Stanley Black & Decker has brought a new USA-made 9-drawer 52″ mobile workbench tool cabinet to Lowes.
It’s said to be “designed, engineered and assembled in the USA,” with the not quite large enough sticker appearing to read “Made in USA, with global materials.” That typically means that’s it’s built here but with some components originating from outside the country.
SBD could have given it Porter Cable branding, as they did few years ago, or maybe they could have given it a blue finish and Irwin branding. But Lenox? I find that to be surprising.
Not that this is a bad choice, it’s just not the obvious one.
This is one of the first steps I’ve seen SBD take to expand their now-owned Lenox tool brand. And hey – they managed to build the tool cabinets in the USA, too.
If there was any doubt that this was a SBD initiative, as opposed to maybe one that carried over from pre-SBD days, check out the Dewalt power tools staged in the photo.
The Lenox mobile workbench features a magnetic power strip. It looked funny to me at first, but then I found myself appreciating how this allows the power strip to be repositioned. The power strip has 6 outlets, 2 USB charging ports, and a master on/off switch.
It also has a basic handle bolted to the outer part of the cabinet side.
The drawers look to have a Waterloo-made, or at least Waterloo-like drawer retention system. You might have seen this in Craftsman Gearlatch products. Lenox calls this PosiLatch.
Each drawer is rated to 100 lbs, and there’s no word on whether the full-width drawer has a different load rating.
The tool cabinet measures 52″ wide x 18″ deep x 37.5″ tall. Its casters measure 5″ x 2″, and support up to 1100 lbs.
There’s 1 full-width drawer, 4 medium-height drawers, and 4 deeper (large?) drawers
Its butcher block top (how thick?) is dual-sided, presumably meaning that you can flip it upside down once the first surface develops too much character. The absence of obvious screws, at least in the product photos, suggests that the butcher block top is secured from below.
Or does “Dual-sided butcher block top creates spacious work surface” mean you can work from the front or rear of the table top?
All this adds up to a somewhat competitive package.
Price: $549
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Compare(Milwaukee Preview)
See Also: Husky 60″ Workbench with Sliding Pegboard Review
First Thoughts
Hmm. Will we see something very similar to this, but with a SBD Craftsman badge?
This new Lenox mobile workbench looks good, for a no-frills tool cabinet. It could have fit in more drawers, but at higher cost. And there are going to be a lot of users who are happy to see the deeper drawers.
The butcher block top is expected on something like this. The magnetic power strip? It’s probably cheaper than building it in, and also repositionable.
Made in the USA? Sounds good. That adds a lot to its appeal, if you ask me. We’ve seen some questionable build quality come from some USA makers, but hopefully Stanley Black & Decker kept a close eye on things.
This looks to be a good-sized box, although I would have liked to see it go beyond 18″ deep. That is probably helping to keep costs down quite a bit.
No drawer liners? Little things like this are nice touches, but contribute to higher costs. You can always get drawer liners elsewhere. Power strips too. But the drawer retention mechanism? That’s not something you can add in as easily.
While I like active drawer retention mechanisms, does that mean there’s no soft-close mechanism?
There are no end caps on the drawer pulls. That’s also typically reserved for higher-end products. You don’t notice things like this until the first, second, and then third time you get scratched on the edge of a handle pull.
Above, I said that this looks to be a somewhat competitive package. I say somewhat because there are not a lot of standout features. The sum of its parts gives you a good-looking tool storage solution, but none of its parts stand out as being new, innovative, or class-leading.
Part of me is happy to see this new offering, while the other part of me worries it’s a me-too box thrown together for the holiday season. It looks like you get a lot for your money, but some competing products offer more features, capabilities, storage potential, or a combination of these things.
Maybe they’ll take some money off for the holidays – that would sure make the Lenox tool cabinet more appealing.