanley chest to Walmart and ordered the kodiak pro intermediate chest, wow what a difference, even nicer than my old craftsman.

You get what you pay for is true in this case. Save yourself the time and headache, unless you indeed want a toy, and spend more on something else for quality & longevity. My two cents.

I ordered this tool chest as a gift for my husband. It’s the best. He is able to keep his tools locked up and in good condition. The description and price is great. Would have loved to had wheels for it, but now I’ll have to get him more pieces for this one to set on.

Recieved with small damage on side from shipping and the locking lid is bent have to pry to lock and one draw doesn’t lock. Very light on strength of material. No return labels have to pay to send it back.

I am a pro Husky guy for all garage organizers meant for home usage. It is not strong enough for commercial usage. I am a contractor and use it to store my tools and use it as a table too only. I do not connect any items that require commercial durablility to my husky storage solutions.

For that I have a solid steel base with a wood top. Overall for my home usage I found that husky is the best value for money and durability. The wheels will withstand the weight of any items stored but will not with stand an adult man sitting on top of it while the drawers are full.

I own a 52″ and the drawers have a pull the last 1-2″ when closing. This also helps keep the drawers from opening when moving the cabinet around or on uneven ground. This 27″ unit has slides with no latching or “pull” to keep the in the closed position.

Very bad as some drawers barely want to stay shut.

This General toolbox is a great value. They come in many colors to chose from! It seems well made with heavy grade steel, but fit and alignment is a bit off (hence the four star rating). It comes with inner rubber liners.

Drawers stay shut while moving. It rolls smoothly. The paint quality is good and bright.

Bottom line up front, I love this product and would recommend it without any concerns. I bought this along with the roller base and am really impressed with the construction and quality of both chests.

I have owned several Craftsman chests over the years and have also used other brands owned by friends. This chest absolutely meets the quality levels of the other brands I’ve experienced and exceeds some of them.

I’m not a huge fan of purchasing Chinese made products, but Harbor Freight got this one right – as they are doing with a lot of their better tools – and I would absolutely buy another. I also recently bought three of the 5 drawer tool carts and feel the same way about them.

The US General line of tool chests is a very good set of products for my home shop purposes. I can’t comment on how they might hold up for a professional using them daily, but they do seem sturdy enough that they’d be worth a try by even professionals.

I bought exactly like this one in Home Depot for $29.

Made of heavy 21 gauge steel and ball bearing slide drawers.

This is a great top box, well worth its price by comparison with other manufacturers. My plans were to exchange the top deep drawers with two of the shallower ones in the bottom cabinet to better organize to my liking.

The deep drawers in the bottom cabinet have two sets of slides. I was surprised to find that the deep drawers in the top no longer come with two sets of drawer slides. I will still fulfill my plan for organization, but I had to order additional sets of slides at my own expense.

This unannounced cost saving measure by Harbor Freight cost me additional $$. It also reduces the weight capacity of the deep drawers. I still would have gone in for it had I known, but it was not so welcome as a surprise.

I used to have a nice Craftsman toolbox that I would use daily at work and unfortunately, the box started to come apart and crack at the inner joints due to me moving or wheeling it around. There was no reinforced framing where the casters were.

However, with the Harbor freight box, I am thoroughly impressed, there is reinforced framing along the bottom of the box and it is sturdy and well built for a cost effective box. If you want a more in depth review of this box I have listed the link to my review below.

Overall great buy. (I got both the top and the bottom box).

I bought my 46in upper box about a month ago. Simply put I am thrilled with the purchase. Everything from the clam shelled styled lid to the heavy construction and smooth sliding drawer. At the time of purchase this box is deeper than the older us general 46 inch boxes.

Which for means I am going to invest in a newer matching bottom box. Ironically I am not in the least upset at that revelation. As the deeper drawers are a huge improvement and much better suited to the range of tools I own.

I highly recommend these boxes. Unless you just have to own one of the big names. Just for the sake of appearances of one big name brands might offer. For me these us general tool box fill my needs to into degree.

These are really pretty decent chests but quality varies an awful lot. If you get one that isn’t damage or has bad defects then it’s a chest that’s well worth owning and even worth it to spend your time modifying or refinishing.

All the bottoms are pressboard, which is the biggest drawback if you had ideas about loading this up with steel. You can add reinforcing strips to the recesses under the drawers and it helps a little, especially over time as humidity may make the pressboard sag a little.

Or disassemble and replace the bottoms with another material. No stops on any of the drawers and not really a good way to add some. All the wood is solid but fingerjointed pieces so you can’t expect an even appearance or finish (finish appears to be a tint lacquer only) and there will probably be stray glue at joints and elsewhere (appears to be cut and glued/assembled from pre-finished pieces), random defects but both of mine have been pretty smooth overall and look nice enough.

