Cheap way to keep HF socket rails standing in a drawer

[Cryptic1911]

Thought of a pretty nifty way to keep all my HF socket rails standing upright in the toolbox today. We have 1" strips of sheetmetal in 10ft lengths at work, so I cut one up and made two 51" strips, and then put some bolts through them with a couple nuts inbetween the two strips so now I can slide the ends of the rails in it at the back of the drawer. I could have used an aluminum U channel laying on its side, but this was free. I need to put a couple more bolts through it since the metal is a bit thinner than I thought, but overall its working pretty damn good. If it wasnt for deep sockets, I wouldnt even have to worry. They just get a bit heavy and will bow the sheetmetal since I only have bolts like every 12.75"

I was going to make trays and rivet two rails to each, but faced with the idea of having to make 14 of those, I said screw it and went the cheap and easy way. I didn't take pics, but I may get some tomorrow if anyone cares

 

[jeepnut24]

This needs some pictures... I want to do something similar for mine.

 

[Cryptic1911]

Ok, I'll grab some tomorrow if I remember.. gotta go get the taxes done after work.

but basically, just think of an aluminum U channel on its side, and just stick the end of the rail in the opening. the U channel keeps the rail from tipping side to side fully. It will roll side to side a little since you need enough space to get it in there, but it wont fall completely over

 

[Cryptic1911]

It's not perfect, it was a 10 minute quickie.. but I think if I use slightly thicker sheetmetal and make the gap a little shorter, it would be perfect as it would hold all of them straight up.. right now the gap gives them some room to lean. I also thought of using to pieces of aluminum angle iron to make an upside down "F" shape. That way it would be solid and not flex at all

here's what they did before:

 

[Crizzle]

nice idea. I was thinking of maybe adding some "feet" to my socket rails, but this seems like a good solution as well.

 

[jeepnut24]

Thanks for the pictures. I like that idea. I may have to borrow it...

 

[usmc_noma]

if you can stand to keep the sockets in the drawer, why don't you just get one long 1" strip, place your racks accordingly with one end on the strip, drill your hole, and attach with small nut and bolt. it will sit up slightly but that won't matter much. hell you could even do a small strip for each socket size, 1/4", 3/8", 1/2". even better have one for 1/4" sae regular and deep, one for 1/4" metric short and deep, etc.

this way you can still take them out, and keep them standing.

 

[Cryptic1911]

thats not a bad idea, but I'd like to be able to take them out of the box. What I was initially going to do was get some say 3"x18" strips cut so that I could rivet two to a sheet, and put a handle on one end.. but I got lazy when I saw these strips pre-cut.. I still don't know what I'll end up using permanently, but I may try a few different things to see how I like them

 

[bchee]

neat idea. I'm going to steal it. I think I have some metal like that lying around

 

[holden26]

rivet them down?

 

[bigsteve1969]

rivet them down?

i like being able to take the rack with me sometimes

 

[azspray]

I have my rails screwed down to a 1/4'' thick piece of phenolic plastic that sits in the top of my toolbox.1/2'' drive Deep sockets are in the back and then taper down to the 1/4 drive in the front.(think stadium style seating) i think I have 5 or six rows. The sockets are easily removed.

 

[kylefitz]

I took this idea and ran with it because I had some thin 1x1 aluminum angle laying around. Over my 3 foot plus wide drawer not a hit of flexing using only three bolt and nut combos.
some before shots:

and after:

 

[bmwpower]

OP, You just need to fill up your drawer with more sockets. Then you won't have that problem.

I like the fact that I can pickup a whole rack at a time and work on a job. Is there anyway you can make that strip flip up so you can remove them easier?

 

[Cryptic1911]

Kylefitz: Thanks for posting the pics, I've been planning to re-do mine with angle iron and it looks like that works as well as I was figuring. I knew the sheetmetal wasn't going to be permanent, but it did work well for a quick test. I just haven't gotten to the store yet to pick up some angle iron to re-do it.

bmwpower: I have more than enough sockets for now as far as making the strip flip, you don't really need to.. the gap is large enough that they just sit in there, no real pressure on them. Its just there to keep them from tipping, not to really put any downward pressure. Plus if you made it flip up, all of the rails would tip over once you flipped it