Craftsman plastic socket rails...

[n8n]

Has anyone found a source of add on studs for these that I can actually purchase? Or will I have to switch to another product (Ernst?)

I can find no fault with these other than the fact that they don't come with anywhere near enough studs, the add-on stud kits are not really stocked in stores (at least it seems that they're always out) and I can't seem to figure out any way that I can order them online.

I just got a full set of 1/2" sockets for , and there's still a few of them that aren't racked yet because I've cleaned out four different Sears of the 1/2" studs and single rails (to steal studs off of.)

 

[rsanter]

the same ones can be bought at the dollar store

 

[n8n]

you mean HF? I tried those, they didn't seem to retain the sockets nearly as positively as the Craftsman ones. But maybe I should give them another try. At least they're cheap enough and my local HF has shedloads of them in stock.

 

[raiderhillbilly]

http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-3-8-in-drive-socket-studs-5-pack/p-00941847000P

 

[stage20]

the craftsmans are nice, just too expensive for a rail, IMO. the HF ones are ok, but the ball detents will hold some sockets on there just too dang tight from my experience. ive broken clips off the rail and still had the socket attached to the stud.

 

[n8n]

http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-3-8-in-drive-socket-studs-5-pack/p-00941847000P

But where can I actually purchase them...?

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[n8n]

the craftsmans are nice, just too expensive for a rail, IMO. the HF ones are ok, but the ball detents will hold some sockets on there just too dang tight from my experience. ive broken clips off the rail and still had the socket attached to the stud.

My experience with them was the exact opposite; I got them home and put a few sockets on them and they felt all loose and wobbly like dropping the rail would jar them all loose (which was one of the reasons I ditched my Lisle trays, the other being that they took up too much space.)

If you think the cmans are expensive, what have you used and liked that costs less? I'd like to know, honestly, because the Snap-On metal rails are the only ones I've tried and liked, nobody else can seem to get them right.

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[jsharpphoto]

But where can I actually purchase them...?

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Do you not see the ADD TO CART button? Not trying to be a ****, maybe your browser isn't displaying the button.

 

[n8n]

Do you not see the ADD TO CART button? Not trying to be a ****, maybe your browser isn't displaying the button.

'Temporarily unavailable for shipping.' So if it is not in stock in a convenient store, I can't get them. (And it's been the same every time I've checked.)

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[stage20]

My experience with them was the exact opposite; I got them home and put a few sockets on them and they felt all loose and wobbly like dropping the rail would jar them all loose (which was one of the reasons I ditched my Lisle trays, the other being that they took up too much space.)

If you think the cmans are expensive, what have you used and liked that costs less? I'd like to know, honestly, because the Snap-On metal rails are the only ones I've tried and liked, nobody else can seem to get them right.

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i like the craftsman metal rails. i usually buy them second hand for good deals.

from the ones i have, the craftsman brand has longer studs, close to 25% longer than cheap hf metal rails.

 

[DaveInPhilly]

'Temporarily unavailable for shipping.' So if it is not in stock in a convenient store, I can't get them. (And it's been the same every time I've checked.)

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Wierd, when I try it says "IN STOCK FOR SHIPPING". My Sears had all three sizes on Saturday. If you can't find them by you I'd be happy to pick some up and mail them to you.

 

[alan camby]

Might call Summit racing. Maybe they have them?
My Sears had quite a few last time I was there, about 3 weeks ago.
I bought a bag of the 1/4". Had to finish up a $50 gift card.

I have a bunch of the Craftsman rails and like them. I have considered mounting them to 1" wide stips of aluminum to make them a little more rigid for 1/2" drive and impacts.

This is why I mentioned Summit.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Craftsman-S...1404389932&pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr

 

[Fedwrench]

Epsteins sells them under the wright brand for like 40 cents a pop. all three drive sizes. they also have nice red or blue rails in different lengths too.

http://store.harryepstein.com/merch...CTGY&Store_Code=1930&Category_Code=38drattach

The craftsman/matco/wright rails are actually made by vim and components interchange. The Ernst clips do not interchange.

 

[n8n]

so those are interchangeable with Cman? If so I know where I'll be getting them from from now on as I've been really happy with my dealings with HJE.

