Newer Kolbalt Tool Boxes rust tools.

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

For the last 4 years I have been buying Kolbalt Brand tool boxes from Lowe's. I have a couple of Kennedy boxes but I really like the stainless boxes from Lowe's better. They have better slides and roll around the shop much better.

I currently have two Kennedy sets and three sets of the lowe's boxes which I have bought in the last 4 years.

CarlBoyd · Jul 5, 2015

Rust???

swatkins said:
For the last 4 years I have been buying Kolbalt Brand tool boxes from Lowe's. I have a couple of Kennedy boxes but I really like the stainless boxes from Lowe's better. They have better slides and roll around the shop much better.
View attachment 143043 View attachment 143044

I currently have two Kennedy sets and three sets of the lowe's boxes which I have bought of the last 4 years.

What about rusting the tools????

CarlBoyd

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

Part Two- The Problem

I split the post so I could get all the pictures in...

Today I pulled out a tool, from one of the new boxes bought last year , and noticed that the tool was rusting where it had been touching the blue foam liner!

Opening more drawers reviled more rusty tools, most of them just where they had touched the blue liner.

I keep a can of Boeshield T-9 on top of one of the boxes and wipe down tools after they have been used. The shop is climate controlled just to keep this sort of thing from happening.

I bought my first Lowe's box 4 years ago and the blue liner installed in that box is not rusting the tools. The other sets were bought about 6 months ago and are the ones that are rusting the tools. The blue liner in those boxes is a different texture than the older box and feels slicker.

Does anyone have a liner recommendation for me?

winger · Jul 5, 2015

My Kennedy roller drawers slide a lot better than my Kobalt(not the stainless model) with roller drawers. Plus they open up all the way, the Kobalt doesn't.

Dave

redlee · Jul 5, 2015

A few bags of desiccant, will help.

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

winger said:
My Kennedy roller drawers slide a lot better than my Kobalt(not the stainless model) with roller drawers. Plus they open up all the way, the Kobalt doesn't.

Dave

Maybe my Kennedy's are getting getting old and the slides need replacing... Had them since 1989.

I just checked on the drawer opening... Both the Kolbalts and the Kennedys let the drawer open the same amount on mine..

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

redlee said:
A few bags of desiccant, will help.

I don't think so.. It's something in the liner that is causing the rust. The tools in the older Kennedys and Kolbalts are fine.

These parallels are just fine on the other three surfaces and are only rusty where they touched the liner. In this picture you can see the rusty bottoms, after I turned them over, and the marks on the liner where they were sitting.

billzweig · Jul 5, 2015

Looks that the liners have some chemical residue, as it is unlikely that plastic itself will cause corrosion. Washing the liners with soap and water and drying should remove it.
I am using Rubbermaid shelf liners as sold in most hardware stores. Seem to work well in my "Lista" cabinets. My location is rather humid and I coat all my tools with a thin layer of silicon spray. Did not experience any rusting.

winger · Jul 5, 2015

Yeah, you have the solid slides on the Kennedy.
On my roller bearing drawer slides, the back of the drawer opens out even with the front of the handle.
Depends on how you store whether this is important to you. It was to me when I bought it.

Dave

rons · Jul 5, 2015

swatkins said:
Today I pulled out a tool, from one of the new boxes bought last year , and noticed that the tool was rusting where it had been touching the blue foam liner!

The blue liner in those boxes is a different texture than the older box and feels slicker.

Does anyone have a liner recommendation for me?

I use the rubber black carpet runner material. You know, the stuff has v-grooves.
In the past I had some spare gray shower pan liner used for tile work. It was ok
but distorted a little when something like way-oil splashed on it. Should be fine
for a tool box tray. Never really liked that off the shelf tool liner stuff they
sell in the big box stores.

I would go back to Lowes and show the damage. The blue material is probably
imported along with the cart. Some kind of chemical from that foam is doing
the baddies to your steel. Get it out of there and use brown paper shopping
bags until you get this resolved.

