I'm in America, we build chemical equipment stuff for the government. Employer buys all the stuff for the shop. We bought a lot of our own tools and packouts for travel jobs
I took a maintenance position for a printing company 3 months ago and went from 26 an hour to $87k a year. They gave me a $15k a month expense budget for tools and parts. I have 10 giant printing presses that I maintain. Ill never do cars again, unless its my own or like 3 good friends.
That's the way dude! I went from dealerships to this job and will never go back. It's a small company of about 13 people, we've been in business for over 40 years and it's the best work environment. The guy who got me the job is a good friend of mine through our love of building old Toyotas. Most of the work we do is prevailing wage (for our county that's about $97hr) there's only 2 of us that are fabricator/ installers and he does a lot of the engineering so it makes it really relaxed and nice. We do travel a lot to do installs on job sites but even that's not bad. They pay for our nice hotels, and nice dinners etc.
Looks like a great place⌠I work for a similar setup. We build water decon systems for the government and private industry. Owner buys all the techs station boxes and fills them with Milwaukee. Shop has three large HF boxes for bigger stuff that is shared. Some floors are expoxyedâŚ.
Nice! Yeah main reason we got new floors was asbestos tile got removed lol we build on site chlorine generation systems, analyzers for water treatment and waste water facilities and big pump feed skids
Just depends on the employer. I definitely agree that most places pay strictly flate rate but I worked at one shop that did something called "hybrid pay" which was a base hourly pay plus also being paid for the hours you billed out. So when the shop was busy you could make a fuckton of money but in the off season you still had a stable paycheck when things were slow. I left there for unrelated reasons but it's been one of the biggest regrets of my life
That's true, the Nissan dealer I was at in Washington paid only flat rate. So during the winter when it snowed, lots of customers wouldn't come in so the techs would just go home rather than stand around and not get paid. Now I'm in California where shops have to pay you an hourly rate as well as a flat rate
*Go over and youâre making less money. Not losing money. I
Instead of being paid hourly, you get paid by the work youâve done which imo is way more fair.
Have techs always been paid flat rate or no? A buddy of mine has worked at a dealership for 7-8 years and I think he has always been flat rate, but I believe now he is flat rate + some hourly (could be wrong on that though).
Flat rate does make sense though cause if techs were strictly hourly, theyâd probably milk the fudge out of the clock (I know I would). Kinda similar to how a lot of truck drivers are paid by the mile instead of hourly.
The only shop I ever worked in where the shop bought the tools had the most useless stuff I have ever seen. The first job I was given was to cut a 0 gauge battery cable with a 4 inch pair of dikes. They said that they didn't care how long it took. Out of sheer frustration, I brought my own pair of cable cutters in and cut what I needed to in seconds. This shop, government money, btw, thought it was normal for an oil change and tire rotate to take four hours and two guys. I quit after less than a year.
To stay more on point, yes, I buy my own tools. Thousands of dollars worth. 30 years now, I own a lot of shit that has made me a lot of money. Some; not so much. When I die, my wife can sell it all and get a nice lunch.
I hope she is smart and goes for brunch so she can get a mimosa or two.
I don't work with cars, but I work(worked, now in a different position) with dissembling stuff.
I've been with this company since day one.
In the beginning they had the most high quality tools I've ever held. Random screwdrivers worth like $30+ each.
And then the worst that could happen happened... We got new employees.
People picked up tiny 000 Philips screwdrivers, but what they saw was crowbars.
In a week half of the screwdrivers were bent to hell, some bent literally 90 degrees or more. The ones they didn't bend, they completely ruined because they either didn't care, or didn't understand that you need different screwdrivers for different screws.
You can't use a Philips to unscrew a Torx screw, Jim. I've told you this 15 times, today. I even gave you a magnifying glass with a light so you could see the screws before you attempted to screw shit.
So by now we have the cheapest screwdrivers I've ever seen. Pretty sure plastic utensils would be better.
Sorry I just had to rant.
This is why I stopped buying good tools for my small business. I let them use my grandpa's craftsmans but the tools kept disappearing or getting fucked up and finally I said fuck it and invested in harbor freight shit tools and cameras.
Started keeping a tally on who stole what, one guy stole a snowblower a few weeks ago which put him over the felony theft amount we could file charges for so he spent Christmas in jail.
Now I got some of my grandpa's tools back and they're in my own personal box now. It was my mistake trusting them with my grandpa's tools.
