Milwaukee just kicked off a new Packout FREEBIE deal at select authorized dealers.
The latest promo is based on Milwaukee Packout shop storage products, which are designed to be wall-mounted.
Buy a large Packout wall panel, shown here, and priced at $40, and you get TWO free accessories.
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The wall plate measures 30″ long x 20″ tall x 1″ deep. When properly mounted (holes are spaced for 16″ on center stud installation), it can hold up to 150 lbs.
Milwaukee says it’s compatible with ALL Packout components.
There are alignment tabs for tiling the panel on the wall.
These are the eligible freebie choices at Acme Tools, along with their listed retail values:
- 3″ Curved Hook ($10)
- Tool Rack ($15, for pliers and similar)
- 4″ S-Hook ($15)
- Wide Hook ($13)
- 9″ Straight Hook ($13)
- Magnetic Rack ($30)
- 6″ Curved Hook ($13)
- Long Handle Tool Holder ($23)
Home Depot is also participating in the deal. It appears that Home Depot’s online ordering freebie inventory was hit hard overnight, as their selection options dropped to just 2 styles of accessories.
According to images I’ve seen online, the promo is also available at stores, but enthusiastic Packout fans have been clearing out the shelves.
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Acme Tools says there’s a limit of 4 free pairs of accessories per order. As with other Acme promotions, you should be able to place multiple orders.
Discussion
So that’s $40 for the wall plate, and TWO free accessories at $10 to $30 each, with most priced at $13 or $15? So that’s $40 for the necessary wall plate, plus $26+ in free accessories.
That seems like a really good deal.
As long as inventory numbers can support the interest, I think this promo is going to convince a lot of people to give the Packout wall storage system a try.
Peter
Must resist! :-p
Addicted2Red
exactly
Jon Snow : I dun wun’t it
Champs
My partner’s epithet for Packout is “expensive plastic,” and while I love the portability, once it’s stationary I may have to agree.
I know that not everyone wants to get into an elaborate French cleat system, but ripping a few boards seems like the trivial part of getting organized.
Stuart
French cleats are fantastic for DIY solutions.
DIY solutions aren’t appropriate or the best fit for every workshop or storage environment.
Mike
Fair enough.
I think the promise of modularity hooks a lot of people who won’t really change configurations, and the plastic construction actually seems desirable and “modern” to lots of people.
I don’t have any experience with these, but it would seem some off the shelf adjustable shelving would be sturdier and easier to stack and unstack full Packout boxes/totes.
As far as all of the hooks, brackets, etc., it’s definitely plastic and definitely expensive.
Off the shelf pegboard is ~$.50/sq ft while the plates are ~$10/sq ft, so 20X more expensive. Pegboard accesories might be 50x less expensive.
The Packout board obviously doesn’t hang itself, and so is on par with just hanging some pieces of plywood cut to size at the big box store. At this point, attaching any manner of hooks and brackets to it is easy, quite flexible and more durable, as long as some artifact holes don’t bother you. Obviously if you’re switching configurations continuously, Packout is better, I just think this is rare.
I have no problem with people spending big bucks to organize their garage, etc. Garage sq footage is very expensive, and saving time and keeping your momentum when working on recreation projects is priceless.
Expanding into modular/flexible fixed storage seems natural. I imagine this appeals to people who don’t mind spending lots of money to store relatively few tools, who know and trust the Packout name, and like the image/aesthetic offered.
I agree that Packout excels at modular/flexible well protected storage… that must be mobile.
V
I think where this shines would be a job trailer or something. Where you park the trailer on one side of the job and have different boxes with different tools for different phases of the project.
I do need this but I think the price is too high for now. Gonna wait to see what the competition cooks up.
Stuart
There’s nothing wrong with that either. Modularity goes hand-in-hand with “customizable.”
One can “set and forget” a setup and have their purchase deliver just as much value as one that changes their setup according to dynamic needs for a given project or job.
Tool storage is a functional need. Time is precious.