Front panel is not removable and sticks out an additional 1-1/4″ from the stated dimensions here. Small drawers inside are 1″ height (max), 7″ deep, 7-7/8″ wide. Wide drawers inside are 1-3/4″ height, 7″ deep, 17-1/2″ wide.

On the diagonal of the wide drawers I can fit my Starrett combo square with an 18″ blade (1″ wide blade) and that works but it takes a lot of space with the head attached. Top compartment is 2-5/8″ height, 9″ deep, 18-1/2″ wide.

An additional space of 5/8″ in the lid but the mirror sticks down about 1/4″. No additional support under the top compartment so heavy items like v-blocks and bit indexes do cause it to sag over time – this chest just isn’t a construction intended to serve as a real machinist’s chest even though it looks like a good copy.

And it is actually good – definitely worth buying if you don’t expect it to be a Gerstner and if you don’t expect perfection. Felt is kind of thin, not sure if it’s glued or sticky-back but it doesn’t seem to loosen up with light oil contact.

does get pretty pilled, though. This is my second of these. glad to have them.

After reading all the reviews on this Tool Chest, I decided to go and take a look at one at the store. The display as usual was beat up, but served its purpose. I will say this is no Gertsner and Sons tool chest, but clone of one.

They had one left in the store and I purchased it. Unpackaging it, there was no damage which is always a worry for me. I just don’t have any luck getting things made in China without shipping damage, but this one had luck on my side.

The finish is nice with no damage. The drawers opened and closed nicely with no damage. The felt in all compartments was nicely laid in with no edges peeling off. The bottom of the drawers are not of good material, but time will tell is they sag.

One thing others have mentioned, is the top cover key lock. It does not work. I am using this chest for some machinist tools on top of my work bench and houses and hold my most used items nicely. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a nice and reasonably priced tool chest that can be used for many uses.

I am a loyal Harbor Freight customer and an Inside Track Member. Throughout the years, I have watched the quality and variety of tools improve. I do use tools and products for traditional building, remodeling, etc.

I even have the portable cement mixer. However, I am also a crafter and think outside the traditional box for using Harbor Freight products. I use this well-constructed, versatile, beautiful chest in my kitchen next to the coffee pot to store a variety of things.

The larger drawers are perfect for the k-cup coffee pods. Some of the shorter drawers are useful for storing lighters, remotes, small hardware, etc. Now I don’t have to go on a scavenger hunt when I need a cup hook, etc.

The finish is the same color as my cabinets and makes a wonderful statement piece on my counter. The top opens up for even more storage.

This product has no problems and works as promised. It is also less expensive than comparable products that I looked at. It was delivered in 2 days with free shipping. I also have the lower unit and I extend my previous comments to it.

I am quite impressed by the quality of this tool chest. It’s certainly not a “pro” quality storage solution, but for the price it is quite good. It fits my needs perfectly, and at a price far below other brands of similar quality.

Very impressed with how heavy and sturdy this is. I had expected it to be thinner metal due to the great price. Drawers slide very nicely, and it comes fully assembled. Even the packaging was built like a tank.

Great product! Good build quality with durable shell and drawers and good quality rollers. I chose this in part due to the integrated power strip with usb outlets and laptop drawer cover. Very pleased thus far as don’t expect issues moving forward.

Only knock is that I could do without the corner covers but not a deal breaker.

I got the combo top and bottom box. This is a HUGE upgrade from my classic Craftsmam 26″ toolbox. I can finally fit the majority of my tools in both boxes. Not sure how useful the laptop drawer is, the drawer doesnt have enough room to put some of my diagnostic equipment in because the lid makes it shoreter then the drawer next to it.

I have a laptop in the toolbox, but i mostly keep it in the top, and then i can plug it in. Ive seen other people drill out the rivets on the lid of the laptop drawer, so its an option. Maybe when i run out of room everywhere else.

very nice piece of equipment, coupled with the lower unit I now have the perfect storage for all my tools.

I was installing the casters in my unit. (I bought 2) Really doesn’t matter what side you install the swivel casters on the fixed casters are aligned so the cabinet will only roll side to side, not front to back.

Pretty much useless in my situation. I have them installed under my workbench. Now i realize I will not have much cause to roll them out but if and when I do want to do that, it will be difficult. Someone messed up on the CAD design program.

Could’ve drilled the holes in both orientations then you could choose which direction you would like to roll the cabinet. Not impressed!! :-{{.

Lightweight but fine for the household tools that I need to store ( handtools, cordless drills, small sockets, etc). Ample storage and medium quality sturdiness. Lightweight enough for me to be able to carry up 13 steps to get it inside (I’m a 61 yo female and fairly strong).