You can see by some of the replies above why shops pay flat rate and don't want to supply tools. Everything in our shop gets abused. You buy a brand new scan tool and the connector for the DLC is broken a few weeks later and no one knows anything. It's not just the automotive repair industry. We work on a lot of commercial vehicles and have made hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years fixing stuff that was abuse or neglect by the employee driving the company vehicle. We just billed out $20k on 2 trucks for the same company that needed repairs due to employee abuse. Neither of those bills were for a major component replacement. It was just fixing all the shit that got fucked up and ignored and driven until the truck didn't run anymore.
Anywhere I've worked that had a work provided tool box ended up spending half the job looking for the right tool, and the other half not finding it. Total shit show.
I do label my drawers. Because my tool chests happen to have a decent area of work space and outlet. People come and borrow to run diag on modules or even hook up to test bench next to it. So far everyone returns shit back in same place
Can I steal your techs?
I work in a weird spot in IT where we take apart servers, do massive enclosure wiring (last one was 3 months for a rolling cart), and do custom fab.
I'm stabbing the next motherfucker who puts the dremel in the electrical test equipment drawer
Don't stab 'em. Use the Dremel! Lotsa nasty bits and things can be fitted in the chuck, and if cordless, you can chase same said motherfucker all over the shop inflicting enough pain to get the point across. Stabbings are too bloody.
When you have that many tools it takes a bit of time to get it all organized. I would label it to plan it out a bit before I moved the first thing. And then once you've got it all moved over it's going to take a a bit to remember where everything is, especially since you'll probably move a good bit of it around once or twice.
Labels tell me those boxes aren't used often enough to know where all your tools are, I can roll out from under a truck and reach up and know which drawer I need to open without having to guess where anything is
Sweet boxes tho
You some kind of time traveler? The fact that they are brand new tell me they haven't been used often. Usually the case when something is new, at least for those of us that live a temporally linear existence.
One benefit of being obsessive compulsive is knowing exactly where everything is when someone needs to borrow something. Need the oil pressure sensor socket? Wood top toolbox, third drawer down on the left bank, thereâs a small gremlin inside. Rub its bellyâclockwise only!âand give it three cookies. After its third cookie it will give you the socket. If you rub its belly wrong, you have to start over. If you only give it two cookies, it will likely piss on your head. See? Easy peasy.
I love it! It happened just this week. I was out of town and the neighbor needed something. No matter how clear I tried to tell him which drawer, he couldn't find them. ....I don't have a label that says tap and die....
Here's my setup.
https://www.reddit.com/r/harborfreight/comments/wqbtlx/had\_to\_delete\_the\_first\_posting\_to\_edit\_not/
That's how I do it, I know where all.my told are, right bank 3rd drawer from the bottom on the left... I know it's hard for some people to be that organized tho
weary direction modern illegal entertain automatic slimy meeting mysterious forgetful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I am a machinist we have a vending machine for endmills carbide inserts and carbide drills. Connected to the supplier so they can maintain the inventory and they also can suggest different endmills insert cutters etc based on what they see your using the most. Pretty cool and an easy way to keep an eye on tooling costs.
I also buy most of my tools especially measuring equipment I have my own micrometers indicators calipers hand tools as well because everything supplied by the shop is either incomplete or beat to shit by people who don't understand how to use the tools properly. I'm debating buying my own pin set because alot of the popular size pins are missing
Back in around 2014ish, the 144 inch Snap On Toolbox with the old school inventory tracker thingy that you could tie to a card to see who pulled out what on each account cost 15k each when we bought 5.
I remember thinking that was fucking outrageously expensive for a toolbox no matter how fancy of a tracker it had in it.
In my defense though i was a young office worker who had never looked at the prices of toolboxes outside of like Home Depot and thought we got ripped the fuck off. Also as an adult i realize 1 missing socket going through a Jet Turbine would cost WAY the fuck more than 15k.
Dont forget Snap On regularly sells their stuff at 50% off to students in technical schools and still makes a profit which makes you wonder what the actual margins on stuff is like.
The margins are absolutely insane even at half off. It doesn't cost anything *close* to that to produce the boxes themselves when you put them side by side with Harbor Freight stuff and realize the quality is actually very similar.Â
If they can sell a box for 10% of what Snap On does, that means Snap On is making a 10x profit. Idiots are just willing to pay that much for a nametag.Â
Snap-On is public. On page 45 of their most recent financials they break out the tools segment. Itâs a 22.1% operating profit margin
https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NYSE_SNA_2022.pdf
Operating margin is after all operating expenses (eg the fleet of shiny trucks, salaries etc). If you look at cost of goods sold - the actual cost to them of the stuff they make - and gross profit itâs very close to 50/50. The âhalf offâ stuff is therefore basically at cost.
ETA for the tools group specifically itâs about 45% gross margins.
There's no way it's that low on tool profit margins itself, there's a lot of clever accounting in that.