Orange Vise · Jul 5, 2015

Thanks for the heads up. We've got one of those exact chests but they mostly hold plated handtools, coated turning (stick) tools, and plastic insert boxes.

McMaster has corrosion inhibiting drawer liners but they're not cheap.

McMaster-Carr

L Vanice · Jul 5, 2015

I have had some foam cause rust. I recall some Mitutoyo micrometers getting rusty where the bare steel contacted the foam case liner. You would think Mitutoyo would know what sort of foam is safe for tools. I have noted that different age Mitutoyo cases have different kinds of foam, or no foam.

Larry

Davis In SC · Jul 5, 2015

Perhaps the liner was made from by-products of Chinese Sheetrock/GYPsum board?

emcmike · Jul 5, 2015

Recycled Chinese toe nails

Davis In SC · Jul 5, 2015

emcmike said:
Recycled Chinese toe nails

No, they use those for "Chicken with Cashew", at the takeout at the local strip shopping center.

Tom Doudna · Jul 5, 2015

I am thinking the same thing as others have said. It is a chemical reaction cause by something in the blue liner. Remember a couple of years ago when people were getting burns on their feet from soft rubber sandals that Wal-Mart was selling? It turned out it was some chemical used in making the rubber and too much had been left in the finished product.

snopes.com: Wal-Mart Flip-Flops Cause Chemical Burns

I made up liners for my tool box drawers out of pieces of rubber belting used in conveyor systems. One of the suppliers I deal with a lot sells conveyor belt supplies and has crews that repair the conveyors. He sold me several end pieces off the roles of belt material that were too short to keep around. Basically the scrap piece at the end of a roll of the belting. I comes in several different sizes and types, but I like the stuff that is thick enough that it doesn't bunch up at the back of the drawers that have heavy stuff in them.

There ought to be something like that around Houston I would think. If you want I'll send you a piece of the stuff I used so you can see if you like it.

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

billzweig said:
Looks that the liners have some chemical residue, as it is unlikely that plastic itself will cause corrosion. Washing the liners with soap and water and drying should remove it.
I am using Rubbermaid shelf liners as sold in most hardware stores. Seem to work well in my "Lista" cabinets. My location is rather humid and I coat all my tools with a thin layer of silicon spray. Did not experience any rusting.

I think I'm going to wash a few of the liners and see if that will remove the rusting problem. The liners are supplied with the boxes, die cute so they fit really well and don't slide around and bunch up in the back like the liners in my Kennedy does. I would like to make them work so I pull them all and then wash a few and test them out...

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

Tom Doudna said:
I am thinking the same thing as others have said. It is a chemical reaction cause by something in the blue liner. Remember a couple of years ago when people were getting burns on their feet from soft rubber sandals that Wal-Mart was selling? It turned out it was some chemical used in making the rubber and too much had been left in the finished product.

snopes.com: Wal-Mart Flip-Flops Cause Chemical Burns

I made up liners for my tool box drawers out of pieces of rubber belting used in conveyor systems. One of the suppliers I deal with a lot sells conveyor belt supplies and has crews that repair the conveyors. He sold me several end pieces off the roles of belt material that were too short to keep around. Basically the scrap piece at the end of a roll of the belting. I comes in several different sizes and types, but I like the stuff that is thick enough that it doesn't bunch up at the back of the drawers that have heavy stuff in them.

There ought to be something like that around Houston I would think. If you want I'll send you a piece of the stuff I used so you can see if you like it.

I have purchased rubber belting before. Seems like it would be really thick.. How thick is the stuff you bought Tom?

JohnEvans · Jul 5, 2015

emcmike said:
Recycled Chinese toe nails

Yep , with fungus!

swatkins · Jul 5, 2015

emcmike said:
Recycled Chinese toe nails

I was really OK with the problem being some sort of radioactive, PCP contaminated, waist oil sludge from the cesspools of China...

Recycled toenail clippings are a totally different matter... :willy_nilly:

Newer Kolbalt Tool Boxes rust tools.

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