Kennedy Tool Box Question

So I have the Kennedy model 52611B top box. It's the 11 drawer one with the brown handles. Before I bought my rolling cabinet, 8 drawer 27" Kennedy, I never realized how big the locking lid is. When I tuck it in my bottom of my box when unlocking it, it takes up way too much space on my roller cabinet. Has anyone come up with a way to attach it to their cabinet somehow? I do not want to use magnets since it will affect tools in drawers. It does not fit in drawers either.

I use the 2-drawer intermediate box. It lifts the top box off the rolling cabinet and gives you more space in front of it to get cluttered up with junk. I think Kennedy also made a riser to lift the top box a few inches and allow things to be shoved back under it.

Larry

A wire hook or two, some holes, and hang it on the end.

I don't lock mine so the cover is stored elsewhere...

I have the same toolbox, set on a Kennedy 297B roll-around cabinet. I didn't want to drill any holes in the cover nor the boxes, so like L Vanice did I bought a used MC-28 2-drawer riser. I does get the cover off the deck, though it does interfere a bit with access to the top drawer of the two in the MC-28. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pix, didn't have a real camera with me at the time.



Here's the top drawer of the MC-28 extended. You can see that there's enough room for me to get tools out of it, though I limit how often I need to by storing my blade micrometers and decimal size radii gauges there and I rarely need them.



The larger riser 5150 is 3-1/4" wider there and it's drawers are 3" wider too. The cover wouldn't hang out over it, but you'd lose 3" of space in front of the box.

As others have said, The mc-28 is the best solution other than bungee to the back of your 52611. If you start shopping for Kennedy boxes then I suggest go to chattanooga craigslist and search kennedy in tools section. there is a woman on there that bought travers tool warehouse and has hundreds of kennedey boxes (as well as any other machininst tool you could want). She is selling everything for 50% MSC catalog price and will discount more if you buy more than one item. last week I bought a new kennedey versa cart, 297BB bottom,MC28 mid, 52611B top and the folding shelf. all ball bearing slides new in the box for $650.00 almost $2000.00 dollars worth of boxes. Also got the big 90 tool cat-40 hout tool scoot for $200.00. lots of deals with her, she doesnt know what she has.

Pixman,

This my setup- but I put 1 1/2" of plywood under the two drawer riser so I can leave a tape measure or similar on the bench and still open the bottom drawer.
If you slide the riser and top box forward 3/8" , there is a nice tiny shelf that will magically appear on the back side of the the riser and box, it will fit the lid perfectly, all you need is a couple of tabs or a cord to keep the lid from tipping off.

I have the same box on a 4 drawer riser. I like having the front cover available as a quick shelf. The top of my base has too much junk on it to be usable. I has to put the riser on 1/2" spacers because it wouldn't drop down onto the top of the base due to the raised lip on the sides and back.

I also have a smaller 8 drawer with the same front cover. A few days ago I spent 15 minutes looking for my calipers and finally gave up. I went to close up the box and the calipers were hiding under the slightly extended front cover.

Looks like I will be buying a middle box then, seems like my best option. Has anyone changed out the brown knobs for aluminum handles? Does kennedy sell them or is it something I would have to make custom?

I put the front cover behind the box with the skinny lip on the bottom and attach the top edge with magnets. I keep the 52611 about 1/8" forward of the lip on the bottom box so the skinny edge fits nicely. Makes a narrow space for documents and such.

The boxes with the aluminum handles and the ones with the brown plastic handle are entirely different boxes. I don't think you can swap the handles.

crashtestdummy said:

I have the same box on a 4 drawer riser. I like having the front cover available as a quick shelf. The top of my base has too much junk on it to be usable. I has to put the riser on 1/2" spacers because it wouldn't drop down onto the top of the base due to the raised lip on the sides and back.

I also have a smaller 8 drawer with the same front cover. A few days ago I spent 15 minutes looking for my calipers and finally gave up. I went to close up the box and the calipers were hiding under the slightly extended front cover.

Click to expand...

That doesn't look at all like a 52611 toolbox. I think you have a 3611 box on top of a 2604. Those are both 3" deeper than the 52611 and it's matching MC28, though the cover is about the same height. That means your cover goes into the bottom slot much deeper and wouldn't hang out like mine.

BTW, I think you may have the 1-1/4" wide wheels. If so, you should consider upgrading the wheels on the roll-around cabinet. I changed mine to the 2" wide wheels and it's much more stable for those few times I have to move it around, and I don't even have those add-on drawer units.

Here's a photo showing my stack, on the left. Notice how much thinner the box on top is than yours?



Wanna trade?

If I didn't have that sliding cover, I'd never get in the bottom drawer, then again, I have the 2 drawer middle cabinet, and I can't get in the bottom drawer of that.

As for the handles, you're a machinist, make whatever you want, its a piece of metal/plastic with a tapped hole in it. I've never actually looked at those before,
I may take some of the scrap/setup parts I have and make handles, a different part per handle.

