I did wind up buying the box I posted above, along with a smaller Craftsman box. He'd listed them for $75 each and I was going to leave the small box behind, but when I asked if I could buy the sockets it contained, in hopes of completing sets in the big box, he offered both for $100 and I accepted. I'm glad I did, because the tooling was mixed between the two and it's been fun sorting and organizing them.
The boxes were like time-capsules, appearing to have been unopened for many years. They belonged to the seller's grandfather and he said they were his travel boxes during WWII, when he worked on P-40 Warhawks.
I got most of the house paint cleaned off and am pleased with the overall condition. The boxes came with keys, but unfortunately, one of the two Snap-on keys is broken off in the lock. Even more Unfortunately, I heard the lock bezel crack when I tried taking the large nut off the back, thinking it'd be easier to extract the key on the bench. I decided to leave that job for later and stopped before it fell apart.
One of the pins that locks the front panel was stuck on this one and there's evidence of recent damage from trying to open it. I wish they hadn't broken the plastic pull, but at least they put the pieces inside.
I looked up the Plymouth badge that's on top of the big box and it came from the dash of a 1939 car. Someone said it was a block-off plate for the radio hole.
I added the red tray and a few other tools, but most of the stuff came with the box. I added the 1/2" speeder and ratchet, along with that old Skil drill (since removed).
There were a bunch of NOS Nicholson files included. The plastic handles on a few of them are marked Craftsman. The 1/2" sockets are a mix of Snap-on, Plomb and Bonney, mostly. The cad plated swivel sockets are marked Cornwell, with engraver-pen markings that may be military. There were also a few PWA marked tools.
I added the Snap-on punches I bought at a garage sale the following weekend. I was the last person shopping on the last day of the sale and was surprised to find them still there at a buck-a-piece. (I already had the biggest one and two other small ones).
They didn't open the top drawer for the ad's photos, so the contents were a pleasant surprise. I was so excited, I actually pulled over on my way home so I could dig through the boxes some more.
I added the 2" extension and U-joint and used Altoid tins to group some sockets. The 9/32" set is C-series Craftsman and two of the sockets were hiding in the other box. The P.O. removed the lid from that little box, along with the 3/8" box lid and used little screws to fix them in place. Some of the tooling is marked 1111 and I found the #1 punch inside the box. I don't think he was concerned with resale value.
I like the way he kept pairs of some the wrenches. One for the bolt head and the other for the nut, I suppose. A few of those are Snap-on and Blue-Point.
I don't usually drag this much home at once. It took a long time to get everything cleaned up and tucked back into the boxes.
It'd be fun to share the contents of the other box, but it doesn't really fit in the Snap-on thread.
Tom