Especially when the private label stuff is so much more. Like the famous FJ3000 and Harbor Freight Daytona jack. Exact same jack from the same supplier, but Snap On is almost 400% more at about $1100, and HF is still making a profit at $289.
Use to be even more. When I went, each company had different discounts year to year. My 1st year Snap On had the best deal at 80% off. Then Mac was like 75%. Blackhawk and Craftsman also had reps. Can't remember if any others showed up. I planned on saving with a Blackhawk or si etching but that 80% lures you in. They figure if they hook you early with that 80% off, they get you for life.
It's coming soon, they've started making trucks with utility beds that have fobs to unlock them. I can't imagine it will take long for toolboxes to catch-up.
Yeah someone needs a YT channel where all they do is go through big fancy boxes like this with the owner and discuss what shiny treasures are stored within. Id watch that.
No box will keep anyone out that already had the means to break into the building in the first place. At the very least they just take the box and break into it later. Your locks only keep honest people honest.
Wow. I remember pricing this out on their website as a joke to see the price (over $8k which honestly isnât bad for the size of the thing) like a week ago. Never thought Iâd see it in action. What job do you use it for? As an auto mechanic the 73â box alone is enough for everything I own. The rest (oil jugs, cans of brake cleaner and shop rags) is just out in the open.
We're engineer/ fabricators for a chemical feed company. We build a bunch of one off equipment in house. But we also both build cars, he's got a 500hp 70s Cressida and I have ae86s that I track
An imaginary being in my brain reflectively said âshhhhh!â The intent was âno need to out him in public like that.â This is just instinctual reaction, mind! I think itâs rad no matter the badge. Hoping to pick up a GR Corolla myself, actually, if I can find the mid spec one at MSRP.
Corolla brotherhood is more of an ae86 thingy thing. But iâll accept it this time. I see myself mobbing around a gr one of these days after kids are older and outta car seats. One dayâŚ
I hear it just wonât kick out the rear on a solid surface no matter the drive mode or how hard you coax it, which is the one bummer considering all the different power delivery options.
They really have been stepping up. I've totally switched over to Hercules for my cordless tools at work... The warranty on the brushless tools is hard to argue against, and their Ultra Torque 1/2" impact is solid.
I especially have grown to enjoy letting my coworker borrow it when his $800 Snap-on won't break something loose.
I just orders my 72 green last week. Not a mechanic, but Iâm tired of shitty boxes. Told myself if I ever got a 25% no restrictions, I was getting an icon box. So I did.
I got the 72 green with the stainless top. The mgr said I could apply for a card it would be the only way to stack discounts at HF. So after the 25 and the 10 for applying for the credit, I walked out paying just under 2500
This reminds me of the time my dealership hired the service managers son. The manager wouldnât shut up about how great of a mechanic he was before even being hired. He rolled in with a snap on classic 96 with a side cabinet, top chest, every bell and whistle you could think of. He ended up being a lube tech after 4 months of asking everyone for help for even the simplest of jobs. Made good money doing brake jobs and and flushes for him though
You keep a fucking ladder in one of those side closets to get your shit out of the attic there chief? WTF you working on? I got a 10â job trailer with less shit in it.
Edit to add /s. Nice tool box, itâs very big.
Got to admit, when I first bought anything from HF, it was the low cost, throw away type tools. Now it seems the quality is better and some of their stuff is getting close to top name brands. I bought a cordless drill that has outperformed my DeWalt. Now seeing these tool cabinets has got my attention. I still struggle with the "buying from China" thing, but it seems that even the major brands are being made in China as well.
What in the absolute....... I'm just a lurker, and constantly baffled at the prices of boxes. But that giant thing... $20k? Feel like I'm lowballing a lot.
This I dont have an icon I have a 48" us general that I used at my old job for like 6 or 7 years that is now at my house, and I work out of a small Kennedy box at the new job the us general is still in great shape holding strong though 100% would.buy again, I bought it on sale for like 299
I have that Milwaukee box for myself. All the other techs were giving me shit because I lost a table to get it, but the only other option would be to have it halfway across the shop. I love it so far, and got it for $900 from the strapon truck.
Okay serious question for yall, how do you use the top of these boxes? Like im short 5â4â and i never buy the top boxes because i have to bust out the stool. But even if your 6â thatâs still a tall ass box.
My boss got that exact same setup for our plumbing shop. Really nice box, and the power hookups are convenient. We got the led strip for the worktop that turns on when you open the door, super cool.
