SYS Box 1 with Inserts or a Stanley Pro Sorter , Need opinions on organization!

[festoolfan1000]

Since things are getting pretty slow right now, I thought I should use this time to get myself organized and am looking for opinions on my thoughts. I have gone through several small parts storage systems, currently I am using the clinchers from Duluth. I own a lot of these and while they work fairly well a few things annoy me about them.

1. The need for a bucket to carry more then one around
2. It is difficult to label them as they are fabric
3. The have 6 compartments and one cannot "regroup" parts easily amongst units

I've pretty much sworn off bucket type tool/parts carriers they just don't work very well for me and the lack of tool protection is really starting to show.

I plan to purchase a SYS 5 and build a custom insert as per some of the posts on the forum recently. One of those should handle most of the small tools I use frequently.

While it is expensive I hope to pruchase additional Systainers in the future for the biscuit joiner,  planer, cordless drills. I think I'll keep the demolition tools, rough carpentry tools like circular saws, recip saw in a single large box for now since those tools tend to be used all at once anyways. Alternatively since I have more time then money right now I may design and build systainer compatible boxes myself.

As for parts I have decided that I prefer having a single bin for each item. This allows easy storage on a shelf and the ability to customize a case for a particular job. Though lately (with smaller jobs being the norm) it has been more convienent to just stock the truck with parts rather then set up a parts case before each work day. So I am looking at the SYS 1 box with extra bins or the Stanley units (I don't believe extra bins are availble for these but they sell the complete unit for only $20 - 25 depending on the depth of the unit. I could purchase three of the Stanley units for one of the Festool units. I have seen these and they appear quite sturdy. They would lack the ability to clip to  systainers but I could probably rig something up to solve that.

What do you all think?

Stanley unit: http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=ZAG+ORGANIZERS&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=014708R&SDesc=Stanley%26%23174%3B+Deep+Professional+Organizer

Festool unit: http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=1924.0

Thanks!

Michael

 

[Peterm]

Michael.

If cash is a major concern, then the Stanley organisers are hard to argue against, BUT I used to use those, and have since switched to the Sys box 1s (I have three of them) for the following reasons:-

The contents of the Stanley-style containers get 'sloshed around' when you pick them up 'cos the handle is on the front edge. You have to take the whole organiser with you, even though you know you'll only need the 4 x 35mm or 4 x 40mm screws. You can't easily carry more than two of them at once, and they're hard to mix & match contents between organisers on the fly.

OTOH, the Sys Box 1s stack & clip together, several can be carried easily (and if they're too heavy to lift, there's always a roll-board), the contents don't get mixed about as they stay flat and level when carried i.e. the handle's at the top, and I can easily add a few boxes of fittings to my 'screws' systainer temporarily if I know I'll need them for one particular job. Or I can just take the coloured box of screws for the size I know I'll need.

The only downside of the Sys Box 1 is the price, but I'd say they're probably some of the best value parts of the whole Festool system, and ones that I use more than any other; I certainly don't regret buying mine.

Hope this helps, Pete

 

[Frank Pellow]

I used to have a couple of organizers similar to the Stanley. but replaced them with Sys1 systainers:

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There were threee reasons that I did this:

1) The systainers are much more durable.

2) The small bins can be removed from the systainers.  I often remove the ones needed for a certain sub-task.  Also, I have more bins than systainers, and can take what I will need.

3) The systainers can be interlocked and easily transported with the tool systainers.

 

[Eli]

I've set up a couple (4) sys1 boxes and I'm really liking them. The initial investment is higher, but it is so much easier to keep everything organized, they clip together, you can pull out a box of just the fasteners you're using and throw it in your apron, etc,etc.

I'm not planning on buying another box style organizer ever again, as opposed to the average every few years having to replace all of them because I can never find original styles again to match the older ones.

I've done a screw box, nail box, Standard and Metric bolt boxes. I'm getting at least one more for small climbing/rigging items.

 

[Dane]

I bought a bunch of the Stanley organizers about a year ago.  They worked pretty well until they started falling victim to the weak point in all of these things, the latches.  Once the latches go, and they always go, you have a 25 dollar piece of garbage.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why no one can make a latch that last more than a year.  It happens on everything, from socket sets to organizers.  So far, I have yet to even get close to having a systainer fail. At least with the systainers, the latches are replaceable if they do ever break.  Not so with the Stanley.  But as a point of clarification, the boxes in the Stanley are removable and interchangeable just like the systainers.  But man, the latches suck.....

 

[festoolfan1000]

The latches do seem to be the weak point on those units...

I guess I'll just have to foot the bill for the systainer. Unfortunately at their current and shortly more expensive future cost it'll take awhile to transition over to them. I'll have to start out with one unit and hopefully some additional inserts...

I try very hard not to inventory parts. As a GC inevitably you end up with a lot of them over time and it would just be a waste to throw them out only to buy them again for a future project. To date I have an inventory of over 200 different items. Everything from screws to deck spacers. That's a lot of inserts...

It might be time to put the extra AT 65 on the auction block for the sake of organizational sanity. Or maybe use its systainer hmmm...

Any thoughts on one or more tools in a single systainer? One of my roles is trim out, which frequently involves a finish/brad/pin nailer.  Most modern paint grade work uses just the brad and pin nailer (with some exceptions.) Would you store these in a single systainer with relevant consumables or separate ones?

Thanks,

M

 

[Eli]

I have two sys 4's for nailers and nails.
One carries 15 and 18 ga guns, a CO2 setup, two tight coil hoses.
The other is all the nails.
Both heavy. It just worked out that way because of the CO2 tank, but you could put all the nails with each nailer (probably makes more sense, now that I think about it)

 

[John D]

Plano makes some pretty nice boxes that seem to hold up pretty well.  Many of the are really designed for fishing tackle, but happen to work great for hardware as well.  Amazon, Bass pro shops, Cabellas, and many other places carry Plano stuff.

My Costco had some off brand boxes with removable bins for $12 so I picked up a few of them as well.

John

 

[jakeg]

i bought 2 of the fat max boxxes today at lowes they are built well and 1/4 the cost of the festool  don't get me wrong i love festool  but sometimes i feel like they have us by the balls when it comes to pricing on some of thier stuff