Customizing your Milwaukee Packout Stack with Smart Mods and Labels

About a month ago I wrote up a post about Milwaukee’s Packout system and how it’s a boon not just for traditional tool guys and gals but for DIYers as well. Back then little did I know that the amount of aftermarket customizations available for Packout products is absolutely insane. From custom drawer and bin inserts specifically made to hold certain tools perfectly, to add-on side tables and mounts, to custom labeling for every storage area, there are a lot of options depending on your needs. I’ve interacted with a dozen or so companies/folks offering these products, and there is plenty of enthusiasm driving new options and product developments.

I think perhaps my favorite of the products are the 3D printed tool trays for the Packout bins and drawers. These are primarily available for the 3-drawer boxes and make your tools look as neat and tidy as Stewie’s arsenal in Family Guy. I found that Samuel from Toolitek that operating on Etsy offered perfect fitting options that look excellent. There are options available for M12 and M18 tools and batteries, including drivers, drills, impact wrenches, detail sanders, die grinders, and other items. The trays are printed in red and black for a perfect match to your Packout gear.

Tool and battery trays from Toolitek

For the 3D printed trays that fit inside the Packout bins, I’ve had good luck with 10Spot tools. This shop offers the Jonah Pope designs for reasonable prices, as well as other options such as the smaller trays for the bins with inserts that can accommodate drill bits, Dremel discs, jigsaw blades, and other items.

If you are looking to make your Packout stack more of a work center, there is a robust amount of side mount offerings. These mods were likely not predicted by Milwaukee as you will need to turn a drill on your precious bins to temporarily remove the side-bars, but I found it was well worth the trouble. At the top of each metal side bar, there is a round plastic protrusion that secures it in place. You can use a screwdriver to try to provide enough clearance to slip it out, but people have cracked or damaged the surrounding plastic doing it this way. The better way, in my humble opinion, is to drill away this plastic and use the rail caps offered by these companies to replace it. This allows you to secure the bar with a screw instead of pressure. Should you wish to change your side configuration in the future it will also be infinitely easier to remove the bar from the case.   

Aftermarket rail caps (top) and original caps (bottom)

My selected provider for the side rail offerings is PackibleTools. They have clearly spent a lot of time and attention on their products, and while they are more expensive than others, they exude quality. The primary reason I selected Packible over other offerings is the metal rail brackets. Given the nature of 3D printing adding plastic layers one by one, it can lead the plastic to split under pressure. In addition, utilizing plastic rather than wood for the side table reduces the weight when you need to reconfigure your stack, and the “juice grooves” are handy for catching small screws before they roll off the table. If you’d prefer a wood or steel side table, Dirt Church Industries has some nice looking options, and like Packible, offers the rail caps. Also I gotta admit it's a cool company name. 

Side mounted table and mounts from Packible

Side table and mount in upright position

Now if you want to customize your Packout stack to the tilt, there are folks offering 3D printed plastic handles and latches so you can note what you have in each drawer. Etsy sellers like Chris at TaylorCustomEng, 10 Spot Tools, and CustomToolKits each offer unique options customize and enhance your stack. You can label your drawers, label the side latches, label a handle, customize the square logo, the sky is the limit. I will say that getting the metal loop off of the latches is a PITA, but it looks so good afterwards I think it’s worth the hassle.

Finally, I’ll be discussing the custom trays for the Packout bins. The trays that come stock are perfectly serviceable, but if you’d like to arrange your bits and bobs in a more organized fashion you can order custom trays that hold the standard Milwaukee Shockwave bit holders. Simply yank them out of their organizer and pop them into the bins, easy peasy lemon squeezy. These trays are available from Michael at PolymerPrintCo, 10 Spot Tools, and MWReclaimed offers a similar solution that includes the hex bit holders.

Also, a special shout out to Michael at MWReclaimed. I had purchased a battery holder tray from him designed to fit in the Packout bins. It was a very nice product, but he actually redesigned it to keep the batteries from tumbling out if you are travelling out and about with your bins and things go horizontal and he sent me the new version free of charge. It caps the batteries with a tray so you can fit even more items in your bins, a super smart design. I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with! 

MWReclaimed battery storage tray, the left tray snaps on top, awesome design

Bottom line, the sky is the limit when it comes to configurations for this storage system, so whatever your DIY hobby or profession, there is likely one that would work perfectly for you.   

More images to come in the next few weeks!

   

Is Milwaukee's Packout System the DIYer's Dream Come True?

In terms of consumer products there hasn’t been much that’s really impressed me lately. The current trend has been that large corporations looking to cut costs are charging more for progressively inferior products, with the only solution being to pay a ton of money to smaller companies that still actually care about what they put on the market. While it's great to support small businesses, people generally don't have the coin to only buy well-crafted artisan products. 

Fortunately, Milwaukee, while being a large corporation, still seems to care about providing excellent performing tools that often win the various tool showdown videos on Youtube (now you know how I waste my spare time 😅). Do we all need a brand-new hammer drill with 1,400 lbs. of torque and an auto-stop feature that kills power when your wrist gets caught in that torque? No, but for those of us that do, it makes punching metal easier, and the auto-stop will be worth the money the first time it activates.

Similarly innovative is Milwaukee’s Packout system. Initially I brushed it off as a way to sell more cheap overseas plastic products to consumers. Given many Milwaukee tools are brushless I clearly made an error /dadjoke. On second glance, the Packout gear is a gamechanger for a variety of purposes, and it’s obvious why all the other brands are desperately trying to catch up.

Slim Packout tray with organization compartments

My use-case is probably outside of Milwaukee’s main audience, but it makes sense. My workroom is on an upper level, and while one of those big metal toolboxes (think Craftsman or Husky) would be really nice, getting an awkwardly sized 200lb. box up the steps is a deal breaker. The metal toolboxes also tend to pick up dings and dents on their way to the hardware store or your house which would dampen that serotonin hit when you buy a fancy new toy. Instead of a rolling metal toolbox, how about a rolling sturdy plastic one that largely works the same way and is much lighter? 

The tower of power

What if it’s modular so you can pick and choose which drawer configuration you’d like, and you can pull off a chunk of it (or all of it) and throw it in the car if need be?

Removable work surface

This is the genius of the Packout gear. It can be configured for a variety of needs and easily moved about the workroom, garage, or transported when needed. You do pay for the privilege though, as the Packout gear is priced at what I consider a premium, but it often goes on sale at Home Depot, so I’d advise waiting for a deal and using a cashback app to get a few bucks back.

Internal dividers are handy for organizing small parts

This system will definitely tickle the fancy of anyone who’s obsessive or has a touch of anal retentiveness, as Milwaukee offers some of their tools conveniently in Packout cases. The ¼” and 3/8” socket sets, hole saw sets, Shockwave bit sets, etc. that lock right into your gear stack. 

Mechanics socket set in Milwaukee brand trays

There are customizable foam inserts so you can get your tools arranged just the way you like them. More excitingly, though is there is a contingent of folks on Etsy making custom 3D printed inserts that fit your tools perfectly. If you are lucky enough to own a 3D printer there are files floating around you can print off as well.

3D printed battery tray for tool batteries

There are other modular items that pop on as well, like wet/dry vacs, coolers, work lights, etc. so it really caters to a variety of needs, so long as you can cover the cost of admission. 

Sorting my equipment knobs on the work surface

Given all the unique benefits, I think we are witnessing the next logical evolution of the garage toolbox that just so happens to be perfect for the DIYer in a workroom too.