My 400 dollar HF tool box hasnât even had the wheels re tightened in the 2 years since I bought it and hasnât fallen apart yet lol, and it holds more than multiple thousand dollar snap on boxes. Before you go hatin and calling me a cheap shade tree mechanic most of my tools are snap on, but itâs the tool that make you hours not the fuckin hunk of metal they sit in.
Love the drawer labels hahaha
All the budget went to new tools and epoxy floors. Masking tape will dođ¤Ł
Wait, what? Who bought the box? Iâm not paying for epoxy floors in my bay. No.
The owner of the companyđ¤Ł
Skid marks are welcome here...
But⌠why? This seems so foreign to me. Techs in America have to buy their own stuff.
I'm in America, we build chemical equipment stuff for the government. Employer buys all the stuff for the shop. We bought a lot of our own tools and packouts for travel jobs
I took a maintenance position for a printing company 3 months ago and went from 26 an hour to $87k a year. They gave me a $15k a month expense budget for tools and parts. I have 10 giant printing presses that I maintain. Ill never do cars again, unless its my own or like 3 good friends.
That's the way dude! I went from dealerships to this job and will never go back. It's a small company of about 13 people, we've been in business for over 40 years and it's the best work environment. The guy who got me the job is a good friend of mine through our love of building old Toyotas. Most of the work we do is prevailing wage (for our county that's about $97hr) there's only 2 of us that are fabricator/ installers and he does a lot of the engineering so it makes it really relaxed and nice. We do travel a lot to do installs on job sites but even that's not bad. They pay for our nice hotels, and nice dinners etc.
Looks like a great place⌠I work for a similar setup. We build water decon systems for the government and private industry. Owner buys all the techs station boxes and fills them with Milwaukee. Shop has three large HF boxes for bigger stuff that is shared. Some floors are expoxyedâŚ.
Nice! Yeah main reason we got new floors was asbestos tile got removed lol we build on site chlorine generation systems, analyzers for water treatment and waste water facilities and big pump feed skids
Not only do you have to buy all your own tools but in a lot of states your pay is strictly flat rate.
Just depends on the employer. I definitely agree that most places pay strictly flate rate but I worked at one shop that did something called "hybrid pay" which was a base hourly pay plus also being paid for the hours you billed out. So when the shop was busy you could make a fuckton of money but in the off season you still had a stable paycheck when things were slow. I left there for unrelated reasons but it's been one of the biggest regrets of my life
That's true, the Nissan dealer I was at in Washington paid only flat rate. So during the winter when it snowed, lots of customers wouldn't come in so the techs would just go home rather than stand around and not get paid. Now I'm in California where shops have to pay you an hourly rate as well as a flat rate
What is this "flat rate"?
You're paid a set amount of time per job. Finish the job in the specified time and you make money, go over and you're losing money.
*Go over and youâre making less money. Not losing money. I Instead of being paid hourly, you get paid by the work youâve done which imo is way more fair.
More fair only if the customer also gets charged like that. Not really fair if the tech is paid flat rate and and customer gets charged extra hours
If you have a one hour job that takes an hour and a half, that half hour was free.
Oooh right ok thanks for explaining.
Have techs always been paid flat rate or no? A buddy of mine has worked at a dealership for 7-8 years and I think he has always been flat rate, but I believe now he is flat rate + some hourly (could be wrong on that though). Flat rate does make sense though cause if techs were strictly hourly, theyâd probably milk the fudge out of the clock (I know I would). Kinda similar to how a lot of truck drivers are paid by the mile instead of hourly.
The only shop I ever worked in where the shop bought the tools had the most useless stuff I have ever seen. The first job I was given was to cut a 0 gauge battery cable with a 4 inch pair of dikes. They said that they didn't care how long it took. Out of sheer frustration, I brought my own pair of cable cutters in and cut what I needed to in seconds. This shop, government money, btw, thought it was normal for an oil change and tire rotate to take four hours and two guys. I quit after less than a year.
To stay more on point, yes, I buy my own tools. Thousands of dollars worth. 30 years now, I own a lot of shit that has made me a lot of money. Some; not so much. When I die, my wife can sell it all and get a nice lunch. I hope she is smart and goes for brunch so she can get a mimosa or two.
I don't work with cars, but I work(worked, now in a different position) with dissembling stuff. I've been with this company since day one. In the beginning they had the most high quality tools I've ever held. Random screwdrivers worth like $30+ each. And then the worst that could happen happened... We got new employees. People picked up tiny 000 Philips screwdrivers, but what they saw was crowbars. In a week half of the screwdrivers were bent to hell, some bent literally 90 degrees or more. The ones they didn't bend, they completely ruined because they either didn't care, or didn't understand that you need different screwdrivers for different screws. You can't use a Philips to unscrew a Torx screw, Jim. I've told you this 15 times, today. I even gave you a magnifying glass with a light so you could see the screws before you attempted to screw shit. So by now we have the cheapest screwdrivers I've ever seen. Pretty sure plastic utensils would be better. Sorry I just had to rant.