This promo shaves a bit off the cost, and will absolutely entice people who – like me – want to update their tool storage but can never get around to actually doing it.
Pegboard is fitting for some needs, not others. There are a lot of DIY and low-cost options. Packout, and other systems like it, are excellent alternatives for users.
I have used pegboard and garage rail systems before. I’ve used all kinds of DIY and store-bought solutions.
I built my office workbench with 80/20 aluminum extrusions and IKEA countertops. I built maybe 10 drawers and needed 4 more of the same size, and at least another 12 deeper drawers.
After waiting and waiting until I realized I wasn’t going to get to the project anytime soon, I placed an order for 30 drawers from a kitchen cabinet drawer company. I reused my DIY drawers setup elsewhere.
They arrived pre-finished, although the fronts were imperfect with spray reside that I mostly scraped off. Not a big deal, as I planned to add proper drawer fronts to them. That was… more than 5-1/2 years ago. I still plan to add proper drawer fronts to them… someday.
At this point in my life, there are projects I enjoy, and projects that just need to get done. There are some storage projects that I enjoy working on. Others take away from projects I enjoy working on, or tasks I need to do.
With the Packout wall storage system – and others – you can customize your needs. The modularity is important, but so is the ability to skip the design work and get a bunch of tools organized and stored away quickly.
For business needs especially, I will absolutely buy a product to suit a need, even if I can DIY it myself, if it will save me enough time in planning, design, and building stages.
For another of my workbenches, the top’s just sitting there. I’ve been meaning to cut and bolt-down a better-fitting work top. And I will…
If I had an empty garage, this system would be on my wall, as it fits my needs a lot better than others. I could store all the same stuff for less, but would have to mix and match all kinds of different systems to do it. 20 years ago, I had a lot of time and little money. Now, I have a little more money and a lot less time.
It’s not that I’m willing to spend a lot more money, but that I have become a lot more strategic about how I spend my time.
Jeremiah McKenna
The other or rather main benefits to using these is that our other Packout equipment will fit right into it, especially when we hang boxes on the wall after using them remotely.
But if you add up the cost of the lumber and materials to build the cleat system, then the time it takes to cut, screw/build the DIY system, it could be less expensive to buy the Packout products
Mike
I get this aspect of the wall plate (hanging Packout boxes), I just don’t understand how it’s better than some adjustable shelves to simply slide boxes on/off.
These sale priced accessories are not storing Packout boxes though, they’re hanging tools directly.
If you have no table saw, track saw or circular saw with rip guide, are only hanging a few plates, and/or your time is quite expensive, then the plates will be cheaper.
I would like to hear more specifics about where these plates excel for hanging Packout boxes… like we store x in y above a bench where its often used when not in the van, etc.
Thanks.
James
Hi Mike. I have a few plates mounted in shelves in my van but that’s “horizontal” storage. Have a mixture of drawer units, parts organizers, crates, tool trays, and a cooler to keep things warm in the winter with a lightbulb heater….Canadian problems ha.
The only vertical ones I have are mounted to a plastic Kleton rolling cart. This is my install cart that I only use on big jobs. I clip a few packout boxes (whatever I need that day) on either side when I’m rolling into the site, and then when I get there, I hang crates as sort of catch alls, one for parts, piping cutoffs, etc, and the other for loose tools. I also have a plate mounted to the surface with a toolbox (with opening lid) and my pipe vise is then mounted to a tabletop. That last one might be hard to picture but the whole setup works great!
Yeah they’re expensive, and I don’t see a use for wall stowage at this point, but the modularity of clipping boxes on and/or hanging crates is definitely useful to us.
I have a rolling Veto tool bag that the handles permanently stay extended on, and I’ve just ordered another mounting plate to try bolting to that suitcase style handle so that I can add some boxes or accessories when rolling my tool bag into jobs. Could have used it today so that project will get done in the next couple of weeks. We’ll see how it goes.
Mike
James,
Thanks for the detailed response, that sounds like a flexible and well thought out system you have assembled from different brands.
