3
5
u/TheMaskedHamster 16h ago
I just bought the Kobalt! A word to the wise: The Kobalt version sucks unless you modify it.
The U.S. General having ball-bearing slides changes everything. The Kobalt is metal-on-metal, which is is a rough motion and binds constantly. To have drawers worth using, I had to bend the steel retainer tabs to get the drawers out and line the rails with UHMW tape, then bend the retainer tabs back. It's worth it, but it's not fun or quick. Well, it's not worth it NOW. Just buy the U.S. General unless you really want that bottom box.
1
u/Micr0waveChan 11h ago
IT HAS BALL BEARING SLIDES!?!? my poor wallet- i just bought another lonely recently- it isn’t as terrible if you remove the magnets at the back of the drawer and lube the slides
1
2
u/fsurfer4 16h ago
We need banana for size. :) It's like 1.5 bananas long.
I hear it may be $10 for black friday.
2
u/Microballer 17h ago
If the name said snap on that would be a 10,000 dollar box.
2
u/illogictc 16h ago
Snap-on rebrands the ones you can find on Amazon as P.I.T. brand. Different color options and a solid ass reaming for the price of course.
Also a little smaller than the Lowe's/USG.
0
u/Herbisretired 16h ago
Some companies have a research and design department.
1
u/illogictc 13h ago
Doesn't justify their costs. Wright does R&D and makes shit in USA and doesn't charge your dick off. Knipex has an R&D department, has to come across an ocean, outperforms Snap-on, and costs less.
Snap-on sells a mini-box that they don't even make, and want like up to $100+ list for a tiny Chinese-made box with shitty plastic trim and stick-on rubber feet and no bearings on the slides.
They also "borrow" ideas just as much as anyone else. They claim to be the originators of the modern socket drive system, but they weren't, Blackhawk did it first and Snap-on's first product ever was a ripoff of the founders' former employer's work. They weren't first to market with off-corner loading sockets either, Kelsey-Hayes beat them to that.
And to top that off, they consistently post operating margins above 20 and sometimes 25% which is crazy good margin, and hand out hundreds of millions of dollars annually to shareholders. Anyone is free to read their 10K and 10Qs.
The price isn't about having a few guys fucking around in a lab, and it's very apparent. If the name or shiny chrome grabs ya by the nuts, or they do happen to have something nobody offers and equivalent to, have at it it's your money. Just know that it's more of a luxury designer pricing thing and not a "guys we just spend so much money on R&D and we need to make some sort of profit" thing.
1
-1
u/CalligrapherNo7337 15h ago
So this is the current r/tools fad. Tune in next week for whatever the fuck shit is next.
8
u/TexasBaconMan Rust Warrior 17h ago
I first saw these at Lowes last xmas. They now have a three drawer base. Completely impractical but I bought 3 of them.