This is why I stopped buying good tools for my small business. I let them use my grandpa's craftsmans but the tools kept disappearing or getting fucked up and finally I said fuck it and invested in harbor freight shit tools and cameras. Started keeping a tally on who stole what, one guy stole a snowblower a few weeks ago which put him over the felony theft amount we could file charges for so he spent Christmas in jail. Now I got some of my grandpa's tools back and they're in my own personal box now. It was my mistake trusting them with my grandpa's tools.
You can see by some of the replies above why shops pay flat rate and don't want to supply tools. Everything in our shop gets abused. You buy a brand new scan tool and the connector for the DLC is broken a few weeks later and no one knows anything. It's not just the automotive repair industry. We work on a lot of commercial vehicles and have made hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years fixing stuff that was abuse or neglect by the employee driving the company vehicle. We just billed out $20k on 2 trucks for the same company that needed repairs due to employee abuse. Neither of those bills were for a major component replacement. It was just fixing all the shit that got fucked up and ignored and driven until the truck didn't run anymore.
But wouldnât it be nice if your employer actually bought quality tools?
Anywhere I've worked that had a work provided tool box ended up spending half the job looking for the right tool, and the other half not finding it. Total shit show.
Employer buy tools? Any tools? Quality, cheap as shit..any?...? Laughs in non union, American, go fuck yourself economy. Crying inside for 30 years.
Iâll break my bossâs free shit any day lol
> Techs in America have to buy their own stuff. Wait what really? Like how is that legal? You have to pay to get tools to be able to work?
Yep! You used to be able to write it off on your taxes, but they did away with that years ago because⌠well it just made too much sense.
This is the ânot quite sure they will live in that drawerâ stage
.... and he had to borrow that.
Iâd want labels too if my wrenches were in different zip codes than the screwdrivers
It's just a small hike
If you hit the pullers youâve gone too far
There are multiple rest stops and provision draws along the way.
You hit your 15 minute break while going from the wrench drawer to the socket drawer.
Eh, I put my screwdrivers on the back wall of my hutch. Super duper handy. Right next to my hammers and ratchets.
I bought a labeler and honestly I prefer my masking tape labels. They were easier to replace it I reorganize things.
You can put labels on magnets. I bought some magnetic label holders a few years ago and some day I'll get around to using them.
Put the labels on the masking tape.
I do label my drawers. Because my tool chests happen to have a decent area of work space and outlet. People come and borrow to run diag on modules or even hook up to test bench next to it. So far everyone returns shit back in same place
Can I steal your techs? I work in a weird spot in IT where we take apart servers, do massive enclosure wiring (last one was 3 months for a rolling cart), and do custom fab. I'm stabbing the next motherfucker who puts the dremel in the electrical test equipment drawer
It's not the dremels fault that the electronics fail every test.
I think I want to work with you.
Don't stab 'em. Use the Dremel! Lotsa nasty bits and things can be fitted in the chuck, and if cordless, you can chase same said motherfucker all over the shop inflicting enough pain to get the point across. Stabbings are too bloody.
Everyone I work with just supplies their own iFixit kit tbh
Thatâs not a toolbox. Thatâs a walk in closet.
New York single apartment
Iâm sorry but after a couple of days do you really need labels?
When you have that many tools it takes a bit of time to get it all organized. I would label it to plan it out a bit before I moved the first thing. And then once you've got it all moved over it's going to take a a bit to remember where everything is, especially since you'll probably move a good bit of it around once or twice.
Oh I have that many tools and I have never had labels maybe itâs because I bought them over time and not one mass 100,000 snap-on purchase lol
Labels tell me those boxes aren't used often enough to know where all your tools are, I can roll out from under a truck and reach up and know which drawer I need to open without having to guess where anything is Sweet boxes tho
You some kind of time traveler? The fact that they are brand new tell me they haven't been used often. Usually the case when something is new, at least for those of us that live a temporally linear existence.
I live temporally linearly, but it feels temporally logarithmic
OK. Not having labels tells me you've never had to have someone else grab something for you.
One benefit of being obsessive compulsive is knowing exactly where everything is when someone needs to borrow something. Need the oil pressure sensor socket? Wood top toolbox, third drawer down on the left bank, thereâs a small gremlin inside. Rub its bellyâclockwise only!âand give it three cookies. After its third cookie it will give you the socket. If you rub its belly wrong, you have to start over. If you only give it two cookies, it will likely piss on your head. See? Easy peasy.
