Vintage Craftsman tool chest lock

[sdsrn]

I inherited this tool chest from my father. I know it's more than 50 years old. I was able to remove all of the drawers and slides, thanks to this forum. My husband had the chest sandblasted and repainted for me. I first thought that the painter had painted the spring and locking rail stuck but it does move. I just can't figure out how to get it to lock again. I do need to lubricate all of the moving pieces.
Any suggestions out there? Does the end of the bottom slide need to be bent? Both the right and left side seem to be at the same angle.
Thanks for any input.

 

[bczygan]

Cool old chest!

 

[PugetDude]

Cool old chest!

Kind of a personal reply to a woman posting here for the first time, don't you think?...

 

[930dreamer]

Welcome, very nice Craftsman cabinet.

 

[softailgarage]

Welcome to The Garage and that's a nice box! 1930's to 1940's machinist style. it's hard to answer by looking at the picture, I'd have to get my hands on it and feel around. Is that back tab bendable?

 

[bluebolt]

Welcome to The Garage and that's a nice box! 1930's to 1940's machinist style. it's hard to answer by looking at the picture, I'd have to get my hands on it and feel around. Is that back tab bendable?

Look again Softailgarage it has the Crown logo it has to be at least 1958.

 

[Bill Ramsey]

Welcome to the forum. I'm not familiar with this particular drawer locking system. More pictures would help us help you - a closer picture of the mechanism near that spring, and if it moves, a picture of both ends of it's travel range. A picture of the back of one of your drawers would help too.

• Is there one of these mechanisms on both sides of the cabinet, or just on this right side?
• Does this piece with the sort of "S" shape on the end move backward and forward when you engage/disengage the lock?
• Does the vertical bar on the back of the cabinet move up and down? Does moving the horizontal bar forward and backward cause that bar to move up and down? From the position of the spring (and the orientation of the tab), it looks like the spring pulls that piece downward to engage a slot on the back of the drawer when in the "locked" position.

 

[Bill Ramsey]

Looking further, I see this box has what some call a "garage door" covering an open compartment at the bottom. If your drawer-locking mechanism is correctly assembled, usually you pivot that door into a horizontal position and push it all the way in (back). That should cause the vertical bar on the back of the cabinet to move up, disengaging it's tabs from the back of your drawers.

If any of these moving bars are sticky, you'll need to find some way to get a few drops of oil behind them, so they'll move more freely.

I don't have a box just like this one, so I'm making generalities here. Hopefully one of the members here who has an old Craftsman with this locking mechanism will come forward with the right answer.

 

[zoggynog]

Hi,

I don't know much about much...but I do know a thing or two about this chest. I own one!

To confirm a few things:

1. The chest does indeed date early 60's. Most likely 1960-62.

I bought mine on CL after falling for it and proceeded to look through every scanned Craftsman catalog I could find to identify exact year. Couldn't find it except for with the older oval logo. Then one day I happened to be on Ebay and saw a catalog I hadn't read for sale. It had a few sample pages scanned...and sure enough there was our chest crown logo and all.

I purchased the catalog and now use it to slowly build a set of handtools of like vintage. Basically, every time I need a new handtool I go to Sears, cry, consult the catalog, look up part number on ebay, wait two weeks, and then do whatever I was supposed to with the tool. An awesome way to build a nice vintage tool collection...a poor way to get work done quickly. No regrets so far though.

Also worth noting, Craftsman sometimes printed catalogs for say the year "1963" and sometimes they would forgo a date on the catalog because it was meant to span multiple years (I assume). There are NO dates listed in my catalog but the available tools put it right around 1960-62.

2. Bill is correct, this chest locks all the drawers until the bottom "garage" door is unlocked, swiveled out, and pushed all the way back into the chest.

It's a pretty genius design really.

I'm guessing the dismantling of the chest for sandblast/repaint disengaged the mechanism somehow? If it were me, I would take my drawers back out and have another look with this little bit of info in mind.

3. I'm sure you know...but I have to mention the handles are not original. I'm guessing you had them put on after repaint since the originals were taken off? Still have them? What made you ditch them if so? Feel free to sell them to me if they are collecting dust.

Curious to hear how it works out. Will you be repainting your crown badge? If so, document that process...I'm curious to see someone do it.

Arron

 

[softailgarage]

Look again Softailgarage it has the Crown logo it has to be at least 1958.

Your correct, thought about that later in the day. I should have known better.

 

[chopper1]

..............................

