An Aircraft Mechanics tool box
 

:hellox: hey everybody just wanted to show and tell about my tool box and how mechanics work in aviation to control our tools. Nothing worse than loosing a tool. We can't let it happen so we inventory our tools and equipment continuously.The tools are shadowed so when one is out of place it is easy to tell which tool it is that is missing. A lot of military guys will be familiar with this Instant inventory. My tool box at home that I use on my truck looks much different if you know what I mean :choochoo:

2001 Matco Custom trim

Attachment 48416

30 degree/60 degree wrenches for hydraulics in the top drawer. I use a lot of 1/4 inch drive stuff sockets etc.

Attachment 48417

Crows feet are a must in tight places and to be able to torque fluid lines.

Attachment 48418

Some of the odd pliers are Safety wire pliers for twisting lock wire and cleco pliers for installing sheet metal pins or as we call them clecos.

Attachment 48419

Screwdrivers and such

Attachment 48420

Sheet metal layout tools and measuring equipment

Attachment 48421

Rivet "sets" for reacting solid rivets.Some tungsten bucking bars for forming the shop head on the rivet tail.Very dense metal and heavy gives good reaction to buck the rivet.

Attachment 48422

Hammers

Attachment 48423

Air drills, grinders and sanders,rivet guns.

Attachment 48424

mirrors, flashlights

Attachment 48425

More stuff
 

Torque wrenches

Attachment 48413

More sheet metal tools,roto-broaches, countersink cages, rivet sets for hand squeezing rivets, deburring tools.

Attachment 48414

Slow air drill for stainless, and a pneumatic skin saw for precisely cutting sheet metal, similar to a miniature skill saw.

Attachment 48415

i see you are a neat freak. no black grease on nothing. :jump:

That's the worst part the foam gets greasy at times but its easy to replace the foam I use is that walmart camping foam!! works great hehehee

That looks strangely familiar.. LOL. Nice post Jet a Fuel :c:

I would almost expect it to be neater.

I've toured Gulfstream's facilities before; every tool has a cut-out in the boxes, and the tools that aren't in the boxes are stored in a locked safety cage and checked out one at a time. If anybody looses a tool they'll look until they find it. Apparently FOD is a big concern around million dollar Rolls Royce engines. :s:

I was gonna say something sarcastic but oh well its Begle hahahaha.

looks great kevin:tu:

ya that looks nice kevin the way you got it set up and ya i understand about the missing tool thing someone on my son-in-laws crew misplaced a wrench while we were there at lemoore air base and they had to stay until it was found :ouch:

crazy

is that like memory foam ?

Kevin it looks like that we work in similar branches.:jump:
Missile and Radar tools and test equipment does look similar.
Our tools are stored into 6 Oshkosh sized trucks. The cabins include the hydraulic hose shop with pressure testing, the magnaflux and x-ray shop.
I would love to show pic's- but it is restricted area.:dang:


No rings, watches, earrings, piercings or chains...
Everything disassembeled goes nice and neatley into labeled boxes. We also have BIG trouble when a bolt or nut is left or missing.
Nothing moves until that part is back.
Can really cause nightshifts.
We have that same foam just in black with a signal yellow ground below the tool.
You will recognize imedeatly a missing tool.

Very nice post, Kevin!

No - its closed cell foam thats sold in camping stores

Yep just plain old camping foam it comes in a 6 foot roll at walmart. I have the black drawer liner under that so when the tool is removed there is a black hole. Yellow would be nice if it was readily available.We get hammered all the time for a little metal shaving on the floor of the hanger it gets really extreme.After 20 years of doing this kind of work I have seen lots of changes but tool control and foreign object debris (FOD) is still the most important thing.

that way to neat of a box, ill have to get pics of mine, it looks like a tornado went through

DAMN! I've got 3 times as many tools stuffed into a box HALF that size. Mine looks like a tornado went through it also! I wish I was as organized as you but I'd need more boxes and don't have the space :argh:

I've got a friend...an idiot savant, or "hillbilly savant" as we like to call him. He is the most unorganized SOB I've ever met. His toolbox is empty, but his garage is ful of tools. He totes them around in his wheelbarrow and 5-gallon buckets. About once every 2 months he re-organizes the shop by sweeping everything off the floor and picking through it to find his tools, loads them back into the toolbox...then the mess cycle starts over. It's crazy the stuff he builds even when he can't find the right tool for the job.

My lil bro is a Helicopter Mechanic and is very particular about his tools, he's only a couple years in, so his tool collection is growing. I'll send him the link to this, he'd be impressed as well.

some work has to be done while the radar is operating in ready to radiate that means you work next 40kV( 40.000Volt).
You simply don't want to have slippery and greasy tools or unorganized area to work .

Otherwise you can get a nice new electric hairstyle the last time in your life.

I envy your collection. I should be going to school for AMT in the fall now that I got the military thing knocked out. I should have my A&P by the time I'm 32 :argh:

I resemble the remarks above... :rocking:

I have two boxes and a big cabinet full of "plastic boxes" (the good stuff that comes in kit form) and everything is stuffed to the gills. It would take me a top and bottom triple bank to even have all my tools laying in one layer, and a Mr. Big (Snappy KRL1065APBO, Roll Cab, Five Bank, Extended Cab System, 35 Drawers, Red) to fit all my stuff in one box (including all the kits).