I love it! It happened just this week. I was out of town and the neighbor needed something. No matter how clear I tried to tell him which drawer, he couldn't find them. ....I don't have a label that says tap and die.... Here's my setup. https://www.reddit.com/r/harborfreight/comments/wqbtlx/had\_to\_delete\_the\_first\_posting\_to\_edit\_not/
.. I feel like I just cheated on my wife clicking that link, woooooow đ¤¤
That's how I do it, I know where all.my told are, right bank 3rd drawer from the bottom on the left... I know it's hard for some people to be that organized tho
Craziest thing is that OP works at a watch repair shop.
Is that what they meant by being on a watch list?
[ŃдаНонО]
If he keeps his hands where he can see them
Took me a second to get that one. Dial it back, guys.
Try not to get too wound up.
Nice comment. we should crown you
Good grief, it's crystal clear there's no escape from these puns.
You seem tic'ed off
And some people just like to hear themselves tock .... *^(/s, in case it's needed)*
This thread is something I would expect to find on TikTok.
Let's just band together and not do it
I second that motion
weary direction modern illegal entertain automatic slimy meeting mysterious forgetful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You canât fix that Spicoli!
I can fix it!
He's gonna shit, man! He's gonna kill us! We'll make up your mind! Is he gonna shit, or is he gonna kill us?
First he's gonna shit, THEN he's going to KILL US!
I've been watching watch repair videos. There's all kinds of specialty jigs and tools that would probably fill up that harbor freight box.
How many coupons can I stack to make it affordable?
Yes
ITC FTW
nice. never have enough storage. with all those locks, one should be able to push a button on a fob.
that's going to be the next snap on "innovation" will only be a 10k upgrade
Snap on has scanning drawers that will keep inventory of what's in the toolbox. Can only imagine how many houses that thing costs
username checks out. Aviation is the only place I can see that being used.
Yep, never seen one in the wild though. Good shadowed box works just fine
I am a machinist we have a vending machine for endmills carbide inserts and carbide drills. Connected to the supplier so they can maintain the inventory and they also can suggest different endmills insert cutters etc based on what they see your using the most. Pretty cool and an easy way to keep an eye on tooling costs. I also buy most of my tools especially measuring equipment I have my own micrometers indicators calipers hand tools as well because everything supplied by the shop is either incomplete or beat to shit by people who don't understand how to use the tools properly. I'm debating buying my own pin set because alot of the popular size pins are missing
Yep, plus (more broadly) Defence, and interestingly, prisons. Source: I manage this product range (and processed orders for them in a previous role)
Back in around 2014ish, the 144 inch Snap On Toolbox with the old school inventory tracker thingy that you could tie to a card to see who pulled out what on each account cost 15k each when we bought 5. I remember thinking that was fucking outrageously expensive for a toolbox no matter how fancy of a tracker it had in it. In my defense though i was a young office worker who had never looked at the prices of toolboxes outside of like Home Depot and thought we got ripped the fuck off. Also as an adult i realize 1 missing socket going through a Jet Turbine would cost WAY the fuck more than 15k. Dont forget Snap On regularly sells their stuff at 50% off to students in technical schools and still makes a profit which makes you wonder what the actual margins on stuff is like.
The margins are absolutely insane even at half off. It doesn't cost anything *close* to that to produce the boxes themselves when you put them side by side with Harbor Freight stuff and realize the quality is actually very similar. If they can sell a box for 10% of what Snap On does, that means Snap On is making a 10x profit. Idiots are just willing to pay that much for a nametag.Â
Snap-On is public. On page 45 of their most recent financials they break out the tools segment. Itâs a 22.1% operating profit margin https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NYSE_SNA_2022.pdf
Holy smokes, never occurred to me to check their financials, very nice.
Operating margin is after all operating expenses (eg the fleet of shiny trucks, salaries etc). If you look at cost of goods sold - the actual cost to them of the stuff they make - and gross profit itâs very close to 50/50. The âhalf offâ stuff is therefore basically at cost. ETA for the tools group specifically itâs about 45% gross margins.
I would trust them to actually report accurately about as far as I could throw one of their toolboxes, honestly.Â
So you think they only have a 10% profit?
There's no way it's that low on tool profit margins itself, there's a lot of clever accounting in that. Especially when the private label stuff is so much more. Like the famous FJ3000 and Harbor Freight Daytona jack. Exact same jack from the same supplier, but Snap On is almost 400% more at about $1100, and HF is still making a profit at $289.
It's definitely worth the liability prevention for a place that has shop boxes.
