Best Magnetic Tray For Keeping Track Of Small Parts

Click here to see examples of magnetic trays.
Click here to see examples of magnetic trays.
Most vehicle components are attached using nuts and bolts. In order to remove and replace such components it is necessary to unscrew the bolts from the nuts or mating threaded holes, and often times, this can make keeping track of loose parts a bit difficult. Sometimes it seems like small parts grow legs and walk away when you aren’t looking.

To complicate matters, there aren’t just nuts and bolts under the hood of your car. There are also washers, screws, pins, and clamps. Although all of these parts serve different functions, they’re all typically metal. This is why they stick to magnetic trays, which can be quite useful in hobby garages and mechanic shops.

After dropping these small metal parts into a magnetic tray, you can turn around and get back to work confident that the parts won’t roll away. Without a magnetic tray, sometimes placing small parts simply on top of a toolbox won’t cut it. If you place them in a certain way they may roll away, fall off the toolbox onto the floor, and, ultimately, get lost.

Magnetic trays are the safest bet for maintaining accountability of small parts and even small tools. The tray will not only secure small parts and tools, but it will also stick to a metal toolbox or worktable so it can follow you where you are working. This tool is an essential one for car hobbyists who like to work on their personal cars with loud music playing on the radio, and for mechanics who work in auto shops where loud power tools are constantly being used as they won’t be able to rely on sound to locate dropped parts.

Best Magnetic Tray

performance tool magnetic tray
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Performance Tool makes an exceptional tray, the W1265 Large Magnetic Nut and Bolt Tray, that has a stainless steel construction, is large enough to fit most tools and parts, and even works sideways or upside down. It works like a dream.

The stainless steel construction makes for an extraordinarily durable tray that will last for a very long time. An accidental drop of the tray will not jeopardize its function at all. The magnets are cast within the steel, so you won’t have to worry about them coming off or anything like that. Since it is stainless, it will also resist corrosion.

It’s large and deep enough so that you can toss into it lots of hardware and even some larger tools such as: wrenches, screwdrivers, sockets, or ratchets. There’s no need to place every tool back into its proper drawer if you’re still using it. With this magnetic tray, you can make sure that your tools will remain in place and within arms reach.

A really great feature of this tray is that it even works upside down or sideways. While it’s not intuitive, if you are working underneath the vehicle you can stick it to the bottom, and have hardware and parts readily accessible. We tend to find that once someone is aware of this technique, they tend to use it pretty frequently.

The Performance Tool W1265 Large Magnetic Nut and Bolt Tray is a great tool to have when removing small parts. Best of all, it is fairly inexpensive and by taking advantage of Amazon’s competitive pricing, you can get in on one for cheap. This tool can be a tremendous asset to both the occasional hobbyist and the career mechanic. Overall, we think this is the best magnetic tray around and suspect that you will be as happy with it as we are. Happy Wrenching!

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