 

[radrush]

1. The chest does indeed date early 60's. Most likely 1960-62.

I bought mine on CL after falling for it and proceeded to look through every scanned Craftsman catalog I could find to identify exact year. Couldn't find it except for with the older oval logo. Then one day I happened to be on Ebay and saw a catalog I hadn't read for sale. It had a few sample pages scanned...and sure enough there was our chest crown logo and all.

I purchased the catalog and now use it to slowly build a set of handtools of like vintage. badge?

I'm looking at the both the 1960/1961 and the 1961 spring/summer catalogs and I do not see this tool box. What page are you looking at? I couldn't find it in any 60s catalog.

It's on page 51 of the 1959 Craftsman hand tool catalog. It's described as "Our Biggest, Best Cabinet" and sold for $79.95. It has a push-handle of the left side of the cabinet, probably because the fixed/locking wheels are on the left. The picture of the tool box above has the fixed/locking wheels on the right side and due to the angle of the pic we can't see if the push-handle is there.

 

[zoggynog]

I'm looking at the both the 1960/1961 and the 1961 spring/summer catalogs and I do not see this tool box. What page are you looking at? I couldn't find it in any 60s catalog.

It's on page 51 of the 1959 Craftsman hand tool catalog. It's described as "Our Biggest, Best Cabinet" and sold for $79.95.

It's on page 51 of the 1959 Craftsman hand tool catalog. It's described as "Our Biggest, Best Cabinet" and sold for $79.95. It has a push-handle of the left side of the cabinet, probably because the fixed/locking wheels are on the left. The picture of the tool box above has the fixed/locking wheels on the right side and due to the angle of the pic we can't see if the push-handle is there.

I think I've just been corrected/educated.

Is this the front pic of the 1959 catalog?

If so, that's the catalog I'm referring to and it would mean these chests are a little older than I realized...1959 it is.

Thank you for dating my catalog!

 

[radrush]

I think I've just been corrected/educated.

Is this the front pic of the 1959 catalog?

If so, that's the catalog I'm referring to and it would mean these chests are a little older than I realized...1959 it is.

Thank you for dating my catalog!

I have that two DVD set which contains all the Craftsman tool catalogs in order and the picture you linked is referenced as the 1959 catalog.

The 1960 and 1961 tool cabinets appear to have different handles and badging.

 

[sdsrn]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am not trying to restore this tool chest. I am trying to rescue it from falling into a pile of rust. When we had it sandblasted and painted I asked the painter to leave the holes and dents. My Dad put those in and I'll just leave them there.
Thanks Bill Ramsey, "garage door" is a perfect description for that lower door. I never thought of it. The slides in the back do move but I think they need graphite or some type of lubricant to get it to moving smoothly. I need to do that to all of the drawer slides as well. I may have to bend out some of the little "locking" pieces where they connect with the drawers. It looks like some were forced in, almost flat against the vertical bar.
Thanks for replying Zoggynog. I thought this was a 1958 or 1959 tool chest. My Dad received it as a Christmas present from my mother and he thought it was 1958 but he wasn't certain. The handles are original, you can probably see the rust spots on the chrome. My Dad removed the push handle from the side some time ago. He had screwed on some home welded storage racks for additional screw drivers and misc tools. This thing was jam packed when we unloaded it but the drawers still slid surprisingly well.
Hey Chopper 1, sorry for my delayed reply. I am a nurse and had to work this weekend. I love messing around with a project, I always have one in process and I can't wait to get back to this one!
Thanks again all of you for the information and advice. I really appreciate it.

 

[Ub3rD0rk]

I know this is a very old thread, but I would like to add information for anyone else trying to figure out how the lock works on this box. I recently got this same toolbox with the lower locking rods missing and I could not figure out how the lock works at all. The photos here helped greatly and I was able to make the missing parts needed based on the photos in this thread. When I got everything together as it is in the photos here, The lock would not work correctly. After messing around I finally figured out what is wrong in these photos.

When installing the lower garage-style door, The locking bars need to be pulled all the way forward in the rails to the opening for the door. when the door is being installed, the tabs on the locking bars (Red Circles in photo) need to go into the slots on the top of the door (Blue Circles in photo). Then when the door is opened, the rods will slide back to unlock the drawers. When the door is closed, It will pull the rods back allowing the drawers to lock. The rods will now be attached to, and move with the door also acting as a hinge point for the door when closed.




Below is the locking bars I made to get the locks working on the box I have. You can see how they attach to the door.