Packout’s evolution has been amazing, much of it fuelled by end users’ modifications and adaptations, especially with 3d printing, etc.
Your setup description is excellent, but I’d still like to see some pics… maybe Stuart can get Milwaukee to sponsor some user tool storage setup photo hosting. I imagine they’d get a great ROI on the consumer R&D. I have no experience with web design/hosting, so not sure how big a can of worms a user expo would be. I know there are lots of clever setups among readers, would be nice to get some cross pollination going.
Would at least like to hear some more creative wall plate ideas.
Brian Wanck
French cleats don’t work in a truck or cargo trailer. Yes Milwaukee is becoming Snap On esque with it’s pricing. It’s good for working different job sites, but not for stationary work shops.
Steve
Dangit! HD only has paper towel holders and single hooks left. Still, not a bad price if you were buying them anyway.
Stuart
I see the double small J-hooks and the pliers rack.
There were more choices last night, hence the note in the post about reduced selection.
Saulac
Are these as good as the HD Milwaukee packout promotion that was all over FB last week? HD inventory was hit hard with that one for sure …Now I am not sure if the glitch was actually by design as Milwaukee want to hook more people into the system before Tough Built Stack Tech become a legitimate competitor.
Stuart
Well, that was a very limited time POS glitch on a Packout tool box promo at just one retailer. Someone discovered the glitch, exploited it, shared about it, others did the same, and the error was fixed.
I’ve never seen brands design a promo to look like a glitch, and doubt that happened.
Anyway, that was a tool box and organizer promo, this is a wall storage promo.
I would assume that Milwaukee has an eye on ToughBuilt, but I don’t think they see them as a full-on threat just yet. Lowe’s is a weak point, and ToughBuilt does not have the flexibility to run aggressive promotions just yet.
Dewalt has a very appealing new wall storage system. I’ve heard rumors of retail adoption. THAT could pose a threat to Milwaukee. Even if not, this promo is expertly crafted.
I still have some test samples I haven’t mounted yet. I purchased some Packout wall storage accessories, and cabinets I’m using in towers for now, and there are others I’ve been considering.
There hasn’t been a promo like this yet.
With all that in mind, I’m looking around and seriously asking myself whether this promo aligns with any of my storage update plans or unmet needs. I’m planning on a shed, and some of these hooks would be perfect. With this promo, the cost of using it for something like that is a lot more justifiable, whereas I had been looking strictly at Rubbermaid’s hook system and similar.
This promo could drive adoption of the wall storage system, which is rarely promoted alongside the tool boxes.
Matt S
I get tempted to try this every time it’s on sale, but it’s so much branding. I think the brands would be well represented by what we store in these systems, they don’t need to put a logo on every single hook and bin.
John E
It really is quite hideous looking.
garrett
Agreed. Anything is better than this. I’d rather invite Banksy over to do my home storage design & aesthetics. Come to think of it…
James
Preach. One project on my list is to paint over all those logos and paint the Packouts that ride in my truck. Not too worried about the million crates and drawers in my shop but I hate opening the doors to my van and it’s Milwaukee Milwaukee Milwaukee Milwaukee. “Oh you’re a Milwaukee guy?!” 🤦🏼♂️
John E
In my experience, the Milwaukee logo rubs off quickly with moderate usage. Bit of mineral spirits should do the trick.
BigTimeTommy
Hate Milwaukee branding so much. Hate doing a company’s advertising for them for free after buying their expensive product.
Koko The Talking Ape
Side note: I notice HD has reduced prices on several Apollo hand tool kits, all in pink! A 201-piece kit, with a pink level, pink hacksaw, pink bag, pink tape measure, pink bit holders, etc. for $36! (They might be counting all the individual bolts, screw, anchors, etc. in the parts case.)
The tools might be crap, but at least nobody would borrow them.
jayne erin defranco
Super nice stuff… I’m sure milwaukee will do well.
Frank D
I guess I may be a day too late. Home Depot doesn’t work for the special ( not that I am surprised … ). Acme still does. Two weeks extra time on the gifts.