Best socket and wrench holders?

[Fedwrench]

Fedwrench,
How do the KRA15A's stay in place in the drawer?

As others have posted, there is peel and stick double sided tape running the length of the rail's base but, I don't use it. I've found that if you cut the rail for a tight fit in your drawer, and load the rails up with wrenches, they don't really move.

The rails are just some type of plastic with v notches cut into them. There is no wrench retention system. Your wrenches just lay on their edge in the notch. The rails aren't meant for portability either. You place them in your cart, and wheel the cart to your work. They provide for a small footprint that you can tailor to meet your needs.

They are only available from a snap on truck or at snapon.com free shipping on the website.
I don't care for the Ernst/craftsman/kobalt versions because they are too tall but, that's just me.

 

[jerseykat1]

Best socket rails out there are these:

They have a spring loaded detent ball that is good enough to hold 1/2 drive sockets upside down and not fall off. SK, Wright and Craftsman all use/list them. Can be gotten from Harry Epstein.

i agree. they sell this style at HD and you can just order them from.
AMAZON HERE

i used to use the twistlock magnetic rails, but i like the lighter plastic ones for mobility and they hold the sockets very well not making it too difficult to remove.

 

[Fedwrench]

i agree. they sell this style at HD and you can just order them from.
AMAZON HERE

i used to use the twistlock magnetic rails, but i like the lighter plastic ones for mobility and they hold the sockets very well not making it too difficult to remove.

Attention to detail fail . The red rail pictured is not a Gearwrench rail. Notice how the pegs slide on top of the VIM made, wright/Matco/old SK/Craftsman branded rail. Whereas, the gearwrench rail you linked via amazon has the pegs internal to the rail.

Also the red rail pictured is cheaper at Epsteins and is available in various lengths.

 

[jerseykat1]

Attention to detail fail . The red rail pictured is not a gear wrench rail. Notice how the pegs slide on top of the VIM made, wright/Matco/old SK/Craftsman type rail. Whereas, the gearwrench rail you linked via amazon has the pegs internal to the rail.

I have both styles.. I noticed the differences. It's just not important enough to point out. They both work Great. Either one

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[jerseykat1]

And they are both Cheap.

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[jerseykat1]

HD sells the external mounted version as pictured. FYI

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[Fedwrench]

I have both styles.. I noticed the differences. It's just not important enough to point out.

I have a mixture too but, to keep from having to stock different type of pegs in three drive sizes for multiple rail designs, I'm trying to narrow the types down to magails on my cart on the VIM type everywhere else.

 

[jerseykat1]

I have a mixture too but, to keep from having to stock different type of pegs in three drive sizes for multiple rail designs, I'm trying to narrow the types down to magails on my cart on the VIM type everywhere else.[emoji481]

Most rails in my tool box are this style.. In my cart I have mixture of what I posted earlier.

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[RedneckWelder]

I like the Ernst gripper racks for wrenches. Beware very thin wrenches might have issues with retention in these but my Williams Supercombos are great in them. They also make plain racks that stay in drawers.

Westling Machine makes awesome aluminum trays that are rediculously cheap for what you get IMHO. Can be had in a couple of different colors and with or without sizes lasered on them.

Ernst also makes good socket rails, with a twist lock system for retention. Decently priced.

VIM makes the Magrail TL series of stuff. Holy **** that's nice stuff but not cheap at all.

Lowes, HF have cheap trays- I use several of the Lowes trays myself. Hanson makes more expensive versions of same but US made.

You just have to experiment and see what you like more.

 

[kythri]

They are only available from a snap on truck or at snapon.com free shipping on the website.

I'd point out that if you pull up the KRA15A/KRA22A part number on Snap-on's website, they say the rails are red.

I've made two separate orders now, both times ordering both styles of rail, and both times, I've received black rails - which, for me, was preferable.

 

[kythri]

Also, if anyone is interested, the Carlyle rails from NAPA?

They come in three different lengths (8", 12" and 15"), in three different colors (red, blue and green), and you can get pegs/clips in all three drive sizes:

http://www.carlyletools.com/products/sockets/rails

I'm sure someone else manufactures them for NAPA/Carlyle, but I've found them to be pretty darned good, and they weren't all that expensive at all.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I have Hanson trays and don't care for them. I intend to switch to Ernst socket boss rails. Cheapest place I've found for them is Summit. Read a lot of good things about them as well. For wrenches I've gone with Ernst also. Strong and durable. They've come in a variety of sizes. Plus made in U.S.A. and they have a lifetime warranty.

