DIY socket rails with wood bases

[JimMartini]

So I finally pulled the trigger on a Harbor Freight 44" bottom box, and I wanted to store my sockets in the top drawer. In my old box I had all my sockets mounted on the Craftsman rails with handles, which are great but won't stand upright in a drawer.

My requirements:

1. Each rail must be individually removable, since I want to grab whichever rail(s) I need and throw them on my small service cart when working on a car.
2. The rails must stand upright, and not fall over when I open or close the drawer.
3. Easy to grab.
4. Cheap as reasonably possible while fulfilling above requirements.

Parts / Materials:

1. 3/4" plywood, cut 18" long, and either 2" wide (larger 1/2" sockets) or 1-3/8" wide (for everything else).
2. Socket rails. I used Harbor Freight ones, which were on sale for $1 each. I think I ended up using 4x 1/2" rails, and 6x 3/8" rails. It'll be evident in the pics.
3. Drawer knobs. I found these on Amazon, although HD and Lowes have similar stuff. I bought a box of 20 for $21 so I had a few extra.
4. Screws. I used some #8 5/8" screws that I had around to attach the rails to the plywood. I ran out, and the Ace by my house only had #6 in 5/8" length. It turns out the #6 screws were a better fit anyway, and I finished with those.

Future plans:
I bought some small rare earth magnets that I was going to flush mount into the bottom of each rail with epoxy, but I ended up not doing it. I may go back later and install them, but in the meantime they stand up fine on their own. I'll wait to form an opinion on this until I've had a chance to use them more.

Anyway, I hope you folks find this interesting and perhaps useful.

On to the pics!

Jim

 

[RiverRider]

Nicely done.

 

[RedRabbit]

Wow. Very nice. Original idea, I think many people will be copying this. Unfortunately, I got enough socket rails lol.

 

[markhunt700]

Very nice &tidy

 

[MushCreek]

Nice work! I need a rail system that finds the missing sockets and puts them back for me.

 

[jjohnson70]

Great idea I think I will use this one. Thanks for posting!


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[Jure]

chrome and wood looks great

 

[PFSard]

Those are works of art. Great job.

 

[thegroundpounder99]

Nice idea and FYI, I'm gonna copy you lol. I just got back a tool box that was stolen from me years ago and believe it or not everything was still in. It was the Craftsman stuff I started with. I had all the sockets on them style rails but I need more for my work box and never thought of doing that. Thanks for posting.

 

[Jure]

Nice idea and FYI, I'm gonna copy you lol. I just got back a tool box that was stolen from me years ago and believe it or not everything was still in. It was the Craftsman stuff I started with. I had all the sockets on them style rails but I need more for my work box and never thought of doing that. Thanks for posting.

how the fu_k you managed to get your box back after that long?

 

[bugnout]

Can't see the photos. Sounds like a great project

 

[rick carpenter]

Nice work. When I used these rails, I had enough extra clips that I swapped them around til I found good tight fits for every socket. You might want to consider a couple of magnets flushmounted in the bottom of the plywood to keep your rails in place and upright when you set them on metal surfaces. With enough magnets in the bottom, your rails could be temporarily slapped onto a vertical surface while working.

 

[thegroundpounder99]

how the fu_k you managed to get your box back after that long?

Long story, but it was actually stolen by my parents along w/ a house full of stuff when I was hospitalized a few years back. I really didn't think I'd ever see it again but it had some sentimental value to me as it was the tools I've had since I was a kid and what i started w/ as a mechanic.

 

[ijroorda]

Very nice, I've done something similar in the past but mine were definitely more utilitarian in appearance.

If those Harbor Freight rails wear out or give you trouble, consider switching them out for Snap-on. I'm not much of a Snap-on evangelist (my toolbox and many of my tools are Harbor Freight), but their steel socket rails are better than any others I've tried, and very reasonably priced: https://store.snapon.com/Socket-Rails-and-Clips-C675977.aspx

I've recently replaced all the Harbor Freight rails in my portable toolbox with Snap-on, and for the first time ever, all the sockets are still where they belong when I open the box.

Again, though, nice work!

 

[Jure]

Very nice, I've done something similar in the past but mine were definitely more utilitarian in appearance.

If those Harbor Freight rails wear out or give you trouble, consider switching them out for Snap-on. I'm not much of a Snap-on evangelist (my toolbox and many of my tools are Harbor Freight), but their steel socket rails are better than any others I've tried, and very reasonably priced: https://store.snapon.com/Socket-Rails-and-Clips-C675977.aspx

I've recently replaced all the Harbor Freight rails in my portable toolbox with Snap-on, and for the first time ever, all the sockets are still where they belong when I open the box.