Edit: Oh, shoot, and they come in different lengths? incroyable! I was just saying earlier today that I wished there were shorter lengths so I could use two short rails for 1/4" instead of one long one and two medium length rails for 3/8" instead of two long ones with extra unused rail length. It's like someone was reading my mind. Which is a pretty scary place.

 

[AWH]

.... the Snap-On metal rails are the only ones I've tried and liked, nobody else can seem to get them right.

I switched from the plastic Craftsman rails to the Kobalt Aluminum Socket Rails.

I like them better because they don't flex & bend like the plastic rails and they're longer.

Lowes doesn't sell extra socket clips, and while the Craftsman clips look awfully similar, they are too large and sloppy fitting. So, you may have to end up buy extra rails just to get the clips like I did, but the switch was worth it to me.

You really should take a look at the Kobalt rails, they are very nice. The magnetic base holds juust enough so that you can pull a socket off without lifting up the rail, yet you can grab the whole rail and take it with you. The clips/studs fit much better than the Craftsmans, the Craftsman one really hold the socket in tight and it take two hand to get the socket off, but the Kobalts have much less friction and the socket pulls off with one hand easily. Another plus for the Kobalts are that they are aluminum and the end caps are press fit, so that they can be easily cut to a custom length. Overall I like them very much. The Craftsmans have the advantage of coming in black colored for inch and gray for metric, the Kobalts are only available in raw aluminum. But I painted the end caps -- black (unpainted) for inch, red for metric.

 

[Kirbot]

The plastic harborfreight rails are meh at best.

I have a bunch of them, and they work... But I want to replace them with Craftsman or Gearwrench eventually. They're both equally nice, although the Gearwrench rails are less flexy.


The Kobalt rails look really nice, but REALLY spendy.

 

[Two Door]

I too vote for Kobalt/Vim. I went through this drill a couple of months ago. I fairly quickly discovered that no matter where you look it is going to cost you forty to sixty cents per clip. That said, you might as well look at whole rails, as the pricing is basically per clip, with the plastic rail included free (these clips are the same as the ones for the magnetic rail). Search ebay for kobalt socket rails - like this from Cripes, which prices out at about .55 per clip -http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kobalt-1-2-Drive-Socket-Storage-Rail-USA-22971-/331186839052?pt=US_Hand_Tools&hash=item4d1c461e0c

That includes shipping, and Cripes combines for multiple items, so if you order several the per-clip price reduces.

 

[QtrHorse13]

I have always seen these in stock at a few of my local Sears. I think I figured it out that it is cheaper to buy the 3 pack complete rails and just remove the socket holders if that's all you want.

I second the Kobalt brand, the magnetic and cheaper non magnetic rails.

 

[n8n]

I have always seen these in stock at a few of my local Sears. I think I figured it out that it is cheaper to buy the 3 pack complete rails and just remove the socket holders if that's all you want.

I second the Kobalt brand, the magnetic and cheaper non magnetic rails.

right now I'm just looking for 1/2" socket rails though so buying the 3 pack doesn't help me. The single 1/2" rail is a little more expensive than buying the studs individually, but again, my local stores don't have them, or at least not enough (just bought one today to scavenge the studs off of, but I still need more...)

I haven't seen any of the plastic Craftsman-esque rails in my local Lowe's, only the magnetic ones and the Hansen tray like things. Are those interchangeable with the C'man ones or just similar?

But if I can get confirmation that the Wright stuff at HJE is interchangeable, that sounds like a great solution, and I might just get some of the shorter rails to compact my socket collection.

 

[lilcraigford]

Someone already mentioned Harry J Epstein Co. VIM Tools is the parent MFG of this style of rail and can be found under:

Craftsman - Black & Grey Rails

Wright - Blue & Red Rails

Matco - Blue & Red Rails; stud part no STD2518 (1/4), STD2512 (3/8), STD2516 (1/2)

SK - Green Rails; advertised as "Suregrip" rails.

The rails and clips sold by McMaster Carr are also supposed to be Wright rails, although they are a little more pricey ($7.00 per 5). Alternatively Ernst is the parent MFG of Snap On, Tekton, etc rails. I bought several sets of black Craftsman rails and have been pleased so far. I grab a pack of studs here and there when I am near a Sears. If you search eBay for any of the above you should be able to find studs as well.

 

[n8n]

wow, thanks for the helpful post. I'm going to have to rethink my tool storage and then I'll probably be placing an order once I figure out if I want some shorter rails and if so how many.

