"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
12/03/2015 at 16:00 • Filed to: tools, organization
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"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
12/03/2015 at 16:00 • Filed to: tools, organization | 3
| 8 |
Sockets just mbe the most important, basic tools in a mechanic’s arsenal. Whether DIY or professional, you won’t last long without a wide array of these at your disposal. If only they didn’t all look alike...
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One of the worst things you can do is keep your sockets all jumbled together. If you’ve ever done this to yourself, you probably know what it’s like to dump ‘em all out just to find that one size you need.
There are plenty of trays, racks, and holders to keep your tools in line. But what do you do when you have a project that requires multiple sizes? Do you force yourself to use one socket at a time, religiously putting it away before grabbing the next one? If you’re like me, you don’t put tools away until the job is done, or the day is over, whichever comes first.
In the middle of a project, you may find yourself surrounded by a good handful of sockets, that may or may not be similar in size. What if you immediately knew which one to grab, instead of having to inspect the markings or test-fit it? Prepare yourself for the wonderful world of color-coding.
Color-coding is fantastic. It works great for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , identifying !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and many other things in life. Colors are one of the most effective ways of communicating basic information at a glance. You can buy sets of tools that come already colored like this for easy, fast identification. There’s no need to even pick it up to see what size it is.
But perhaps you already have sockets. Maybe you don’t want to spend money on something you already have, or you don’t want to have to make room in your toolbox for them. A cheap & easy solution is to paint them.
For my sockets, I decided to paint the most commonly used ones: my ” and ¼” -drive 6-point sockets. (I don’t use the 12-point ones enough, even less so the 8-point ones. They can remain unpainted.) I bought six cans of spray paint, including basic primary and secondary colors. Instead of copying Pittsburgh Tools’ color scheme, I used this:
This is the Fisher-Price School Days Desk, one of my childhood toys. These magnetic letters and numbers spent a lot of time on my parents’ fridge. Although I never put any effort into memorizing the colors, I am unable to forget them now. They’re just naturally stuck in my head somehow. Ask me in person, put me on the spot, and I can recall the color of any letter or number. Even looking at words brings to mind a particular color palette. (The number zero, which is not pictured above, is purple, BTW.)
So instead of choosing colors to code my tools, I went with what I already know. It’s in my head, for better or worse. So I roll with it. For my metric sockets, the last digit in the number dictates the color. So 9mm and 13mm sockets are both solid blue. They are different enough in physical size to tell them apart without needing to use more colors.
But what about SAE sizes, with their fractions? Well, as it turns out, the numerators are consistently odd numbers (yellow, blue, red) , while the denominators are even numbers (green, purple, orange) . So, I paint half of the socket in one color, and half in the other. Just two colors, though, focusing again on the last digit of each number. So my 11/32 socket is half-yellow, half green. Here’s how they look now:
I’m sure the paint will wear eventually, and if any of them become too worn, it won’t take but a minute to recoat them. I have already found this color-coding to be pretty helpful, and I just might do my wrenches next. It may make my tools look like toys, but I think I’ve chosen a better color scheme than !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ...
MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
> Urambo Tauro
12/03/2015 at 16:04 |
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They say there are wrenches but all I see is a blank picture
shop-teacher
> Urambo Tauro
12/03/2015 at 16:12 |
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I’m not convinced that this would work for me, but I am nonetheless impressed!
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Urambo Tauro
> MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
12/03/2015 at 16:26 |
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Does the “blank picture” look like a blue-colored link ? ;)
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MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
> Urambo Tauro
12/03/2015 at 16:57 |
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you totally missed the joke lol
it meant that because they’re camo I couldn’t see them.
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Urambo Tauro
> MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
12/03/2015 at 17:03 |
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Nice one.
Jarrett - [BRZ Boi]
> Urambo Tauro
12/03/2015 at 17:29 |
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Very cool idea.
BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires
> Urambo Tauro
12/04/2015 at 06:33 |
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Very nice :) I tried this with spanners but the paint just chips off within a couple of weeks of use.
Might see how much it is to get them anodised in different colours :)
georgiahomeboy
> Urambo Tauro
12/10/2015 at 10:34 |
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In the shop at school we use a ring of colored tape on the 3 sizes of wrenches and sockets we use for everything - 7/16 is green, 1/2 is blue, 9/16 is yellow. We really need something for the mountain of unorganized allen keys, though.
At home I have one set of sockets on a holder I keep in order and don’t let anyone touch, but the rest are just a sea in the drawer; same with the wrenches. They desperately need to be organized.