Last of the Waterloo made Sears Craftsman Toolboxes --

[goodfellow]

When "Woot" was a thing some years ago, they advertised this Craftsman Combo for a very reasonable price.

What initially sold me on these boxes was the fact that the top box was 16" wide, compared to traditional Craftsman boxes that run 12" wide. Also, one of the posts on the Woot website mentioned that these boxes were Waterloo manufactured, but they weren't absolutely sure about that fact. Well, the boxes are indeed Waterloo. The documentation that came both boxes showed the manufacturing ID as 706, which is the ID that Sears used for Waterloo Industries.

Here's the hitch though. This combo set seems to be an older Sears set that Woot procured from some source other than Sears. Aside from the fact that this set is no longer available in any online listing, the documentation and the literature provided all still say Sears Roebuck and Co. The new Sears is called Sears Holdings, and the old Roebuck reference hasn't been used in a long time.



These are "old school" friction drawer slides, and they seem typical of the sturdy slides that were so common up until a few decades ago. The metal is also thicker than modern chests. Just for kicks I walked over to my neighbor's house and compared his red 12" wide Craftsman top box, that he purchased five years ago, to my box. This 16" box is a lot thicker and has heavier drawer slides.









This box reminds me of the models and style that Sears sold some 15-20 years ago. It can't be any older, since the documentation is also in Spanish. Any tool box older than that would have only been described in English. I'm impressed with the casters -- nice 2" thick, 5" hard rubber design.





Locks are marginal (as is the case with all these boxes -- even going back a few decades)



Overall, would I do it again? Yes, for the price it's a good buy for an American made box. That said, is it a competitor to the HF 26 combo box which sells for around $330? Not a chance!! The HF box has this combo unit beat by a mile. Thicker steel, better casters, ball bearing slides, more shallow drawers, better hinges, etc.. the list goes on. The Chinese produced HF box is the clear winner in the 26" category.

.....but, for nostalgia's sake, I'll take the old Waterloo because we probably won't find another new set like this for quite a while.