In the last post, I highlighted a few really cool items. Now, I’m going to move the other way and look at some cheap (but still cool) stuff. Of course, I think that the most links I’ve come across have been regarding tool storage. And, tool storage is a biggie. Personally, I have two bottom boxes (rollers). One is a Craftsman box that I’ve had for years, and the other is a US General (Harbor Freight) box. The Craftsman is a 26″ wide box. It has roller bearings and such. The current cost of the box is about $500. The US General box is a 45″ wide box. It also has roller bearings. The regular price is $500, it is usually on sale for $400, and you can find coupons on the net to drive the price down by 10%, 15% or even (rarely now) 20%. I paid $320 + tax for mine. I think I will probably pick up a couple more of these in the next year or two, and use them as my primary cabinet.
Another Harbor Freight find is their powder coating oven. The two big options here are to buy a dedicated oven, or renovate your kitchen, and re-utilize some appliances. I would also like to mention that if you are using an oven to powder coat, don’t use it for food…
Continuing the thought about renovating the kitchen, I know more than one person with a dedicated dishwasher in the garage… and it isn’t for dishes… and if any of the items that ran through them made it into the kitchen, there would be a bigger mess. I don’t know what they are using to clean with, but I do know there are things that can be cleaned with water and then (compressed) air dried.
Now, if we are going to have appliances, we can have cool appliances. You might get a small fridge that looks like a tool box, for about $300. For closer to $1000, one might look into a full sized, garage styled and built refrigerator. Whirlpool has their Garageworks Gladiator line. I should mention that they incorporate a few different technologies than what is used for an inside fridge. These are designed to work in a wider range of ambient temperatures. They also look cool with their other GarageWorks stuff.
At this point, I was going to insert another nifty product I ran across from TooCoolKits… but the domain is parked and inactive. They made covers that were attached to an older fridge and made it look like a tool box or old gas pump. They weren’t supper cheap, but they were a lot less than the cost of a new fridge… that doesn’t look like a tool box or an old gas pump.
So… there is your million dollar idea for the day. Make replacement panels for refrigerators to make them look like tool boxes.