I’ve had my Mac box at work for quite a while, and I love the box. It’s strong, looks great, and most importantly held all of my shit! Well I tend to keep a clean tool box (at least at work), and the large empty butcher block top has always looks like a great place to set things. Often to people that don’t even own said surface. My rule in the past has always been just to throw shit away if its left on my box, and its claimed a few coffee cups over the years, but nothing major. Recently we hired a new batch of engineers that have apparently never stepped foot in an automotive shop. After catching them leaning on, working on, and even eating lunch on top of my box, I did the office thing and sent out an email explaining that it was not company property, blah blah blah. Well I was still finding soda cans on it in the morning, so I was left with no choice. Down size to something that could be more easily protected.
I picked up a Harbor Freight 5 Drawer cart and got to work fitting as much as I could inside. Sure I wasn’t going to fit everything, but hopefully enough, and if I ever need more work surface, well I guess I can go use some engineer cubicles!
This is probably the most noticeable thing compared to everyone else standard cart. I really needed a place to hold extensions and ratchets, and was originally going to go the tool clip route, until I found these magnetic panels.
I don’t think this was the cheaper option, but it could very quickly be 6 months from now when my needs, or idea changes, and I want to change what I keep on the lid. To mount them I just drilled through the lid. Who cares, it’s a Harbor Freight cart! As for as how well they work, so far so good. The lid does stay up with the stock struts, but you can tell the lid has some weight on it. If you beat on the top of the lid with it shut, a couple of the short extensions that don’t have as much surface area to attach with will fall off, but everything seems pretty damn stable otherwise.
I also have a folding side shelf for this as well, but it only comes in red for some reason, so it’s still going through the paint process.
And if you know anyone that needs a hot rod style Mac box, it’s going up for sale:
