Got the Hansen socket holders - now I need new sockets???

[lyonkster]

OK, it's not quite as bad as it sounds, but I did notice a problem with the Hansen socket holders and some of my Craftsman sockets, and it's annoying me to no end.

Most of the sockets fit just fine, but I noticed that some of the small 1/4" drive sockets do not fit on the corresponding holders! It seems that some sockets have a hole drilled in them that is smaller than the socket size (e.g. a 3/16" socket has a hole that is only 1/8"), and so these get jammed on the holder peg.

I found this to be the case on about 4 of my sockets, with no clear pattern. Found this on both SAE and metric sockets.

I can either take the sockets back to Sears and try to find ones in same size but with bigger holes drilled (not optimistic) or try to grind down the pegs without breaking them...

But I am just curious if anyone else has had this problem and how they solved it?

 

[nmk_61802]

No answer, but I have the same problem with Hansen and C-man sockets. I look forward to the replies

 

[Fedwrench]

search the archives as this is discussed monthly. I seem to remember a dremel tool being part of a solution. The socket would probably take better to a little machining better than a plastic peg. now go find a 4.5mm deep socket for that peg.

 

[tslabaugh]

I ran a small file through the sockets to make them work. A dremel would have been faster, but it was put away.

 

[Hiball]

I had that problem also, When i sold my Craftsman tools in favor of Wright it Went away. The worst thing about those Hansen trays is filling up all the slots for both 12pt and 6pt along with the odd ball sizes ie 4.5mm wtf is that. Dont worry it will only bother you for a couple months.

 

[Old Donn]

No answer, but I have the same problem with Hansen and C-man sockets. I look forward to the replies

Me too, only a couple of offending 1/4" deep wells. I've learned to live with it and the empty pegs too. I've never needed a 4.5mm socket. Chances are you won't either.

 

[lyonkster]

OK, I guess I'll go dig out my Dremel tool...

And I agree with the general comment about Hansens, I now look at the empty pegs and see all the sockets that I never thought I needed but apparently do .

I do like the Hansen system, and not having to pry each socket off its grip like I did with the rail holders.

 

[tw33k2514]

search the archives as this is discussed monthly. I seem to remember a dremel tool being part of a solution. The socket would probably take better to a little machining better than a plastic peg. now go find a 4.5mm deep socket for that peg.

Thanks for reminding me of how I accidentally dremelled off the peg for one of my Sk sockets....my hand slipped..

 

[Big Bad Jon]

search the archives as this is discussed monthly. I seem to remember a dremel tool being part of a solution. The socket would probably take better to a little machining better than a plastic peg. now go find a 4.5mm deep socket for that peg.

I have a 4.5mm socket. Its a snap on. It would not match the finish of the rest of your sockets. I guess you will need to replace them as well.

 

[scottmlew]

I did the Dremel routine on the pegs, it was a PITA and I'm not happy with the result, but the sockets fit now. Observe carefully where the sockets starts to not fit, so you don't Dremel more of the peg than you need ti.

 

[Hiball]

I have a 4.5mm socket. Its a snap on. It would not match the finish of the rest of your sockets. I guess you will need to replace them as well.

Ill put my Wright Tool finish up against SO anyday, I have some Snappys mixed in with Wrights to fill voids and without Picking them up to read the tag or Knowing the characteristics of the stampings they all look the same.

 

[jkeyser14]

Don't have that issue with my craftsman. I bought my socket set about 10 years ago.

 

[expatriated]

I just bought some smaller SO sockets to fill out my Hansen trays. They arrived tonight. The 1/4 would not fit (nor did my Toptul in the smaller sizes). I just took a Dremel with a grinding wheel about an hour ago to my 1/4 peg. I was being VERY careful and it only took 10 minutes to uniformly grind it down so that the socket slides on. Once you get it close, some 320 grit sandpaper smoothes it out and takes off some more to make it completely uniform around. It looks decent enough for me.

 

[jteck75]

Some of my impact sockets had that problem,I took them to work and chucked them up in the lathe and opened that hole up a bit,they work fine now. It doesn't take much .030"-.050". No more than needs to be taken off,a Dremel or a die grinder would work well too.

 

[Doug19]

I've had the problem with Snap-on, toptul, craftsmen, and genius. Used a Dremel with a bur attachment and it worked great. Now my problem is that the wall thickness on my impact sockets are to thick and fit to closely together.

 

[hammlm]

Might sound crazy, but I found the last drill bit that would fit in the socket from my letter/number set, then took the next biggest size, held the socket in one hand, the drill in the other and in less than 20 seconds, it fit. I think there were three craftsman 3/8" sizes in both metric and standard I had to deal with.

If I remember correctly, a couple of the hansen pegs I was able to just sand down with 320 or 400 paper, but I think those were the ones that were "sticky", not the ones that wouldn't fit.

 

[Shadowdog500]

I got those racks for Christmas a few years ago. All of those empty pegs were driving me nuts and I wound up getting extra sockets just to complete the set.

I will say I like these socket holders better than any other I ever had.

Chris

 

[Merkava_4]

Hansen needs to learn the correct sizes of a set:


1/4" drive shallow = 3/16" - 9/16" (including 7/32", 9/32", and 11/32")
1/4" drive deep = 3/16" - 9/16" (including 7/32", 9/32", and 11/32")

1/4" drive shallow = 5mm - 15mm (including 5.5mm)
1/4" drive deep = 5mm - 15mm (including 5.5mm)

3/8" drive shallow = 1/4" - 7/8"
3/8" drive deep = 1/4" - 7/8"

3/8" drive shallow = 8mm - 19mm
3/8" drive deep = 8mm - 19mm