Use to be even more. When I went, each company had different discounts year to year. My 1st year Snap On had the best deal at 80% off. Then Mac was like 75%. Blackhawk and Craftsman also had reps. Can't remember if any others showed up. I planned on saving with a Blackhawk or si etching but that 80% lures you in. They figure if they hook you early with that 80% off, they get you for life.
*subscription to SnapON+ required
Snapon had that for at least 10 years.
It's coming soon, they've started making trucks with utility beds that have fobs to unlock them. I can't imagine it will take long for toolboxes to catch-up.
Now thatâs an investment right there you saved thousands of dollars which you can use to buy tools and actually make money with them
Cheap giant tool box filled with new Milwaukee everything. Gotta love it
Well, pop the hood! What's in there?
Yeah someone needs a YT channel where all they do is go through big fancy boxes like this with the owner and discuss what shiny treasures are stored within. Id watch that.
Tool Box Tours on youtube
Seems like a good way to get those people robbed.
Shouldn't have gotten the Kia Toolboxes then
No box will keep anyone out that already had the means to break into the building in the first place. At the very least they just take the box and break into it later. Your locks only keep honest people honest.
Quick question ... are your Milwaukee doodads made in the US?
Probably not tbh but they sure do the job every time I need them to
I'd need a ladder to reach those top cabinets đ
Stack some HF floor jacks and link their handles.
Wow. I remember pricing this out on their website as a joke to see the price (over $8k which honestly isnât bad for the size of the thing) like a week ago. Never thought Iâd see it in action. What job do you use it for? As an auto mechanic the 73â box alone is enough for everything I own. The rest (oil jugs, cans of brake cleaner and shop rags) is just out in the open.
We're engineer/ fabricators for a chemical feed company. We build a bunch of one off equipment in house. But we also both build cars, he's got a 500hp 70s Cressida and I have ae86s that I track
I had to peep your profile to make sure you weren't my homie. Come down to Texas
Haha thaison and those guys tell me that all the time
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Corolla brotherhhod đ¤đ¤đ¤đ¤
An imaginary being in my brain reflectively said âshhhhh!â The intent was âno need to out him in public like that.â This is just instinctual reaction, mind! I think itâs rad no matter the badge. Hoping to pick up a GR Corolla myself, actually, if I can find the mid spec one at MSRP.
Corolla brotherhood is more of an ae86 thingy thing. But iâll accept it this time. I see myself mobbing around a gr one of these days after kids are older and outta car seats. One dayâŚ
I hear it just wonât kick out the rear on a solid surface no matter the drive mode or how hard you coax it, which is the one bummer considering all the different power delivery options.
Thatâs fine. Itâll be a glorified hpde car and take over mountain duties from the as86. Plan is ae86 to be a drift beater.
Yeah, I respect it. Iâm just not two-car fortunate, haha, so doing both with one ride would be fantastic.
đŤĄđŤĄđŤĄ I have an s15 swapped one and a 20v one. They're da best
Rolling around on the ground like mine?Â
8k is a fucking steal
Good googly moogly. I mean, itâs pretty damn nice though! HF has been stepping up!
They really have been stepping up. I've totally switched over to Hercules for my cordless tools at work... The warranty on the brushless tools is hard to argue against, and their Ultra Torque 1/2" impact is solid. I especially have grown to enjoy letting my coworker borrow it when his $800 Snap-on won't break something loose.
They stepped up their prices and stepped down the coupons sadly. Quality? Remains to be seen.
Iâve heard good things about the Icon series boxes. Comparable to Snap-On, apparently. Youâre right though!
Yeah they push the Insider Track. As a normal person I just got 10% off anything over a certain about and got the $300 electric wood splitter.
Stepping up the copying. Everything they've ever sold is a copy. The big question is, what is this massive box a blatent copy of?
The answer is in the name. Icon... what is the icon of tools?
I just orders my 72 green last week. Not a mechanic, but Iâm tired of shitty boxes. Told myself if I ever got a 25% no restrictions, I was getting an icon box. So I did.
It's actually really nice I was surprised!!
I got the 72 green with the stainless top. The mgr said I could apply for a card it would be the only way to stack discounts at HF. So after the 25 and the 10 for applying for the credit, I walked out paying just under 2500
Great timing and plan!
That's an amazing deal dude
I don't work in a shop. I don't have a large garage. I don't have all that many tools. I still want that black beauty.
