Stud Welding pins for socket holder?

[KSJeff]

I've been looking for ways to organize my sockets for quite a while now. I've tried all kinds of brands and I'm always going back to those pin holders on the portable tool boxes like these.

In an effort to recreate, I've tried setting nails in the back of thin plywood and painting them with plasticoat. Didn't like the result. I've also thought of repeating the same exercise with some sheet metal and nails and that may ultimately be the direction I go.

Recently, I started looking at stud welders and the cheap dent puller/stud welder combo from Harbor Freight which will weld 3mm studs. I haven't looked at the gun yet, so I'm not sure I can gets studs close enough to make this work but it looks like a reasonable solution.

If you wanted to recreate something similar to the above that you could mount horizontally or at a 45 degree angle, how would you do it?

 

[sberry]

Drill a hole in the sheet and put a nail with sinker head over it and plug weld from the back side. But I have a lazy Susan type that works good and another setup I wanna try with trays, boxes, cubbies so to speak on a terrace like that. One for each size and not drive, simply tossed in. Maybe a row of pegs for most common ones by duty cycle. About a dozen that do 95% of the work.

 

[gearhead1]

I’d be tempted to try 1/8” thick plate with 12 penny nails. I would remove the tip of the nail so it is flat. Drill holes in the plate and weld from the back side like Sberry says. MiG or Tig would be best. If the hole was tight enough, I think they could be Tig welded, just fused with no filler maybe.

I’ll think some more on it.

 

[VR6ix]

Depends on the budget and how much time & effort you want to put into it and how nice the end result needs to be.

Weld studs could be pretty quick but how big is the gun and how close together can you place them? And you're stuck with the socket holders being threaded, if that matters, and tiny diameter. You'd likely need to make the base plate from something more than a flat plate with all the weld heat going into it, form some flanges on all sides to make a shallow pan like the plastic versions. Will likely need paint or powder coat or something to prevent rust.

Instead of weld studs use round rod and plug-weld into a plate with holes, or just fillet-weld without holes. Same need for flanges to keep it from warping. Stainless & aluminium wouldn't need any paint and should last a life time.

Could use narrow flat bar for the posts instead of round rod. Less material, less cost. Or nails, or bolts, or whatever else is laying around.

Or just make it all from wood... glue the round dowels into a base plate. Hardwood would last a nice long time.

The nice thing about the plastic ones is having the socket size printed/painted on the top of the post. That's my biggest hang-up about making custom ones for my tools... that, and the plastic ones I do have seem to work fine.

 

[KSJeff]

Thank you all. I'll be painting whatever I come up with. I would like something to look nice, but it needs to work. I'm pretty happy with my roll around cart now, but I'd really like to hang some terraced (thanks for that word) socket hangers to sit on the lid where my screwdrivers are now. Then I could get my half inch stuff out of my toolbox.

I figure I'll have to fix those lid struts with something solid if I'm going to hang sockets on there.

 

[akpolaris]

I agree with Tig and possibly no filler but 1/8" is pretty heavy. Either 14 or 16 gauge would keep the weight down

I’d be tempted to try 1/8” thick plate with 12 penny nails. I would remove the tip of the nail so it is flat. Drill holes in the plate and weld from the back side like Sberry says. MiG or Tig would be best. If the hole was tight enough, I think they could be Tig welded, just fused with no filler maybe.

I’ll think some more on it.

 

[txvwnut]

If your talking about the stud welders used for dent pulling those pins are actually quite soft and bend rather easily.

 

[gearhead1]

I agree with Tig and possibly no filler but 1/8" is pretty heavy. Either 14 or 16 gauge would keep the weight down

I don’t disagree. One of those things where I like to hold a piece of each and get a feel for it.

 

[speed bump]

At work we use the drive size bar stock and mig weld it to 1/8" plate to make socket holder plates.

 

[KSJeff]

At work we use the drive size bar stock and mig weld it to 1/8" plate to make socket holder plates.

I don't do a lot of metal work, so I'm not sure I understand this. Are you saying you weld 3/8" square stock to the plate to hold 3/8" sockets? Horizontal or at an angle?

Seems like it would be more expensive than welding a stud?

 

[KSJeff]

If your talking about the stud welders used for dent pulling those pins are actually quite soft and bend rather easily.

That's exactly what I'm talking about and I've never worked with one. You think 3mm pins wouldn't hold a socket?

 

[txvwnut]

Vertically they would probably do okay. Mounted on an angle and in a movable cart no.

 

[NYBODYMAN]

That's exactly what I'm talking about and I've never worked with one. You think 3mm pins wouldn't hold a socket?

Agreed. The pin itself likely wouldn't break but they are soft and I could see repeated removal of moderately heavy sockets causing the stud to rip from it's base. Also, I don't think you will be able to get them as close as you want to.

 

[no704]

1/4-3/8 al plate, drill and press in roll pins?

 

[colin39]

Love my toolbox with the pin style socket holder [emoji106]

Sent from my IN2023 using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Kaizen]

Might give you some ideas

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[danski0224]

If you wanted to recreate something similar to the above that you could mount horizontally or at a 45 degree angle, how would you do it?

I'd buy either a terrace type plastic holder (not sure if available) or the standard plastic flat pin type holder and attach it to a piece of metal that is bent to the desired angle, then rivet or bolt the angle to the lid.

The standard plastic pin holder type can be cut up as necessary, and metal can be formed or assembled with "steps" as needed.

Far less expensive than messing around with stud welders if you don't have one already.

I suppose you could buy a multi axis CNC machine, some tooling, and make one out of billet...

 

[Bsmb62519]

I’d be tempted to try 1/8” thick plate with 12 penny nails. I would remove the tip of the nail so it is flat. Drill holes in the plate and weld from the back side like Sberry says. MiG or Tig would be best. If the hole was tight enough, I think they could be Tig welded, just fused with no filler maybe.

I’ll think some more on it.

If youre going to TIG Id go with aluminum plate and rod. Drill through the plate and plug weld the rod. It will cut the weight down. I would also go with 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 rod for the posts rather than thin pins. It will tighten up the sockets on your rails and actually help keep them in place.

 

[Bsmb62519]

Double post

 

[sberry]

I like that in post 15.
This is about the best way I ever dun it. I need to move a couple in the top tray, I did some in numerical order and they dont work quite that way which leads to a couple extra spins. I can see what the drive size is but if you get them back right they are easy and fast. I was trying to come up with tray on terrace set up too, this set is between 2 bays.