 

[firworks]

I have Hanson trays and don't care for them. I intend to switch to Ernst socket boss rails. Cheapest place I've found for them is Summit. Read a lot of good things about them as well. For wrenches I've gone with Ernst also. Strong and durable. They've come in a variety of sizes. Plus made in U.S.A. and they have a lifetime warranty.

Watch the Amazon Warehouse deals thread. I find them and post them up there from time to time at a good price. I have a Socket Boss I got myself from Amazon as well, but I don't really care for it. Once you have all the sockets on you can't get a good enough grip to twist off the sockets so it's a pain in the *** to work with. I don't know if mine is too tight / defective or what but I watch people online with a very minimal twist get them off and mine are death gripped on there. I even saw some people talk about "breaking them in" so I spent a while just putting sockets on and off it while I was out working on other stuff and it never seemed to ease up any. I want to like it as it seems well made but I just don't currently.

 

[Greg85mcss]

I like the idea of rails & use them on my specialty sockets but prefer hansen style for my regular & impact sockets. Just quicker to find. Lowes has a good cut to fit wrench rack similar to the so one but $7 for a pair. Best mats I've had are the ones that come in Mac boxes & pig grippy are close.

 

[gsingh]

This is what I use at home, normally get it from Sears when on sale or I have points

 

[Tinner]

I use the Gearwrench socket rails and the Ernst gripper wrench racks. Both work great.

 

[TXBDan]

I haven't used them personally, but in doing some research on socket storage on here in the past few days, a lot of people recommend the GearWrench rails. My plan so far is to go with them.

 

[CJM8515]

Best socket rails out there are these:

They have a spring loaded detent ball that is good enough to hold 1/2 drive sockets upside down and not fall off. SK, Wright and Craftsman all use/list them. Can be gotten from Harry Epstein.

Yep, use same ones. Very hard for sockets to fall off them.

 

[Bennylava]

Combination of Ernst 6014/6015...

Plyworx rack for pliers.

I'll check out the plyworx rack. That does sound interesting. And I think that I like the idea behind the Ernst 6014/6015. Probably give that a try.

Why waste so much space, though? The craftsman trays don't do any one thing well.
They are not compact.
They do not retain well.
They are not durable.

Also, not having the trays marked doesn't slow you down any, ask any seasoned wrench.

I don't think I really want them to be compact. They retain well enough for me, I don't seem to have any problems with anything falling over. As for durability, well I've had the same ones for over 10 years and they don't really show any real signs of being worn out.

The fact that they're spaced out, helps me a bit. I've had them since probably 2004, so I guess I've just become accustomed to them. Clustering everything together has never really been my thing, but I can see why most people would want it that way. I personally just don't. On top of my personal preferences, a lot of friends and family come over to work on stuff (theirs and mine) and it makes it a lot easier for everyone to find.

 

[Old Steamer]

I've used Kobalt socket trays the last several years and have been pleased with them.

 

[Bennylava]

Well since my original questions have been answered to my satisfaction, I may as well go ahead and use this thread to pose a few more related questions.

Anyone have any experience with these socket labels? They seem to have great reviews, but you do have to be careful with reviews for a few reasons. I may or may not need or want them... but I just thought I'd ask. Anyone know anything about them:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GDOJZ0S/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Sanddancer]

I've been having a nightmare with wrench rails. I bought Sealey WR01 racks and they were okay, but I didn't consider that just turning the rails around for the row I wanted with the largest at the front would leave them pointing the wrong way. So I bought the Ernst set with the reversed rails, but these are so high that I can't close the drawer with a 19mm wrench in the rack. I guess they're like that to cater for 30mm wrenches in deep drawers. And it turns out that they have larger spacings on one rail, so I'm assuming they're supposed to be run with one rail straight and one angled - which isn't what I want to do.

So now I'm looking at the KRA15A. I assume they're good for up to 19mm? The guff says "for smaller wrenches", but doesn't give an idea of how small, and do both rails have equally spaced teeth? I'm also looking at the BluePoint YA381A. These and the Snap-On look like they could suit if they'll fir 8-19mm.

 

[rodsnratfinks]

So now I'm looking at the KRA15A. I assume they're good for up to 19mm? The guff says "for smaller wrenches", but doesn't give an idea of how small, and do both rails have equally spaced teeth?

I'm using my KRA15A racks with sizes 6-19mm. They'll fit up to a 21mm I'm pretty sure. I have a 21mm flare on one of mine. I used mine in a somewhat unorthodox way, with multiple sets on each rail. All the grooves are the same size. I tried to lay them out as intuitively as I could. I never have to think twice about which one is which. I'm pretty pleased with the fact that all my regular wrenches fit on the rack in a 2" tall drawer.




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[Sanddancer]

Looks like they'll do the trick nicely, thanks.

