old snap-on box score today,need some info!

[chris fresh]

so last night on craigslist i'm looking around and find this box,called her this morning and she still had it. i'm looking for another one this size also,this will become my new welding cart.it will fit my 110 and 220 machine perfect,i will add a handle and also a bottom tray for holding the bottle.drawers will be used for typical stuff like tips,wire,gloves.i'll keep my helmet and larger stuff in the bottom.

i bought this box from a sweet older lady and of course she knew nothing about it.would just like to know about what year it is.i also need to know how to get the drawers out of it,can't find any kind of keeper or stop on the slides.the slide on the top drawer is broke on the left side,so i think i'm just going to weld in a set of roller slides from lowes.

the box will get broke down,then i'm going to do all the fixing/ straightening,then sandblast it,body work and paint.the casters work great and roll super easy,but they have seen a hard life,i'm either going to keep the brackets and change wheels,or i'm thinking about pulling the wheels tonight (there some sort of hard plastic or rubber? and put them in my lathe and clean up the sides and resurface the contact area.either way,i got the box for 25 clams,50 or less bucks from now it will look like it just came from snap-on.wich i'm very happy with.

o.k,who knows what?

 

[chadster1]

You got that box for $25?

You ****.

 

[chris fresh]

You got that box for $25?

You ****.

yup! and i know this ,but i still need info,right now is the drawer release thing,so i can start the tear down.

so what say you,OH wise snappy man?

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

The box looks to be about mid '70s. I have a similar box, but mine has five drawers above the bottom compartment vs. the three you have. Look on the back of the box for the manufacturing stamp...will be in one of the corners, and will have a two digit number for the year made.

Drawer removal:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9832&highlight=remove+snap+drawers

 

[chris fresh]

The box looks to be about mid '70s. I have a similar box, but mine has five drawers above the bottom compartment vs. the three you have. Look on the back of the box for the manufacturing stamp...will be in one of the corners, and will have a two digit number for the year made.

Drawer removal:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9832&highlight=remove+snap+drawers

awsome! thanks man,figured there had to be some sort of key somewhere

 

[chris fresh]

of course i couldn't leave it alone,heres the before pic of the snap-on tag and the after.i pulled it and thru it in the blast cabinet,cleaned it and painted it black.tomorrow i will hit the letters and boarder with the scotch brite and polish the letters back,just like original,but new and clean

 

[chris fresh]

few more pics of the progress,i decided to pull the casters and brackets,brackets got blasted and the wheels looked like the flinstones made them.thought about it for a minute and then through them in the lathe.the cutter was way to aggressive for the wheel material,but some 60 grit on a block of wood worked like a champ.then i just hit the faces with some duplicolor black rattle can.

 

[chris fresh]

and these

 

[chris fresh]

one other thing i got done to was,the top of the box has a 3/8 lip around the top that the top box would **** against,it was all beat up and wavy like the ocean,so out came a large block of steel and a finishing hammer it is now straight.

updates and pics to come

 

[Slip_Kid]

Cool little box, for $25 it's a great score.

 

[fitz11]

Nice score! I got a nice cl score today also. 26" snap-on top remline bottom in need of lots of tlc. Pics coming soon!

 

[930dreamer]

That's a nice find.

 

[onewaydave]

I'm a sucker for old boxes being brought back to life. This is good. I'm looking forward to seeing your work, Chris.

Dave.

 

[chris fresh]

I'm a sucker for old boxes being brought back to life. This is good. I'm looking forward to seeing your work, Chris.

Dave.

thanks dave,i told my wife i was just going to go get it,make the few things i needed and put the welders on it. then she saw parts going into the blast cabinet about 20 minutes after i got home,and just shook her head.the biggest thing that made me break it down was the fact that someone had touched up the paint with a brush,and it was like a 3'' brush,and the wrong red.

i will need to find the proper red also.

 

[chris fresh]

well of course i couldn't leave things alone,this has turned from a clean up to a full resto/welding cart. i couldn't live with just a sanding on the wheels,so i got a different cutter and took off about 5/16 off the wheels to square them up,then they got some paint.i also finished the snap on tag,blasted,painted yesturday,then today i put it face down on some 220 and it's lookin nice.finally got the drawer's out,got the slides off,and into the cabinet they went.as of right now i have about 80% of the bodywork done,all the edges are straightened,drawer handles and fitment is back to original with all good clearences.still have a few dings in the side but i can't get them because of the double wall,their minor and will just get some putty.

 

[chris fresh]

few more

 

[chris fresh]

so as of right now,drawer slides are done
wheels,brackets and hardware are done
all the tin work is done
had to do a little spot welding on one of the bottom edges where it had come apart,now the bottom panel fit's and closes how it should
tomorrow i will mount the bracket that holds the tank in and fab a handle for the other side.tonight is going to be time spent going through the welding cart thread for idea's.once all the accessories are in place,the box and drawers are getting blasted and then body work/ paint.only thing i have to find is the slide,because it has to be spot welded in before paint.oh and have to find a lock to that's missing.

color scheme for right now is blue box,silver drawers,silver handle,silver bottle rack.and some black pin stripping. but that could all change.

