A lot of us are spending more time at home than we are accustomed to. For part of the population, this means an opportunity to tackle some of those long-neglected home updates, additions, and repairs. For others, the home projects were a nice thought ... but aren’t exactly panning out in reality (guilty). In any case, spending more time at home means all your dwelling’s qualities – good and bad – are on full display. The dynamic of how a home is set up and how things are organized can spark a few meaningful ideas or launch a full-on renovation. I finally said goodbye to about 45 DVDs (remember those?) the other day. Who needs DVDs when you’ve got Amazon Prime to play Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood over and over … and over again?
The shop is a technician’s second home, and the sentiment remains the same. Organizing schemes and layouts that served you five or ten years ago might slow you down now. In the shop, as in our homes, the shift to digital has a real effect on what we put in our space, how we move, and how we work.
Take a look at the toolbox. It still earns its keep by housing sockets, ratchets, batteries, and chargers …. and maybe it has a built-in power supply. If you are a diagnostic technician and spend a great deal of time plugged in and reviewing scan tool images, you might be considering a ‘tweak’ to how you store and use all this gear.
In PTEN's Big-Time Boxes column, we’ve welcomed diagnostic tool carts into the fold. We still love the tool storage systems that are shop fixtures and real workhorses, but there’s something to be said for a cart that helps a technician tackle a job without having to dig around, untangle, or replace items.
Our March issue featured Richard Urso, a diagnostic technician at High Tech Auto Specialists in Oaklawn, Illinois. Urso modified his Snap-on KRBCSST Series Blue-Point Roll Cart over time, mounting a monitor to the back and welding exhaust brackets to the side of the cart to access his labscope and its 10’ test leads.
This month we have another diagnostic tool storage solution on display, belonging to Master Certified Technician and Shop Foreman Codie Gaddie of Borst Automotive in Tucson, Arizona (pg. 50). Gaddie added a 27” monitor to the lid of his cart, which he then hooked up to a mini PC and scan tool kit. The cart is Gaddie’s one-stop diagnostic shop, helping him to address the flow of ‘check engine’ and ABS lights coming through the door.
Beyond more streamlined organization, carts designed or crafted specifically for diagnostic tooling can offer technicians increased mobility, truly changing the way they move and work in the shop.