 

[Bennylava]

Yeah I like the setup in that pic. I ordered some of those, so I think I'll do the same. Well they're the Ernst ones. But what do yall do about all the wrench sizes that just don't fit? The ones above, and below the normal sizes? You've got 4mm, 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm, 7mm, and 8mm. Same thing for SAE. I'd rather not just throw them in a pile.

 

[Dookie2122]

Also check out ML Tools for good prices on the Ernst Socket Boss, I've ordered from them, quick shipping and good quality.

 

[rodsnratfinks]

Yeah I like the setup in that pic. I ordered some of those, so I think I'll do the same. Well they're the Ernst ones. But what do yall do about all the wrench sizes that just don't fit? The ones above, and below the normal sizes? You've got 4mm, 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm, 7mm, and 8mm. Same thing for SAE. I'd rather not just throw them in a pile.

Well, I'm not done. I still need at least one more set. For the small ones, I'm going to put those all together on their own rail that I will cut off of the larger rails. That's why I like the trim to fit rails. I was originally going to get the ernst rails, but they aren't like that. They are tapered from small to large, which is fine if you only want to put one fairly complete set of wrenches in there (in a deeper drawer), but I have six or seven sets of wrenches.

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[4 FN 27]

I posted this earlier today in this thread:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315740

I got tired of looking for the perfect fit. So one day I took every Socket, Extension and Wrench I owned and measured them up and designed Socket Trays and Wrench Racks for an exact fit.

It was quite the process but one I had everything loaded in Cad the unfolding and programming was easy. Loaded the programs in the Laser and cut the 16 ga Stainless, ran them through the Timesaver to put a nice grain on them and off to the Press Brake. Formed them up, welded where required. All the Wrenches, Sockets and Extensions dropped right into place.

The only catch is they are very set specific and overtime I found Craftsman changes thickness of Wrench handles and Socket diameters causing a few issues if I have to replace a tool.

This is a picture of my "small" set I got when I was 16 years old from my Mom for my birthday...I have added a few pieces to it over the last 36 years.

Here is my Master Set, 7 drawers full of Wrenches and 2 Drawers of Sockets. Someday I plan on doing my Ratchets and Screw Drivers. In a glance I can see if anything is missing.

 

[rapid robert]

I should have asked - do you guys prefer the GRIPPER or the rails? Not that I have a ton or wrenches, but I do have opportunity to store more efficiently.

I like the gripper racks, they allow me to grab a whole set of wrenches from the box quickly and easily. When you are shopping plan to use both regular and reverse racks to use space efficiently. One starts with small and gets larger the other goes from large to small, so they fit nicely next to each other in the drawer.

 

[Jake C]

Ive got the hansen socket trays and earnst wrench racks/trays. Ordered in some earnst sockets rail systems for all my wobble sockets.

 

[Bennylava]

I got tired of looking for the perfect fit. So one day I took every Socket, Extension and Wrench I owned and measured them up and designed Socket Trays and Wrench Racks for an exact fit.

It was quite the process but one I had everything loaded in Cad the unfolding and programming was easy. Loaded the programs in the Laser and cut the 16 ga Stainless, ran them through the Timesaver to put a nice grain on them and off to the Press Brake. Formed them up, welded where required. All the Wrenches, Sockets and Extensions dropped right into place.

The only catch is they are very set specific and overtime I found Craftsman changes thickness of Wrench handles and Socket diameters causing a few issues if I have to replace a tool.

This is a picture of my "small" set I got when I was 16 years old from my Mom for my birthday...I have added a few pieces to it over the last 36 years.

Now that seems like the way to go. Out of all the holders and organizers so far in this thread, to me this seems like the one to have. A custom made one. That way I could have it my way, and not just have to be content with off the shelf stuff. Might have to look into that. You can always waller' out a bigger hole if the new replacement socket doesn't fit. Still worth it. As I said I have those plastic craftsmans that are somewhat similar to what you did, and I don't have any problems at all with sockets staying in place. The ones that are too small, still stay in place. The ones that are too big, I'm just going to take a dremel to the hole.

Did you just use a drill press and a 50 different drill bits? How did you make the holes for all the sockets?

 

[Bennylava]

I bought a big roll of that Nu-Force toolbox liner (you can find some threads here about it, supposedly very similar to the OEM SO KRL liner) and it works very well to hold all my tools in place. It was night-and-day better than the default liners I got with my HF tool box and cart.

