Owner: Mitchell Hunt, Lead Technician
Shop: Bruckner Truck Sales
Location: Monroe, Indiana
When you’ve spent many hours and years working with a specific organization system, you come to know what you want from it – both visually and for peak efficiency. Lead Technician Mitchell Hunt is in that sweet spot, where he has put together all the pieces of his toolbox over time and has it organized specifically to meet his needs.
Hunt has been a technician for 13 years and is currently lead technician at the Bruckner Truck Sales, a Mack and Volvo dealership in Monroe, Indiana. “We do everything on trucks -- from minor brake jobs to complete engine overhauls … we do it all here,” he says.
Hunt’s tool storage configuration consists of three different units: a 72” center box, a 52” Craftsman set (top and bottom) and a 48” Craftsman top and bottom. Hunt has had both Craftsman pieces for four years, and finally added the last piece of the puzzle – the 72” Harbor Freight U.S. General – just over a year ago. Like Rome, this customized unit wasn’t built in a day.
“I bought (each box) piece by piece,” Hunt says. “I started with the smallest [48” unit] and outgrew it very quickly …. Then I outgrew the next biggest.” Now, the top workstation of the largest unit provides Hunt with ample space to spread out and work on parts.
For Hunt, building a modular storage configuration was the way to grow, as he could keep his preferred method of organization intact while creating space for additional tools and projects. The 72” General was the last piece to the puzzle, and Hunt says he’s “absolutely” pleased with the box, and the overall effect after putting everything together.
Bruckner’s lead technician points out that he likes to organize his tools a bit differently than a lot of technicians, who often designate the large, full-length top drawer for sockets. Hunt houses his sockets in separate drawers within the unit – his quarter-inch standard and metric sizes each have their own drawers. He keeps his sockets organized by size, all the way up to half-inch. “It seems to speed things up for me. When I look at a job and look at what I’m going to need, I know exactly where I’m going to go to grab it. Or if another tech needs to borrow a tool, I don’t have to say ‘Well, just go plunder around in the socket drawer.’ I can tell him it’s in the fifth drawer down.”
Both of the smaller Craftsman units house 100 percent of Hunt’s electrical diagnostic equipment, items which he puts to use frequently. “My favorite tool would be my oscilloscope – it paints a picture of the electrical system when you’re diagnosing a data link, instead of just getting resistance measurements from a voltmeter. It gives you a picture and you can follow the roadmap.” Hunt recently completed a week-long class at Volvo for data link diagnostics. This class helped Hunt to check off all of his Master Technician certifications.