Edit:

since this is more info on these rails than I've seen anywhere else, here are the Craftsman part numbers I've collected/figured out:

1/4" studs, 5-pack - 41846
3/8" studs, 5-pack - 41847
1/2" studs, 5-pack - 41848

1/4" black rail - ?
3/8" black rail - 41844
1/2" black rail - 41845

1/4" grey rail - ?
3/8" grey rail - ?
1/2" grey rail - ?

3 piece black set - 41849
3 piece grey set - 41829

Not sure why it's so hard to find them by searching on Sears' web site, but the above are the only ones that I've been able to find.

 

[Two Door]

I haven't seen any of the plastic Craftsman-esque rails in my local Lowe's, only the magnetic ones and the Hansen tray like things. Are those interchangeable with the C'man ones or just similar?

But if I can get confirmation that the Wright stuff at HJE is interchangeable, that sounds like a great solution, and I might just get some of the shorter rails to compact my socket collection.

The Craftsman and Kobalt are not interchangeable. As someone said earlier, putting a Craftsman clip on a Kobalt rail will be loose. If you compare the clips, you will see that the Kobalt has a squared off shoulder which rides along the top of the rail, where as the C-Man just tapers down to the edge, with no squaring.

I am now a little confused myself as to which style the Wright/Matco/SK product matches. The barb on the end of the Wright plastic rail exactly matches the end of the plastic Kobalt rails I have, so you would take that as a clue that they are otherwise identical, but whether the rail is rounded all the way to the edge, or has the Kobalt-style indentation for the shoulder can't quite be determined from the picture. My best guess is that those do match the Craftsman.

If this "shoulder" idea doesn't make sense, look at the first picture of the aluminum Kobalt rails shown above, where it is very visible.

 

[Cato]

Dude, maybe you should look for them at Sears and ask for help. I see them in stock all the time.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

I'm wondering if I should ditch my Hansen trays and switch to rails as well to save some space...

 

[Two Door]

..... I've cleaned out four different Sears of the 1/2" studs and single rails (to steal studs off of.)

.......

 

[Jere]

I have bought them in the store in little baggies without the rails not much of a deal though. There were only a few plastic clips for $6 bucks or so. So buying full rails is the way to go

 

[efb16acrx]

VIM or matco as already mentioned. If you can wait until next week for me to check I may have some extra 1/2" clips if you want them.

I get mine in packs of 25 from the matco guy. Something like 15 bucks for 25 or something

 

[stage20]

I'm wondering if I should ditch my Hansen trays and switch to rails as well to save some space...

I like the way hnsens are labeled. Being a seasoned tool guy it doesn't take much effort to grab the right socket anyway. I'm pretty good up to 1" but then I guess at the bigger stuff.

 

[StillTooManyHobbies]

I have also found the Craftsman and Wright rails to be the same size.

I bought some Carlyle studs because they "looked" the same as the Craftsman/Wright and I could get them from my NAPA store. However, the Wright rails are just a little wider than the Carlyle rails and Carlyle studs would not fit my Craftsman/Wright rails without forcing them on.

For those of you with the skinny rails Carlyle studs are available in 1/4,3/8,1/2" and are p/n's SR14RC, SR38RC and SR12RC and are ~$10 for a bag of 25.

The Wright/etc clips are loose on the Carlyle rails, however, the Carlyle studs fit great on an old Proto steel socket rail I had lying around. The Wright studs are too loose on any of the steel rails, and the Carlyle studs fit loose on all the imported rails I tried them on.

Good luck.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

I like the way hnsens are labeled. Being a seasoned tool guy it doesn't take much effort to grab the right socket anyway. I'm pretty good up to 1" but then I guess at the bigger stuff.

It's funny you say that because that's kind of what keeps me with them. I did just find however "eye saver" socket decals on Amazon that would help with the identification.

 

[n8n]

Dude, maybe you should look for them at Sears and ask for help. I see them in stock all the time.

That's you. I've cleaned out two stores, and the third which is the Sears Hardware which you'd think would be better, the associate actually said "we don't carry those and I don't know why, people ask for them all the time."

 

[stage20]

to add to the confusion, craftsman plastic and hf plastic do not interchange. i had some extras lying around and tried to push them on and broke one. little too tight.