Your socket organizers

[MossRoad]

It was about $15 for a 2' x 4' sheet, enough for two drawers.

 

[newbury]

Start by labeling your drawers... and not the one's your wearing. :laughing:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday...

January
February
March ....

I went to college with a guy that lived in the dorms, he would save all his jeans up to be washed when he went home on break and I think he only had like 6 pair.

I am a HUGE fan of these. For some reason, I struggle to see the numbers on sockets these days! No, age has nothing to do with it. Had to buy the large set of course, but well worth it as now I have plenty for future sockets and replacement of damaged ones. They hold up surprisingly well, oil and chemicals don't bother them but occasionally one will get scraped off in tight quarters. Definitely would buy them again. I see now they have labels for drawers too.
Steel Labels | Professional Labels to Organize Your Tools

I've real problems with the HF black impact sockets which have the sizes indented in the sides. What I've done is make sure they are clean and dip them into white paint then wipe them lightly with a towel, and let dry. They then are very readable. The paint flakes off after a while but it's easy to repeat.

And I like storing them (and many small tools) in used Zip-Loc bags.
SWMBO refuses to reuse a Zip-Loc, especially if it's had meat in it. So consequently I have quite a stock of bags. They break, they tear, but they are essentially free

 

[3Lfarms]

Is that foam custom to snap on boxes, or is it cut and fit? Where do you get something like
That?

SnapOn will laser etch the tools with your name and laser cut black foam that is then glued onto contrasting colored foam (like black foam on top of 1/8 yellow foam). When the tools are all in their place, all you see is the black foam, but when a tool is removed, you see the yellow outline and you know it hasn't been replaced.
They can also laser print a tag with the tool description that is glued into the cutout if you are really ****. They will even do all this at no extra cost, if your purchase is big enough. They tend to bend over backwards when you spend $250K on one order.

They will even custom make tools for you when you are that big of a customer. They made us very large 1/2" speedhandles to use as a a crank. SnapOn is the only tool manufacturer we could find that can do custom stuff like that.

 

[Pixguy]

SnapOn will laser etch the tools with your name and laser cut black foam that is then glued onto contrasting colored foam (like black foam on top of 1/8 yellow foam). When the tools are all in their place, all you see is the black foam, but when a tool is removed, you see the yellow outline and you know it hasn't been replaced. They can also laser print a tag with the tool description that is glued into the cutout if you are really ****. They will even do all this at no extra cost, if your purchase is big enough. They tend to bend over backwards when you spend $250K on one order. They will even custom make tools for you when you are that big of a customer. They made us very large 1/2" speedhandles to use as a a crank. SnapOn is the only tool manufacturer we could find that can do custom stuff like that.

Wow.... All that foronly250k?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have 3 socket sets that come with a case and a place for every item.

 

[downsizingnow48]

I bought one Snap On tool in my whole life. A special socket to remove injectors from an 82 GMC diesel pickup. It was the only thing available. Otherwise I find their hand tools overpriced. My Craftsman hand tools (wrenches, sockets) are now 30-40 years old and I have never broke or bent any of them in steady use.

 

[cmyoung2]

What keeps the sockets in place?

I also have these! they are excellent!!

 

[dragoneggs]

Reminds me of the Styx song..
Too much time on my hand

That's a flashback!

 

[dragoneggs]

January
February
March ....

Can we at least agree on weekly?

 

[topbuilder]

"I find their hand tools overpriced"
Are they expensive? Yes. I think we normally expect we are going to pay when choosing the best of anything. Why does one drive a Corvette when a Chevette will reach the same destination?

 

[BukitCase]

"Can we at least agree on weekly?"