I can't afford to spend that sort of money on storage only. :dang: Wish I would have found myself a decent box while I was still running the tool truck.

damn i wish my tool box looked like that i dont have the patence to cut all those damn holes tho

Looks nice man very organized good work man :tu:

:cp:That reminds me that I need to schedule my O&Ps only 25 days left till I'm done with MIAT.

I worked in cessna's experimental flight dept for a few years and we had snap-on boxes that had magnetic badge readers on them. You had to scan your badge to get the box open. They were pretty much the fanciest boxes i've seen with an actual usb port to hook a laptop up to it.We had about 25 of these things and I think they were about 30k fully loaded!!!!.....Yeah, WWAAAYYY TOO MUCH MONEY...........

I really wish i had the patients to be that organized. I told the snappy guy to never try and sell me another box. All i wanted from him was tools.I would just build a bixer tool box, ie a bigger building the on I have now is a 40x80. He did not seem to understand

Seeing your toolbox reminds me of Boeing's 5S program...a place for everything, and everything in its place. Looks good.

id have to have more than the two tool boxes ive got now to have foam to hold my tools... but i do hate when stuff isnt where its supposed to be at the end of the day...

just looking at your pic's and thinking, WOW!!! I just swapped the engines from a scrapped volvo truck to my volvo out in the yard at my shop(more room outside to move around),all my tools were on a little yard cart in a pile, trying to find stuff at the end of the swap was getting frustrating, but it got done in 3 days :w2:start to finish:c:

Retired helicopter mechanic......
 

That looks really familiar. I spent over 20 years in Army Aviation Maintenance. We had the same things and it does make it easier to keep track of things. Looking good man.
Stay safe out there.

AAAH!! How I miss the blue Foam, Over 20 years working on Air force and Navy jets on active duty, also Army Helicopters for Lear Siegler for a while as a Civilian. Just before I retired for the AF we were ordering tools from Mac and Snap on and they would laser cut the foam for us (yellow as base layer then blue on the top) it looked very nice, and laser etch the tools also.
I still have my Box, but most of the foam is long gone.

Nice set up, jet a fuel.

Kevin, smoking box!
I work at Boeing in Everett, WA, I see boxes like this and have one similar myself on a three wheeled bike as I am mobile all over the plant and Flightline. The blue foam comes in two densities, the type you have and a stiffer type. It resists grease, will in fact wash off like a counter top. I don't know where to tell you to get it as we reclaim it from shipping fixtures into the plant and reuse it.
Go Navy, Dad was an SB2C pilot, and we in the Marine corp appreciate the transportation you provide when we need to go deal with a situation that needs our special touch.
ooh ah Richard

Here's my cheapie toolbox for A&P school. I'm on a short budget and I have an hour commute so I have to drive my 4-banger everyday and we have to take our tools home. Nothing special inside. Dial calipers, Snap-On multimeter, punches, files, 1/4" sockets and wrenches. Once I get into my powerplant classes next semester there will be more, and more yet when I get into sheet metal next winter.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1969843_n.jpg

I know guys with toolboxes the size of Winnebago's and full 300 watt stereos built into them. doesn't make them a better mechanic and it sure doesn't win them any friends when working close to each other.

They have one at Lowe's with a Pioneer head unit and 5" speakers built in and a mini fridge. I really want to buy it for my garage but yeah I agree, that's pretty unprofessional to have at work, especially in a hangar where we're supposed to be the most skilled and professional of all mechanics/technicians. When I start out in the industry I'll have a nice simple rollaway like Kevin has big enough to fit my tools and that's it. I don't see a reason to spend 15 grand plus on a massive fancy toolbox that nobody sees but the other mechanics in the shop and is only half full of tools or you have 4 of everything just to fill it up.

Edit: I forgot I had taken a cell pic of it when I was at the store buying my little Kobalt "car box".
Attachment 45538

You say that now, Until you get that account that lets you get the shiny new boxes....and then its OVER......

of toolboxes and skills to match
 

we have one lunatic in tool fabrication, they build the floor jigs that the aircraft are actually built in. He actually has the receipt for his toolbox laminated and stuck under the lid as nobody in their right mind would spend over $10k for a toolbox but he did. I'm pretty sure he tows it with an electric cart as it's about impossible to roll by hand with the french curves and big stuff hanging on the outside and the speaker cabinets that roll out when he opens it up. :s:

mine bounces around in the racetrailer and is pretty messy, oh and it's probably older than all of us. my step father got it back in the 50's i think but it is still working great top and bottom halves. I have another in the garage a little neater

I like the old boxes especially the small machinist boxes, do you know who made your old box?

i wish my auto program was that neat the turds in my class lose all the tools thats why we have harbor freight and not something good like snapon

very cool

Toolbox Shadowing
 

Wow! What you have looks great! It looks like you guys are pretty heavy on the sheetmetal side if you are buying tungsten bucking bars. Here is how I did mine - Aviation Maintenance

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-15UPWCmaGl...s+pics+534.JPG