You've seen 2 pics of pretty boxes, here is what happens when you don't clean the front of it.



Rattle snake catcher, pocket watch from snake alley in Taipei, stopwatch, unopened mail, christmas candy from 2 years ago, shift knob, pile of
broken sockets to go back to Sears(that pile keeps getting bigger), piles of paper that you think you will need again, but never will.

It needs a cleaning and a re organizing. Drawers I thought I would fill, I didn't, drawers I thought I would never fill have migrated to many drawers. The
inside isn't as unorganized as the outside, believe it or not.

I honestly wouldn't even have a Kennedy anything, except I stumbled into a trade, the top and middle box for my crappy $99 Sams club wooden top
box. I knew it wasn't a fair trade, he knew it wasn't a fair trade, but his wife liked the wooden box, and he wasn't using these boxes. I made a few parts
for his land cruiser, and then he spent several weekends re working the crappy Sam's club box, making it really nice. Then I bought the roller cabinet,
from J&L, before MSC bought them, got a good deal from the good salesman I USED TO HAVE, before MSC bought them. My investment in these 3 pieces is
a bit over $600, not too bad.

I'd never noticed those handles were crappy brown plastic, I'm going to have to do something about that.

PixMan said:

That doesn't look at all like a 52611 toolbox. I think you have a 3611 box on top of a 2604. Those are both 3" deeper than the 52611 and it's matching MC28, though the cover is about the same height. That means your cover goes into the bottom slot much deeper and wouldn't hang out like mine.

BTW, I think you may have the 1-1/4" wide wheels. If so, you should consider upgrading the wheels on the roll-around cabinet. I changed mine to the 2" wide wheels and it's much more stable for those few times I have to move it around, and I don't even have those add-on drawer units.

Here's a photo showing my stack, on the left. Notice how much thinner the box on top is than yours?


Wanna trade?

Click to expand...

You are correct, mine is the deeper chest, I forgot that there are the 2 different depths. Mine rarely gets moved, so I can live with the wheels. If I were to move it more, I would fab a frame and use some lower profile wheels, or outboard wheels.

I'm glad that my box isn't the only one that gets buried in junk.

If I had to start over I wouldn't buy a Kennedy tool box. My box looks like Crashtestdummie's only this company doesn't know what makes a decent workbench. I often use drawers open to hold all my tools instead of setting them up on organized on a bench real pain then it gradually looks like Bob's between all the damn paperwork and tools. The wheels only lasted 8 months on the floor at work. I built a custom 1/2 steel plate low rider frame on 8" wheels haven't had any problems since. My next box is going to be a custom 72" wide by 30" deep mechanics box, then I will have my bench for tools and more room.

For the original question ...Make a bracket for the cover on the back of the box

Nopeskillz said:

Looks like I will be buying a middle box then, seems like my best option. Has anyone changed out the brown knobs for aluminum handles? Does kennedy sell them or is it something I would have to make custom?

Click to expand...

From what I have hear they do not sell the metal ones. I scrounged a bunch from a trashed one I was giving away, But you should know that the metal ones in the photo have integral rivets that are at a different hole spacing than the plastic handles. It is easy to solve (sand, drill, tap) but it is not quite drop-in.

So, I made new handles (21 of 'em and you need 17 for an 11 drawer box), for no reason other than it wasn't real work and those plastic ones are crappy. Thanx Nopeskillz, never in a million years would I have noticed if you hadn't mentioned it.

Crappy cell phone camera, best pic I could get, the good camera is at home.

Just something fun to do, didn't take much time, little designs I've put on other things before. If somebody steals my box, shouldn't be hard to find.

Yeah those look simple and cool. It will definitely be easy to identify. I think I am going to just make simple handles simple similar to the bottom cabinet. I debating on changing locks out too and just making them all the same key. Doesn't look to be too difficult.

I went a bought the three different lock sets for my 52611, MC28 and 297B from Kennedy, all keyed to the same higher-security tubular key. I don't know if it's really a whole lot more secure against a determined thief, but I feel better having just one key (and 5 extra copies of it.)

PixMan said:

I went a bought the three different lock sets for my 52611, MC28 and 297B from Kennedy, all keyed to the same higher-security tubular key. I don't know if it's really a whole lot more secure against a determined thief, but I feel better having just one key (and 5 extra copies of it.)

Click to expand...

I've done the same thing. The nice thing about Kennedy locks, is you can go back and get the same key code later on. I've order new locks from them 3 times and I have only one key. I took the lock out of the book till and put it in my desk, now it uses the same key also.

This is my box as of now. Changes will come slowly, need more free time lol.

What style of locks do you guys suggest? I have the tubular ones, all different numbers, My middle box has not come in the mail yet so not sure what that will have. I personally don't like the tubular ones because of how big the key is. Dosen't go very well with all my other keys on my key ring. They sell the cylinder locks (typical key, such as a house key ect.) The other option is the groove cut sets. The groove ones are about twice as much each. Do any of you have the groove ones? Is the plastic around it very bulky? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.