Drawer interlock mechanism is a little finicky but I don’t plan to move the unit around so the interlock isn’t important to me.

Excellent tool chest to help organize our garage. I also purchased the top piece that goes with this. A very sleek and simple black set that my boyfriend absolutely loves. The only downside is that the inventory was off at the store and we had to order it, but the items arrived in the store perfectly within the time frame we were quoted and we are very happy with the quality of this set.

I had grown heartily sick & tired of having to clear out all the tools which I store under the stairs, every time the electricity or gas man turned up to read the meter. I recently found an ideal solution to this intractable problem in the shape of these truly ingenious plastic toolboxes with wheels, made by Stanley.

In fact I was so impressed that I actually decided to purchase 2 of them on the spot, because not only were they reduced in price, but it’s quite amazing how much bulky stuff like power tools that I can store in each one.

The whole thing is made from really tough moulded plastic material (ABS resin ?) and is relatively light to pick up. The removable lid, held firmly in place to the lower section by two strong metal clasps (one either end of it) has an extremely comfortable soft grip foldaway handle, should you need to carry the tool box for any distance.

It also has a very practical full-length extending/retractable handle near the top of the lid at the opposite end to the wheels, very much like the integral type often found on suitcases. There is handy V-groove in the lid to aid the sawing of pipes and timber and just to one side of the lid handle is a useful semi-transparent flexible lid, which covers nine large divided sections beneath, for storing small items like nails/screws/rawlplugs etc.

When the lid is fully opened, underneath there is a big removable tote tray, for keeping smaller items separate from the rest. So all I need to do now when the meter man comes calling is to simply pull each one of these units out in turn & then roll them back straight afterwards…job done ! Stanley really have thought about everything and when a friend of mine saw this toolbox a few weeks ago, he asked me to get one for him as well, which says everything really.

Highly recommended ***** R. Martin.

The tool box has a sturdy construction and although not recommended I have used it to stand on a few times. The wheels make it easy to manoeuvre from job to job and it comes with a handy tote tray inside which is removable.

On the negative side it would be a nice touch if the boxes were able to stack securely, as I have a couple of these. The locking catch can be arkward to open single handedly if the trolley handle is in the close position and a nice touch would be some removable inner storage compartments.

Having said all that, it is a nice bit of kit for the money.

I’ve had this cabinet for about 2 weeks now and it is a well built cabinet. It is the right height for me to keep notes w/o stooping over, has nice drawers w/liners, and it rolls around well. HF also has a lot of accessories for the cabinet.

A couple of the drawers are a little hard to get completely closed but once over the detent, they stay closed. I would prefer removing a shallower drawer to allow another deeper drawer but that’s just because of the hand tools and lathe chucks I’m storing in them.

Yes, I would definitely buy another one while on sale and I almost bought one for my wife’s hobby stuff, but she wanted it upstairs and there is no way I can get that thing upstairs by myself w/o damaging the stairs and/or walls of the house.

It is heavy. I wish it had soft-close drawers but with the weight I’m putting in some of the drawers, I’m not sure they would work that well. Yes, I am pleased with the cabinet.

I’ve had this red rolling 8-drawer tool cabinet for about three weeks and find it really well-made for durability and ease of use, and at an affordable price. My wife commented that it was also “beautiful” when she saw it.

(It is a pretty cab) Finally, I can store my tools in one place, because they were all over the garage and often I couldn’t find the one I needed. The drawers slide in/out nicely with tools in them and when you close them there’s a gentle “catch” that keeps them closed so they don’t slide open when you move the cabinet.

Good glossy powder coat paint job. HD casters. Nothing looks or is cheap, including the good quality drawer liners included. I compared several brands and found this one to be the best choice and recommend it.

I completely gutted my art studio now that I am retired. I decided on two of these cabinets as a start. My concern was the weight and getting them in the house but with a hand cart and friend we did well.

I needed assistance finding two close to my rural area. With the help of Liz at the local WI store, she tracked down two. Had them in her sight and held them until the next day do I could get there with a trailer.

Store employees loaded them up and that was it. The cart only required the casters to be attached. It is built extremely well. Solid build, drawers glide smoothly, mats included and are thick, handle may be attached to either side.

Bolts included were heavy. I was missing one set of the strips for labeling drawers which I really needed. Called parts dept and was told they are “ in the mail. ” No hassle so now I hope they arrive soon.

I filled both quickly. I would have loved some tall, matching cabinets, on casters as well. Shelves not the drawers. Had to look elsewhere with not as good of quality. As I rearrange my studio I am considering addition parts as I identify my needs.

I will absolutely begin with this brand. Refreshing to find such a well made product. Hands down would purchase again.