Need advise on broken Snap-on tool box drawer slide issue

[tool_scrounge]

A bit back I saw what looked to be a good deal on a Snap-on KR537D top box and a KR557F bottom tool box (mid 1980's vintage). The boxes were used but in OK shape. The bottom drawer of the KR557F has Accuslide ball slides, but the other drawers are all friction slides.The drawers slid in and out fine, so I purchased it. In retrospect, my mistake was not removing all the drawers for a closer examination.

Unfortunately on dis-assembly, I found that one channel track in the KR557F tool box has broken as shown in the second photo. The part number looks to be 8-668 and is spot welded in place. Snap-On does not sell that replacement part.

Any advise?

Similarly, the roller slides of the bottom drawer were damaged with the inner slide rails ball channel bent due to what appears overloading. The drawer itself has no damage though. These slides are held in with 4 screws on either side, no tabs. Fortunately Snap-on does have the slides available (8-06188AS), but as not the original owner they cost $128 for the pair.

Does anyone know if there is an Accuride equivalent? The drawer slides measure 15" long (closed), 30.5" long (open), 0.50" thick, 2.0" tall. I do not see any 15" slides in their online catalog that size.

Thanks

 

[Shelbylex]

Try giving them a call in AM. Customer service will look it up very fast. I have a KRA 250 from 80s which came without a handle. Called them up and they sent it to me within 5 minutes...

 

[Mr_B]

I had a similar friction slide issue on a box of my grand fathers.
Fixed that by drilling out the spots welds, welding and grinding the channel and turning them so worn damage edges not at front .

Don't think you find any direct replacement bearing slides as fitting locators tend be snapon spec only so got make new holes, is worth a call or 2 to customer services as sometimes they happy send them out warranty or perhaps do bit better price .

 

[seber]

https://www.cabinetparts.com/p/cabinetparts-drawer-slides-side-mount-drawer-slides-VLS22SC-p50025
You may need to drill new holes. You can also get higher capacity from the same place for a premium price. Honestly, there is nothing special about ball slides. Just buy them from a more reasonable seller.

 

[tool_scrounge]

Thanks for the comments. In regard to the damaged friction slide channel track, it seems like there are a few options...

1)See if there is a longer piece of channel track still available from Snap-On and cut the length to fit. Hopefully one could get a slide stop in the proper place in the process. Or just add a slide stop. Snap-On tech support was not helpful on this prospect.

2) Use Mr_B's technique. Remove the current slide channel and flip over is quite ingenious. I have about 5.25" of damaged slide out of 16" total length so I will probably use this as plan B. Drilling out 10 spot welds also does not look like fun.

3) See if I can buy one off of the internet (low probability but I can try)

4) Remove the slide channel off of another beater KR537D tool chest I have. Somewhat kills any reseal value of the left over KR537D.

5) Machine a replacement steel rail for the damaged section and glue it in place. If carefully machined to fit, the next channel track below will provide support (in addition to the glue). I modeled this up in CAD as shown in the attached pictures. The glue region is about 2.2" x 6". With 12+ square inches of glue area and the support of the rail below, I think I will get enough strength. The two screw holes are just to allow initial adjustment and keep it in place while the glue dries. the squares around holes on the glue side (first photo) and raised by 0.003" to allow a uniform glue bond line (probably wishful thinking).

Option #5 is my leading option at the moment. JB Weld as a glue is my initial choice, but I am open to other thoughts. I would like to hear anyone's comments, as I might be missing something.

 

[seber]

JB Weld is just epoxy with metal filler. I doubt it would hold well enough for a loaded toolbox drawer. But then, what so I know. If you try it, give us a report after a while. It would be good information to have.

 

[tool_scrounge]

JB Weld is just epoxy with metal filler. I doubt it would hold well enough for a loaded toolbox drawer. But then, what so I know. If you try it, give us a report after a while. It would be good information to have.

Just an update:

Well I machined up the channel track replacement piece out of 3/16" thick 304 stainless steel. I would normally use A36 steel plate but those pieces showed up a bit thin from the metal supplier. The photo below is the test fit it with a C-clamp. I put the drawer in place and it slid in and out fine with load using the usual paraffin wax as lubricant (per Snap-On's recommendations). Since the parts rests on the welded channel track below it, the glue bond should have minimal stress. That is why the temporary test worked well with a minimally loaded C-Clamp holding it in place.

I have not yet decided on the adhesive since I have more tool box cleaning to do first. But the lap shear strength of JB Weld is 1040 psi at 25C, so the joint in theory would have 1040psi x 13.4 square inches = ~14,000 lbs of capacity. I have some other epoxies that have lower stiffness but insanely high peel strength that I have been using in other experiments. I may give that a try.

I'll report back later with some long term results. If it works fine, I'll start another thread with drawings and step-by-step photos for the next unfortunate person who has the same issue.

Thanks everyone for the input.

 

[bpjr]

Anytime filler is added to epoxy resin it is weakened. In my experience JB Weld is great for gap filling, machining, less sagging/run off but not very tenacious or strong compared to regular epoxy glue. Structural epoxy glue like T88 is way better for an application like this.

 

[tool_scrounge]

T88 has impressive specs. I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

[tool_scrounge]

Well I finished the project in November and finally had enough time to write it up. I started another thread showing the whole process. Hopefully it is useful to the next person with this problem.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8268746