Again, though, nice work!

lol that's dirty cheap! here you have to pay for a HF type of rails $8-10 per rail with 11 clips and that's the only type you can find,and they are all made in china or taiwan (if you are lucky enough)

 

[JimMartini]

Nice work. When I used these rails, I had enough extra clips that I swapped them around til I found good tight fits for every socket. You might want to consider a couple of magnets flushmounted in the bottom of the plywood to keep your rails in place and upright when you set them on metal surfaces. With enough magnets in the bottom, your rails could be temporarily slapped onto a vertical surface while working.

I agree, the magnet idea would be pretty cool! I actually ordered a 1/4" forstner bit and 100 1/4" x 1/8" rare earth magnets to do exactly that, but ended up not installing them at the last minute.

There were a couple reasons for this:

1. Although I purchased magnets of specific size, of which I was aware in advance, they were still somehow smaller than I anticipated in real life. As a result I think I would need a minimum of four magnets per rail, and at that point it was late in the afternoon, and I just wanted to have the rails complete and in service before putting several more hours into the construction process.
2. The rails seem to stay upright in the drawer just fine without the magnets. Admittedly this was a pleasant surprise; I thought the magnets would be required to achieve this.
3. I suspected that even with the magnets, the foam pad drawer liner would
   prevent the rails from really sticking to the drawer.

I'm sure I'll go back at some point and install magnets in at least one rail. This will let me figure out how many magnets it takes to render the results useful, which will help me figure out if I want to put the work into putting magnets into the rest of the rails.

I'll update the thread if/when any of that happens!

Jim

 

[JimMartini]

Very nice, I've done something similar in the past but mine were definitely more utilitarian in appearance.

If those Harbor Freight rails wear out or give you trouble, consider switching them out for Snap-on. I'm not much of a Snap-on evangelist (my toolbox and many of my tools are Harbor Freight), but their steel socket rails are better than any others I've tried, and very reasonably priced: https://store.snapon.com/Socket-Rails-and-Clips-C675977.aspx

I've recently replaced all the Harbor Freight rails in my portable toolbox with Snap-on, and for the first time ever, all the sockets are still where they belong when I open the box.

Again, though, nice work!

Thanks for the link! FWIW, the HF rail clips are a bit looser than the Craftsman rails/clips they replaced. Having said that, all the sockets except the impacts stay in place even when the rails are inverted. Unfortunately the impact sockets are much heavier than the rest, and pretty much fall right off.

This is one of the reasons I made the impact socket and wider 1/2" drive rails so wide (2" vs 1.375" for the rest). This way they aren't as tippy, so hopefully the fact they fall off so easily isn't as much of an issue.

Jim

 

[JimMartini]

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback so far! I've been lurking on this forum off and on for probably two years now, and I'm happy to be able to give back to the community.

I hope all the copies come out awesome, just make sure to post pics!

Jim

 

[tjpavlov]

Great idea!

 

[mrjaw14]

I did something similar, although not individually removable. I like the polished look of painted metal and made a big socket tray, although this could be adapted to be small strips of metal like your wooden ones. If you wanted to get really snazzy you could add magnets to the bottom to help hold them in place.

 

[AmericanMechanic]

Somewhat off topic but related so I didn't want to start a new thread... I was looking at the wright plastic socket rails on HJE. Any consensus on them? Would be nice to get my craftsman sockets out of their retail packs that are so hard to use.

 

[Wamsutta]

Somewhat off topic but related so I didn't want to start a new thread... I was looking at the wright plastic socket rails on HJE. Any consensus on them? Would be nice to get my craftsman sockets out of their retail packs that are so hard to use.

You'd like the GearWrench rails better. Similar to the Wrights but have a wider base so your sockets don't fall over and the clips release the sockets easy.

 

[Tim37]

If you have problems with the hf rails the chrome proto rails hold sockets nice and secure and are probably cheaper than so

 

[zx2slow]

You'd like the GearWrench rails better.

Whats the length on the GearWrench rails - nowhere online has info and its a long drive to see them.

 

[JimMartini]

Whats the length on the GearWrench rails - nowhere online has info and its a long drive to see them.

I didn't see on the GearWrench site where they listed the actual length. Amazon lists product length as 19" and 17" respectively for the 3pk and 1/2" drive single rail, so it looks like there's some conflicting information out there.

They look really nice, but I'd have a hard time justifying the cost! Those things are around $6 each, which is more than the metal Snap On rails.

Jim

 

[Wamsutta]

Whats the length on the GearWrench rails - nowhere online has info and its a long drive to see them.

I only have one rail and it's for the GW 1/2 inch drive set. It measures 15-1/8 inches long from tip to tip. I wish I could be of more help.