 

[FJ 432]

Nice job. Bright blue or navy blue. I'm partial to two tone cabinets. My latest project involves a Herbrand top chest and a Snap On intermediate in Flat black and light blue.

 

[dieselmike]

cool thread!

 

[chris fresh]

Nice job. Bright blue or navy blue. I'm partial to two tone cabinets. My latest project involves a Herbrand top chest and a Snap On intermediate in Flat black and light blue.

not sure on the blue yet,i like miller blue,but it's really played out and i don't own any miller stuff. i over did the whole black/red silver thing to.my street truck is the blk/rd/sil combo and it looks good,then i did the same scheme with my shifter kart.i like 3 color things,two main colors and another smaller detail color,hence the black pin stripe.who knows?

still have to find the slide and make the other things,i can blast it and get it in prime and then decide

thanks on the nice job.

 

[chris fresh]

today the cabinet and 3 drawers went out for sandblasting and i think i might have a slide in the works.heres the pic of the missing rail in the cabinet and the half of slide that was in the drawer.

 

[Outlawmws]

Any decent sheet metal shop should be able to bend up the broken slide rail in about 5 minutes if you give then an example.

 

[chris fresh]

Any decent sheet metal shop should be able to bend up the broken slide rail in about 5 minutes if you give then an example.

i'm going to bend one up myself,box is coming back thursday and the weather has been damp.i want to have it ready to go,so i can burn it in,check the drawer,prime everything quickly.

 

[Sterff]

Nice progress so far. I think blue and silver would look nice or a nice bright orange.

 

[chris fresh]

Nice progress so far. I think blue and silver would look nice or a nice bright orange.

yeah,i was debating on something brite.i've never owned a loud box,like yellow or orange,i always liked the matco tool cart yellow,all i know right now is it's going to be two tone.

 

[CaseyJoes.]

I think it would look best in some fresh original SnapOn red...

 

[Outlawmws]

yeah,i was debating on something brite.i've never owned a loud box,like yellow or orange,i always liked the matco tool cart yellow,all i know right now is it's going to be two tone.

I could see a Bumble Bee Tool box...

 

[chris fresh]

I think it would look best in some fresh original SnapOn red...

i can tell ya right now,not gonna happen

 

[chris fresh]

well i picked up everything from the blaster this morning and gettin ready to clean and prime,also i finally have a model #,it was stamped in the middle of the back of the box. KRA-352C

 

[chris fresh]

shot the primer and tomorrow is gonna be body work day,little putty work and now i'm down to figuring out the color scheme.

 

[Outlawmws]

shot the primer and tomorrow is gonna be body work day,little putty work and now i'm down to figuring out the color scheme.

Black box body, black drawer pulls Yellow Drawer fronts...

 

[chris fresh]

Black box body, black drawer pulls Yellow Drawer fronts...

no one loves black more than me,so it will have black on it somewhere,but only as a pin stripe.right now i finished all the body work today except a small spot on the bottom front of the box,ran out of putty.other than that everythings done and i re shot it with some high build primer.everythings smooth and ready to go,only hold up is the drawer slide.i have to find it and weld it in before i can paint anything.

tomorrow i'm going to adapt the bottle tray and start building the handle and accessory rack,all are going to be attached in such a way that there are no holes made in the box.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Excellent progress, Chris. Looking forward to the finished product!

 

[930dreamer]

Nice work on the box.

 

[evintho]

I'm watching this too. It's given me inspiration to start the restoration of my mid '50s KR-58 & KR-377B. Nice job so far!

 

[chris fresh]

Excellent progress, Chris. Looking forward to the finished product!

thanks man,it's been a rice break for me,all i've been doin is sheetrockin my new house and it's nice to get in the shop and do something completely different.it's coming along quick and i can't wait to have a real roll around cart for my welders.

been a little tough with info on this thing,seems like i'm the only guy with this box,there are no pictures of this thing anywhere.i need to find an original pic of it for the missing bottom part.behind the lower door/cover there are a set of brackets that look like they use to hold some sort of tray.i can copy it if i knew what to copy.

 

[chris fresh]

so i'm stumped again,i just went back to collecting snap on .com (posted the link earlier this week) and went to there catalog section,went to the 1970-79 catalog (box is a 73) and actually found a pic of a combo box,the pic is listed as a KRA352C,exactly what i have but,the bottom door in the pic has the lock at the bottom and it's in the panel,where mine has a solid rail across the top with the lock and no hole in the panel you remove.and once again i say,WTF?

and i didn't think of it until just now about the rails in the bottom,i'm betting that they are a storage area to slide the bottom panel into while your working out of the box.

 

[yjWrangler]

I'd love an older snap-on box painted gunmetal

 

[chris fresh]

I'd love an older snap-on box painted gunmetal

it's wierd,i have this vision in my head of something blue and silver with pinstriping,but i don't know what i want yet.

 

[tcianci]

I did a thread on here a while back about my SO score. They're great boxes and certainly worth it when you get them for free. I'm sure I'd never pay money for one, once you get them apart, you'd be hard pressed to tell it from any other tool box. I ended up painting mine with Krylon "pimento" satin. all in all it was a little too orange but the satin finish really did a great job of hiding minor imperfections. It's a working tool box after all. I can't wait to see the conversion to the welding cart. Oh, and by the way, You ****.