Did you mean Nu Source? I need new liners, my oem kobalt liner *****.

http://www.nu-sourceinc.com/default.aspx?CN=2DCF771A1C58

 

[4 FN 27]

Now that seems like the way to go. Out of all the holders and organizers so far in this thread, to me this seems like the one to have. A custom made one. That way I could have it my way, and not just have to be content with off the shelf stuff. Might have to look into that. You can always waller' out a bigger hole if the new replacement socket doesn't fit. Still worth it. As I said I have those plastic craftsmans that are somewhat similar to what you did, and I don't have any problems at all with sockets staying in place. The ones that are too small, still stay in place. The ones that are too big, I'm just going to take a dremel to the hole.

Did you just use a drill press and a 50 different drill bits? How did you make the holes for all the sockets?

I made the "Blanks" and the holes in a 1212 Amada Pulsar Laser. Once all the measuring, design and programming is complete it takes about 8 minutes to make the blanks in the pdf below. Having access to a Laser has kept my drill bits sharp for the last 30+ years.

 

[enrare]

I've been looking at these wrench racks on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291151067055?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I recently contacted Westling and it sounds like they still have plans to eventually make wrench racks. No ETA when that may be though.

 

[G-Ram]

I've been looking at these wrench racks on eBay.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/291151067055?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT


.

I'd be all over those if they'd fit in my toolbox


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[joeyd01]

For me I use a combination of a bunch of different rails I have 1/4 turn locking rails for heavy impact sockets metal rails for other sockets. I like to grab a rail and go to a machine if I need to and I cant always roll my cart with me. And when I'm sent on the road its easier to throw them in a bag. And the stay put for the most part.

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[senlow]

So now I'm looking at the KRA15A. I assume they're good for up to 19mm? The guff says "for smaller wrenches", but doesn't give an idea of how small, and do both rails have equally spaced teeth? I'm also looking at the BluePoint YA381A. These and the Snap-On look like they could suit if they'll fir 8-19mm.

I have wrenches up to 32mm in my KRA15 racks.

 

[drink]

Which is the best socket holder? Which is the best wrench holder? And is there a no slip lining that actually works? I have this to hold my sockets in place:

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-socket-organizer-set/p-00965172000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

I have that for standard and metric, each in its own drawer. But it does have its shortcomings. Not all of my sockets fit their allotted holes, and thus I need to dremel out a few holes to be bigger. There is no second hole for deep sockets for 1/4" metric, the numbers aren't painted, and I need to glue them down or affix them in some way to the bottom of the drawer, cause they have a tendency to grab onto a socket when you're picking it up. And boy does that ****. You may end up having to resort all the sockets back into their holes. ALL of them. I have to say though, I don't like those old style metal socket holders. They're kind of a pain, you have to take them out of the drawer, stare at the sockets for a bit to finally find the right size, and then take the whole thing in both hands and pry the required socket out of its death grip. I don't know who would want those things lol. I guess what I'm looking for is maximum convenience. Speed and ease of use.

So I was hoping someone here might know of some better ones, that come with those 4 issues that I have with the craftsmans, already addressed. I suppose I could just rig those up properly, but its actually going to be more work and effort than I want to put into it. Especially if some much better ones can be had for a reasonable price. As for wrench holders I don't have any. Which one/s would you recommend? It would be nice if they're easy to read, don't have to be taken out of the drawer, and stick well to the bottom. Also, be easy enough to get the wrenches out of them.

My Craftsman tool chest has non-slip drawer liners and a variety of socket storage methods. The drawer liners tend not to slip themselves but the tools on top of them might slide around some. The liners have a gripper surface on the bottom. Some socket sets are stored in the factory plastic socket cases and they help keep track of all the pieces. The 3/4" drive sockets are sitting inside of the top bay in a divider. A set of metric 1/2" drive sockets is in the top bay on gray socket rails with studs. Another set of 1/4" drive metric are inside a drawer on a metal rail with a red handle. All of the socket storage has the Craftsman brand name on them.

 

[drink]

All of my wrenches are just sitting flat in the drawers in somewhat of an organized way without any racks. Nothing fancy but I can get work done with them the way they are and simply put them back where I got them.

 

[drink]

Well since my original questions have been answered to my satisfaction, I may as well go ahead and use this thread to pose a few more related questions.

Anyone have any experience with these socket labels? They seem to have great reviews, but you do have to be careful with reviews for a few reasons. I may or may not need or want them... but I just thought I'd ask. Anyone know anything about them:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GDOJZ0S/?tag=atomicindus08-20

No experience with the labels so far. My Craftsman sockets are the old style chrome and I like them the way they are. Just roll them in the light to read them or try to fit them to the fastener being worked on. Nice and simple. I actually do have a few of the Craftsman ETR sockets but they do not appear to have the same quality as Armstrong Eye-D sockets. Take note of how the laser markings on the Armstrong set all line up on the side of the rail where you can read each size without having to remove the sockets. I am not sure if Craftsman ETR sockets have the same quality.