Best Tool Cabinets & Rolling Tool Cabinets

Tool cabinets are the quintessential tool storage unit for a garage or workshop. Keep all of your most important tools organized with a top-notch tool cabinet. These units are available either with or without wheels and in a number of different sizes with varying drawer capacity. Pair a tool cabinet with a top tool chest to complete your tool storage needs. We put together a list of our favorite tool cabinets that we’re sure you’ll love.


Tool Cabinets

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What is a Tool Cabinet?

One way to think of a tool cabinet is as a big toolbox, though that would be somewhat underselling it. A tool cabinet is, of course, a place to put your tools, but it can serve several purposes, including serving as a bench to work on, being a portable station for specialist equipment, and more. There are several styles of tool cabinets, so knowing which one to get isn’t always intuitive.

Heavy Duty Tool Cabinets

Heavy-duty tool cabinets are built for a hard life. These are tool cabinets with stronger runners on the draws, sturdier legs or wheels, and a generally more robust build. Of course, you pay for that extra strength in additional weight. If you are planning on putting a benchtop on your cabinet, heavy-duty is the only way to go.

Rolling Tool Cabinets

Many tool cabinets come on wheels, which, depending on the size of the cabinet, may form part of a very useful portable setup. Of course, if your tool cabinet is taller than the average person and laden with a metric ton of tools, you probably won’t be wheeling it around all that often. For smaller rolling tool cabinets and trolleys, it can be an ideal place to store your essentials, which can then be wheeled over to where you are working for a little added convenience.

Tool Cabinet Sets

Also known as garage storage systems, tool cabinet sets are the very height of tool storage convenience. If you have a dedicated spot for your tools, and there is no reason to believe that will change, tool cabinet sets allow you to make the best possible use of your space. These sets often incorporate worksurfaces and come in modular pieces that can be arranged to suit the layout of your workspace.

How to Use a Tool Cabinet

The single most important tip you can take on board with a tool cabinet is organization. Having a designated place for your tools will save you cumulative hours of hunting through your cabinet looking for things. The time saved by having an organized system in place multiplies the bigger your tool cabinet is. It’s also a good idea to take good care of your cabinet. High-quality tool cabinets tend to hold their value very well, so if you ever decide to part ways with yours (perhaps to raise funds for a larger cabinet), you can get a big chunk of the initial cost back if it is well looked after.

Picking the Right Tool Cabinet

Purchasing a tool cabinet can be a big investment, as you can spend anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars. It’s important to know what attributes to look for as you are researching.

Storage Capacity

As a general rule, you should always err on the side of more space. It is very uncommon for tool collections to decrease in size, and you don’t want to buy a new tool cabinet only for it to be too small a few months down the line.

Material

The most common tool cabinet materials are stainless steel, steel, aluminum, and plastic, and the one you should choose will largely be determined by how much abuse you think your cabinet will face. Plastic is the cheapest, lightest, and weakest of the options, whereas stainless steel tends to be the strongest and doesn’t rust.

Wheel or no Wheel?

For most cabinets, it doesn’t hurt to have wheels, even if you only move it once a year to get to the electrical outlet you decided you didn’t need to keep clear. In fact, the majority of stand-alone tool cabinets come stock with wheels. The exceptions to this are fitted tool cabinet sets and cabinets that are doubling up as workbenches.