Which of course reminded me of the "three stages of married life" -

Tri-weekly
Try weekly
Try weakly

Back on subject; the HF plastic pegs work fine for me, metric on left/SAE on right/oddballs down the center - some of the other choices cost so much I coulda bought another top/bottom rollaway... Steve

Other drawers - one for 2 sets of end wrenches SAE, up to 1-1/4", 'nuther for metric, 4 more narrow drawers for gear wrenches, 'nuther for hammers, one for air tools, etc, and a second stainless top/bottom for bigger/tractor/hydraulic stuff, incl. 3/4 and 1" drive impact, wrenches up to 2" - but we were just talkin' 'bout sockets

 

[Big Barn]

"I find their hand tools overpriced"
Are they expensive? Yes. I think we normally expect we are going to pay when choosing the best of anything. Why does one drive a Corvette when a Chevette will reach the same destination?

I agree. I have SnapOn... but personally given a choice I'd rather drive a Chevette than a Corvette.

But then that's just me....

 

[downsizingnow48]

apologies to OP for dragging the conversation off course.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Until very recently, the best I could hope for was to have all the 1/2" sockets in one drawer (photo 1) and all the 3/8" sockets in another.

A couple months back I decided to give all my loose Craftsman sockets to my son-in-law and replace with SK in plastic boxes (photo 2).

It is very nice to have everything organized in those plastic boxes.

 

[lexluther]

I am a HUGE fan of these. For some reason, I struggle to see the numbers on sockets these days! No, age has nothing to do with it. Had to buy the large set of course, but well worth it as now I have plenty for future sockets and replacement of damaged ones. They hold up surprisingly well, oil and chemicals don't bother them but occasionally one will get scraped off in tight quarters. Definitely would buy them again. I see now they have labels for drawers too.
Steel Labels | Professional Labels to Organize Your Tools

Oh man, I hope these are as cool as they look.! Thanks!

For 250 thousand in snap on tools, what do you get a set of screwdrivers and a pair of pliers?

 

[boggen]

Until very recently, the best I could hope for was to have all the 1/2" sockets in one drawer (photo 1) and all the 3/8" sockets in another.

A couple months back I decided to give all my loose Craftsman sockets to my son-in-law and replace with SK in plastic boxes (photo 2).

It is very nice to have everything organized in those plastic boxes.

nice plastic boxes!!! were did you buy them from?

 

[KubotainNH]

I am a HUGE fan of these. For some reason, I struggle to see the numbers on sockets these days! No, age has nothing to do with it. Had to buy the large set of course, but well worth it as now I have plenty for future sockets and replacement of damaged ones. They hold up surprisingly well, oil and chemicals don't bother them but occasionally one will get scraped off in tight quarters. Definitely would buy them again. I see now they have labels for drawers too.
Steel Labels | Professional Labels to Organize Your Tools

This is one I need to bookmark. I have some deep well sockets that are getting hard to read because the shallow laser cut label is getting rubbed out especially on the high use 10mm. These labels will do the job nicely. I also have some sockets that the stamped number just seems to be getting smaller somehow. I also like the paint dipping idea for the impact sockets.

 

[KubotainNH]

nice plastic boxes!!! were did you buy them from?

I assumed the boxes came with the new set of SK sockets.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Yes boxes came with set of SK sockets. Bought off Amazon.

 

[jwmorris]

I need to be able to grab a set and move it to the work area, not run back and forth for each socket. Don't like the snap-onto ones as with oily hands, hard to wrestle on and off.

Get a service cart and move all the "common" tools you need to the work area. Keep the ones you might need at some point in the big box you don't move. This one is not mine but an example of one.

That one seems to go on sale for $99 every other week.

26 in. 4 Drawer 58 lb. Capacity Glossy Black Roller Cart

The $99 coupon for it is at the bottom of this link. Good until June.
Digital Savings and Coupons from Harbor Freight

The Hanson trays are a "standard" that other methods are judged by but only work for standard and deep sockets because of the posts. Swivel, Allen, Torx and others that are "blind" still work best on rails of some sort. As others have stated some are better than others, if you want them to be no more difficult to remove than to use them, get rails that use the same ball and spring method to hold them on the rail. If you can't get them off these rails you don't need more than one socket because you won't be able to get the socket you intend to replace off the tool your using with them.