Edit: A number of people have gotten confused between this new version and the old version of the Harbor Freight trays. The older version has been available for several years. It was made of red plastic with the numbers applied as stickers. The trays skipped numbers and were spaced too tightly together to mount a full set of impact sockets.
In contrast, the "new" trays haven't been available long, are branded as Pittsburgh Pro, come in a box with green patches on it, don't skip sizes, have etched numbers, are spaced widely enough to fit impact sockets, and are made of black plastic.
Please be sure you realize that this thread is about the new ones, not the old ones.
So I went out tonight and bough the 1/2" metric Hansen and the metric Harbor Freight New socket trays. I bought the HF stuff just hoping that maybe it'd be good enough that I could save the money but expecting to like the Hansen more and end up with a set of those.
I have to say there's very little to no difference between them. They have spots for the same sizes. The spacing seems the same. The overall size is almost the same. The major differences are how the socket mounts, the way the size is displayed, and the price.
The Hansen trays are long thin pegs with blobs at the bottoms. This means you mount the socket drive-up. The size is displayed on the end of each peg on a slanted bit at the top of the peg. They cost between $7 and $14 per tray depending on size and where you buy them.
The new HF Pittsburgh Pro trays have small raised squares with a short peg sticking out of them. This means you mount the socket drive-side down with the square portion through the broaching for the drive. The size is displayed on little "tombstones" between the shallow and deep rows. The price is $10 for a set of three (one each drive size in either SAE 68100 or Metric 68102).
I played with both tonight, loaded them both up with sockets, moved them around, etc. After fiddling with them for a while, I noticed a couple of things. I definitely prefer the way the HFPP trays mount the socket. Since I can pick it up from the open end, I can then directly attach it to the tool. The drive-up style of the hansen means I have to turn it over in my hand before I can stick it to the tool. I suppose you could just sit them on the pegs drive-down in the Hansen, but then you're making them all sit higher than they have to, which means the tips of the pegs are almost hidden inside the sockets. I found that I also had a small tendency to stab myself in the fingers with the Hansen tray's pegs.
I don't actually 100% like either of the labeling methods. The Hansen trays put the sizes in the best spot. However, to fit them onto the tips of the pegs, they're awfully small. The HFPP ones have nice big labels, but their positioning makes them slightly hard to see when the tray is towards the front of the drawer. Ideally, I think I'd like HFPP sized numbers on taller "tombstones" with a little angle to them but I think this would be either impossible or make the tray bigger.
They're also made of slightly different feeling plastic. Both bend dramatically if you try to pick up a fully loaded tray of impact sockets. For some reason, the HFPP one feels like it's just bendy while the Hansen feels like it's brittle and about to break. Obviously, this isn't true or else there'd be a lot of reports of broken Hansen trays and there aren't.
In the end, I'll be keeping the HFPP trays (and buying more) and returning the Hansen tray. There's just not that much difference between them. Either will serve well, either will do what it says on the tin, and both have good and bad points. They're just too similar to decide on anything other than price and the HFPP wins that contest hands down.
EDIT: Pictures courtesy of rsieracki
In contrast, the "new" trays haven't been available long, are branded as Pittsburgh Pro, come in a box with green patches on it, don't skip sizes, have etched numbers, are spaced widely enough to fit impact sockets, and are made of black plastic.
Please be sure you realize that this thread is about the new ones, not the old ones.
So I went out tonight and bough the 1/2" metric Hansen and the metric Harbor Freight New socket trays. I bought the HF stuff just hoping that maybe it'd be good enough that I could save the money but expecting to like the Hansen more and end up with a set of those.
I have to say there's very little to no difference between them. They have spots for the same sizes. The spacing seems the same. The overall size is almost the same. The major differences are how the socket mounts, the way the size is displayed, and the price.
The Hansen trays are long thin pegs with blobs at the bottoms. This means you mount the socket drive-up. The size is displayed on the end of each peg on a slanted bit at the top of the peg. They cost between $7 and $14 per tray depending on size and where you buy them.
The new HF Pittsburgh Pro trays have small raised squares with a short peg sticking out of them. This means you mount the socket drive-side down with the square portion through the broaching for the drive. The size is displayed on little "tombstones" between the shallow and deep rows. The price is $10 for a set of three (one each drive size in either SAE 68100 or Metric 68102).
I played with both tonight, loaded them both up with sockets, moved them around, etc. After fiddling with them for a while, I noticed a couple of things. I definitely prefer the way the HFPP trays mount the socket. Since I can pick it up from the open end, I can then directly attach it to the tool. The drive-up style of the hansen means I have to turn it over in my hand before I can stick it to the tool. I suppose you could just sit them on the pegs drive-down in the Hansen, but then you're making them all sit higher than they have to, which means the tips of the pegs are almost hidden inside the sockets. I found that I also had a small tendency to stab myself in the fingers with the Hansen tray's pegs.
I don't actually 100% like either of the labeling methods. The Hansen trays put the sizes in the best spot. However, to fit them onto the tips of the pegs, they're awfully small. The HFPP ones have nice big labels, but their positioning makes them slightly hard to see when the tray is towards the front of the drawer. Ideally, I think I'd like HFPP sized numbers on taller "tombstones" with a little angle to them but I think this would be either impossible or make the tray bigger.
They're also made of slightly different feeling plastic. Both bend dramatically if you try to pick up a fully loaded tray of impact sockets. For some reason, the HFPP one feels like it's just bendy while the Hansen feels like it's brittle and about to break. Obviously, this isn't true or else there'd be a lot of reports of broken Hansen trays and there aren't.
In the end, I'll be keeping the HFPP trays (and buying more) and returning the Hansen tray. There's just not that much difference between them. Either will serve well, either will do what it says on the tin, and both have good and bad points. They're just too similar to decide on anything other than price and the HFPP wins that contest hands down.
EDIT: Pictures courtesy of rsieracki
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