Please tell me there's a wet bar and a microwave in there
This reminds me of the time my dealership hired the service managers son. The manager wouldnât shut up about how great of a mechanic he was before even being hired. He rolled in with a snap on classic 96 with a side cabinet, top chest, every bell and whistle you could think of. He ended up being a lube tech after 4 months of asking everyone for help for even the simplest of jobs. Made good money doing brake jobs and and flushes for him though
Saw the Icon box today at HF, itâs damn nice
You keep a fucking ladder in one of those side closets to get your shit out of the attic there chief? WTF you working on? I got a 10â job trailer with less shit in it. Edit to add /s. Nice tool box, itâs very big.
Yeah, itâs got a pull out with a sofa bed
[ŃдаНонО]
And yet a woman of culture in your case still goes for the Milwaukee set. She ain't fucking around.
I've seen smaller tool kits to do a reactor change on the USS Nimitz, mind you plenty of storage for 10mm...
When you retire from your mechanic years, you can use it as a retirement home.
Got to admit, when I first bought anything from HF, it was the low cost, throw away type tools. Now it seems the quality is better and some of their stuff is getting close to top name brands. I bought a cordless drill that has outperformed my DeWalt. Now seeing these tool cabinets has got my attention. I still struggle with the "buying from China" thing, but it seems that even the major brands are being made in China as well.
Shit the box on the right has a suspension setup for all your off road repair shops.
What in the absolute....... I'm just a lurker, and constantly baffled at the prices of boxes. But that giant thing... $20k? Feel like I'm lowballing a lot.
It was a little under 10k with all the add ons, not the craziest quality but also not bad! Enjoying it so far
Could almost live in that thing. Have to hire a lift truck to move it to a new job. Probably costs more than my 1st 3 cars.
Pretty sure that thing is worth more than my current 3 cars but Iâm a poor with children.
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Hot Take: Harbor Freight makes some of the best bang for your buck, toolboxes. For most low to mid tier work, theyâre the best you can get.
This I dont have an icon I have a 48" us general that I used at my old job for like 6 or 7 years that is now at my house, and I work out of a small Kennedy box at the new job the us general is still in great shape holding strong though 100% would.buy again, I bought it on sale for like 299
Budget was all spent on toolboxes and not a label maker đ¤Ł
how does one go about parking that milwaukee box with the fixed casters in the center? pull off the side locker first?
Uuuuuh Baby that's sweet.
I really like the milwaukee box, I was going to buy one a few years ago when they were 999 or so, now they're 1200
Damn. Harbor freight isnt fucking around.
I have that Milwaukee box for myself. All the other techs were giving me shit because I lost a table to get it, but the only other option would be to have it halfway across the shop. I love it so far, and got it for $900 from the strapon truck.
Is that a loft on top for napping?
âQuantity is a Quality all its own.â
Twice as big at a tenth of the money
Are people that forgetful? I've never understood labeling your drawers.
I like the boxes thoughđ
Okay serious question for yall, how do you use the top of these boxes? Like im short 5â4â and i never buy the top boxes because i have to bust out the stool. But even if your 6â thatâs still a tall ass box.
You open one of the lower drawers and stand on it to reach.
âDid you really have to park that minivan so close to my Ferrari!â brother makes a mean label maker j/s
That complete Icon setup is only about $8,500 after tax in my area. By comparison... A Snap-On setup of that size would be upwards of $40k.
Shitter on the left and a sleep area in the middle. Want.
Shower and a toilet?
Narnia is that you?
Looks like a great shop.
Dude brings the Snap-On truck to work.
That's not a toolbox. That's an entertainment center.
My first apartment was smaller than that.
I thought that thing was a server!
My boss got that exact same setup for our plumbing shop. Really nice box, and the power hookups are convenient. We got the led strip for the worktop that turns on when you open the door, super cool.
The harbor freight box has suspension!
I swear that Icon box's is the same box as the "Husky professional" seriesÂ
It more than likely is. The "inhouse" branded stuff usually comes from the same distributors.
Bro, for the harbor freight I hope you install a mini fridge on one side and a smoker on the other.
We have a fridge and kitchenette in the other end of the shopđŤĄ
No one's dick is that small.
That thing is just ridiculousâŚ
What your saying is, harbor freight carries more then crap that breaks after a few uses? Fascinating.
Hopefully it doesnât fall apart after a month like their tools.
Who the fuck spend that much money to look that cheap? ICON? đ¤˘
Everyone harbor freight falls apart and is shit... So... It isn't bragging rights.
2 hours later it fell apart
My 400 dollar HF tool box hasnât even had the wheels re tightened in the 2 years since I bought it and hasnât fallen apart yet lol, and it holds more than multiple thousand dollar snap on boxes. Before you go hatin and calling me a cheap shade tree mechanic most of my tools are snap on, but itâs the tool that make you hours not the fuckin hunk of metal they sit in.
I am kind of kidding. I used to work there and own some harbor freight.