Sunday, August 7, 2011

Review: Ernst 6014m/6015m "space saver" wrench rails

(originally posted @ http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=112441 )
Been working on trying to reorganize the tool boxes lately.  Picked up a
set of the so called "space saver" wrench rails from Ernst to try - the
6014m specifically (red - black is 6015m), with magnetic bases.

Ernst is very vague about dimensions.   Turns out the rails are two
different lengths - one long, one short.   There's some suggestion that
the long rail can be placed at various angles to allow for different  
lengths of wrench.   This is just not true - the short rail must be at 90
degrees, and the long rail must be at an angle I didn't measure - if you
change this relationship, the wrench slots no longer align, and your
wrenches are crooked....

The other major point - these rails are NOT designed to fit/work in the shallow (2") drawers, they are too tall, and the wrenches sit too high (even the small wrenches hit the drawer above.

I spent some time hacking on them and it basically works out that you'd have to cut -every single slot- deeper, and trim the top off the entire unit to safely fit it in a shallow drawer.

As for the magnets - dont waste your time.   They're not even powerful enough to hold the rails steady directly on the steel drawer bottoms - much less through a drawer liner.

Overall thoughts?  For my needs, a big waste of time and money.  Since they require a deep drawer, they're not a space saver for me.   I can't even use them in the overflow/spare drawers, since they're not flexible enough to hold more than 1-2 of the same size wrench.





Wednesday, April 13, 2011

WB230/WB240 Wheel Balancer User's Manual

Lets start with this gem. It's the user/owner's manual for the Snap-on WB240 and WB230 Hand Spin Computer Wheel Balancer.  Includes parts list and calibration instructions. 11 pages. Not sure when this series of balancers was sold.

I got this from a tool forum member when I was going to pick one of these up -- alas, the seller sold it to his buddy a mere 2 hours after he promised it to me (and 2 hours before I could get there to pick it up).

Direct link - WB230/240 PDF Download

Or via Scribd: WB230_WB240 Users Manual

New Tool Blog

On occasion I find myself researching or working on some old tool. Sometimes I just end up with the documentation for an old tool.

I'll start posting tips, tricks, and copies of obsolete documentation to share with the world and help you guys out, since so many of you have helped me.