Owner:
Robby Blundell
Sioux City Ford-Lincoln
Sioux City, IA
Box:
Robby Blundell has been in the business for only six years—long enough to need a good box but not too long to be jaded when it comes to the business. His lighthearted nature in some ways can be seen in his box.
Blundell calls it "the entertainment center." His Snap-on KRL7972 Workcenter with a KRL7245 overhead has "everything you need to fight your boredom." The toolbox has a desktop gaming computer, Altec Lansing home theater stereo speakers, wireless keyboard and mouse, and a Samsung flat screen HD TV. The box also has a Playstation 3. Many of the mechanics at Sioux City Ford-Lincoln spend their lunches playing video games at the box.
"Everyone knows lunch is at Robby's box," Blundell boasts. "Myself and another tech here always joke about it being a landmark to visit when anyone travels to Sioux City."
Blundell aims to make his box his "own little environment." So he made other modifications for his own gratification. They include a gratuitous amount of lights: four white LED strips in the overhead, four blue LED strips under the stainless top, and two blue LED strips under the workcenter for an "underglow effect." He added two Blizzard oscillating fans to keep him cool during the summer. For charging his cell phone, he mounted to the side wall of the overhead a Rocketfish cellphone charger.
That is not to say Blundell is not a serious technician. The box has all the tools that an ASE certified technician needs at his age. The box and the service cart carry about $10,000 of hand tools, $1,500 in Ford-specific specialty tools, and $4,000 in assorted electronic and pneumatic tools (impacts, drills, gauges for fuel pressure or engine compression, and more).
His favorite tool is his Power Probe III: "I have made a lot of money with that [tool]. If you do any electrical at all check one out there awesome." But Blundell does not discount his hub grappler, because "it makes it fun to pull bearings apart. That thing has saved me countless hours and well worth the money. The way it is designed is a little misleading. It doesn't work how you think a normal puller might, but it is very nice to have around."
Blundell boasts that his box is "an electronic guy's dream." For years he had a Snap-on 54" box, but he always dreamed about the box he has now. One day, daydreaming aloud, the Snap-on representative just happened to walk in trying to unload a new box. It was exactly the box that Blundell was dreaming of, so he traded in his old box (which was paid in full) for the one he has now. For some people, dreams do come true.
