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m Finish. Ballbearing slides on this cabinet allow the drawers to slide smoothly even when fully-loaded.

▼ Friction Slides. Metal friction slides are long-wearing, but don't operate as smoothly.

Learn what to look for when choosing a roll-around tool cabinet.

Roll-around tool cabinets were once thought to be the domain of auto mechanics and factory workers. But today, you'll find them in more and more home shops and garages. And it makes sense. Available in man)' sizes and drawer configurations, they're great for storing all sorts of tools — not just wrenches and sockets.

But as soon as you start shopping for a roll-around cabinet, you'll discover that prices are all over the map. And you might

wonder (as I did) if you're paying more just for a fancy name. To find out, we took a look at a couple of tool cabinets at opposite ends of the price range. One is a consumer-grade cabinet that we purchased for under $100. The other one is an industrial-quality cabinet that sells for roughly four to five times more.

Now, on the surface, this might seem like an unfair comparison. But we weren't trying to do a head-to-head comparison to see which cabinet is better. Instead, we just

■< Thicker is Better. Heavy gauge steel means the chest at the far left will hold up better over the long haul.

wanted to see what features (if any) the extra money buys you.

Steel. The first difference I noticed between the two cabinets was the thickness of the steel components. As you might expect, the more expensive cabinet uses a thicker gauge of steel. But there's more to it than just die thickness.

The consumer-grade cabinet uses the same thickness of steel on all the parts — the case top, sides, and even the drawers. But the industrial cabinet puts extra-thick sheet metal where it really counts. Hie bottom pan of the cabinet is thicker than the sides in order to support the weight and prevent the cabinet from racking as it's rolled around. Likewise, the drawer bottoms are thicker in order to hold plenty of tools without sagging.

You'll also notice that the case of ^ the more expensive tool cabinet is reinforced with extra bracing and

48 ShopNotes No. 84