Irwin tool bag

[The Medway Handyman]

Bought one of these 2 months ago, seemed an ideal tool bag for what I do. Not especially cheap.

feature, it has a false base roughly as outlined by the yellow lines here;

for keeping the drill drivers & charger etc I thought.

After a month the sides of the base compartment collapsed & instead of forming a rectangle it became a parallelogram. This made it impossible to get stuff in or out of the base and meant that when you put the bag down it falls over sideways.

Took it back to Axminster today who, to their great credit gave an immediate refund & spent a lot of time & trouble showing me every tool bag they have to sort the problem out. Various mutterings about 'not another one' and 'we've had loads of those back'.

So, if you were thinking of buying one, leave it until they sort the problem out. Shame really, great toolbag other than that.

[Andy Hall]

Have a look at the Veto range if you want something of similar design but rather better.

Rutlands among others sell them They have better tool organising than the irwin ones.

[Tanner-'op]

> Nice feature, it has a false base roughly as outlined by the yellow > lines here;

Hello Dave,

"Have you found the trouble" (as HAL9000 said to Dave Bowman just before Bowman started to disable 'him' in the book 2001 A Space Odyssey [1]).

Now all these-here new fangled ideas are not always the best, and for longevity and ease of use - and it *never* collapses or fall over sideways - you really cannot better one of these things:

one now for near on 45 years and its still goin' strong. LOL

[1] Sorry about that one Dave, but I have just recently finished reading all 4 books in the series, and when I wrote the "Hello Dave" I just couldn't resist adding the other bits! :-)

Tanner-'op

[Bob Eager]

>

Book, pah!

Have you read the original short story?

[Tanner-'op]

>>>>> Nice feature, it has a false base roughly as outlined by the yellow >>> lines here;

Bob, a bit of a sneeze there - and I have heard of a book title called "pah"!

Which original 'short story'?

tanner-'op

[Bob Eager]

>>>

"The Sentinel". Written in 1948...! The idea was expanded into the film. The books you mention came later.

[Tanner-'op]

>>>>>>>>> Nice feature, it has a false base roughly as outlined by the

Bob,

I thought that may be what you were thinking, but from Arthur C Clarke's own words:

[1] ...and we had decided that one, 'The Sentinel', contained the basic idea on which we could build. [2] "2001 is often said to be 'based on' 'The Sentinel', but that is a goss oversimplification; the two bear as much the same relationship as an acorn and an oak tree".

This is taken from chapter 'Back to 2001' in the book of 2001 A Space......

Tanner-'op

[Bob Eager]

>>>>>

I don't disagree. I said the idea was expanded, rather than being based on...there is much more before, and after, the bit on the Moon. I have that book too...!

I think "The Sentinel" is a really good story in its own right, though. Worth reading.

[Andy Dingley]

AFAICS, these Irwins are a copy of the design of the excellent "Bucket Boss" range of bags that Lee Valley and Axminster did a few years ago, only made with much poorer quality materials. I'm not impressed with them.

[Adam Aglionby]

I`d second "Bucket Boss" had a contractors case of theirs for years, its wearing well, dosen`t look like still have a UK distributor though, quite a range on Ebay though.

Adam

[Adam Aglionby]

Ok they do have UK outlets, not cheap but value appreciated after price forgotten

[Andy Hall]

I have a few Bucket Boss bags and they are good. Generally I've bought them in the U.S. in places like Home Deepo or contractors tool places. They are very inexpensive in these and seem to be the popular brand.

It doesn't look as though anybody in the UK is selling Bucket Boss any longer. Rutlands used to carry a comprehensive range but have switched to an own brand knock off (Dakota) which still appears to be reasonable, and the much better quality (at a price) Veto Pro Pac.

Bucket Boss can still be obtained from U.S. suppliers like Coastal Tool, and would be a reasonable addition to an order for power tools.

[Tanner-'op]

>>>>>>>>>>>>> Nice feature, it has a false base roughly as outlined by the

Bob,

Had a quick look for that on Amazon last night and reading the 'blurb' on it, I was amazed that the original story was only 11 pages long (and according to Arthur C Clarke the original was a short story written for the BBC so that would explain that) - could you tell me what copy you have read and where you obtained it from please?

Many thanks

Tanner-'op

[Bob Eager]

>>>>>>>

I read the 11 pages version...it's a really good short story. It's in lots of collections of Arthur C Clarke stories. If you can't trace it, I'll try to dig it out, but there are nearly 4000 books to search through here...and I haven't quite finished the cataloguing software...

[Bob Eager]

Looks like £1.50 at Amazon, plus postage:

[John Rumm]

[Tanner-'op]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Nice feature, it has a false base roughly as outlined by the

Thanks Bob.

If I can't find it I may take you up on that offer.

Tanner-'op

[mike]

It's in a collection titled "The Sentinel" that's on Amazon for 1p.

If you're interested in other versions of the story, there's a nice Marvel Comics version by Jack Kirby:

[The Medway Handyman]

OK I suppose if you want to present yourself as an 'odd job man'. They group everything together & just look a complete mess + they were not designed for modern drill drivers. I like to work in a tidy manner e.g. I remove a tool from the bag, use it, then return it to the bag.

[Tanner-'op]

Wrong there again Dave, the old chippies bags were designed and made for the

*PROFESSIONALS" and not the "HANDYMAN" - oops, I meant the odd-jobbers - a bit like you really!

As for they " just look a complete mess" - I would rather have someone who knows how to the job, turn up with an old and battered old chippies bag laden with with very good quality and very well used and kept tools than posing with a flash bag full of rubbish kit (or even worse, tools he didn't know how to use - and there are people just like that).

Tanner-'op