I'm trying to pack as many sockets and combination wrenches as practical per drawer in my tool box.
What are some good commercial or homebuilt solutions? I need to be able to count and access them easily.
Thanks in advance!

 

Lowes Home Centers have plastic trays with posts on them to organize your sockets. You simply slip the socket over the post, and it's there with markings on the plastic base so at a glance you know what size it is.

A "homemade" solution is bit more work, but kinda fun to do. Over the years I've accumulated so many socket sets that two or three of these plastic trays isn't enough. In fact, I have a large mechanic's chest (2' deep, 4' wide, 6' high) and one of the larger drawers is full front to back with sockets of all types, and I still have two large shoeboxes on the floor with more sockets.

How I organized mine was to cut a piece of 1/4" hardwood plywood to fit inside the drawer, then mark off where I'm going to drill and glue hardwood dowel posts, essentially making the same thing I could have bought from lowes, just larger with more posts.

 

For wrenches, my new favorite is the foam wrench organizers from Sears. I had an old set of the plastic ones where the wrenches laid at a lesser angle and with more spacing between each wrench. This allowed easy viewing of the sizes, but isn't as efficient space-wise. The newer ones are closer together and keep the whenches standing almost straight up and down. The foam holders split the difference as well as keep the spacing equal. In my Craftsman bottom box, which is standard 18" depth, each rack will hold 16 wrenches. Two sets will fit side-by-side in one drawer. I keep 1/4" through 1-1/4" and 6mm through 21mm in this drawer. I use other drawers for "special" wrenches, (Line, distributor, offset, angle,etc). As far as sockets, I've found the most space-efficient thing to be plain old-skool metal socket racks. The only drawback that I've found with them is their complete inability to stand up :-) . The big organizers that they sell these days all seem to have things that I don't like. Most have wide spacing, or the little labels don't match what I own. The racks with the "pins" that stand up to drop sockets onto with matching labels kinda annoy me too. More sockets than spots or vice-versa and they're kinda expensive, especially if you've got as many sockets as I do. personally, I'd either use the metal socket rails, and MAYBE attach them to the drawer with screw so they will stand up. Otherwise, I'd look at building something that suited me.

 

I see Frederic posted while I was typing, and what he is talking about is basically what I've been planning on building, except I was planning on making it out of metal.

 

Keep the ideas coming, they all look good.

I'm gonna try the "post" setup with metal, and look for some old-school socket racks at the flea market.
I'll use Window Weld to attach everything to the bottom of the drawer. No holes in the drawer that way, and I can cut it loose with wire if I change my mind.
(WARNING, use small dots about nickel-size, the stuff is tough.)

 

Making what I did out of metal is fine, but will be significantly more costly with all the metal posts. Cutting metal is slower than wood, and you have to attach the posts to the backing plate either with epoxy or welding it on. Another option I guess is to use 1/3", 3/8" and 1/2" bolts and cut them to the right height so the drawers close...

That's why I used wood... ripped the base on the table saw in a couple of minutes, then drilled all the holes fairly quickly, then applied glue to cut dowels which I used my bandsaw for since the fence is actually square. I even rounded the tops of the dowels slightly with a disc sander to make dropping the sockets on easier.

Though my sockets sit with the square drive hole up, and the dowel only protrudes partially into that opening, giving me a little room to pull sockets out by banging the ratchet's post into that square hole.

Just a habit of mine I planned ahead for

 

Metal is no problem here since I get lots of tasty scrap for free. I'm going to do some metal pegboard (by clamping the masonite variety over the metal and using it for a template) and the same trick could line up some socket post holes. I figure I can tack them on the back side to make everything presentable.

 

As far as sockets go, I keep mine in a tray standing up. Ninety nine times out of a hundred you are going to be using 9/16", 3/4" or 15/16". These I keep upside down in the tray. That is with the square drive hole up for instant recognition.

 

i keep em on a metal rail

 

For short sockets a piece of 1/2" plywood with holes drilled thru for the sockets and marked for size works well and is a lot easier to make. Deep sockets can use posts or routed grooves depending on drawer depth. Routed grooves also work well for combination wrenches. I have seen magnetic strips used for wrenches but that seems to take up a lot of space.

 

I was thinking about this for a while, and the dowel on the plate idea is a lot of work to make, having done it. Wood or metal, it's work.

Torque has a good idea... take a chuck of mdf or plywood, and use forrester bits if you have them to bore down 3/4 of the way through the wood, then slip your sockets into the holes.