Private Lugnutz
Well-known member
As first posted on the 2019 Garage Sale thread, I picked up this 1940's-era Snap-on K-9 "Junior Handikit" at the flea market today.
It was tractor-trailer trucker's carry box. One of the liquidators had his stuff spread out all over the place - chains, straps, ropes, come-alongs, big *** wrenches, etc, and this lonely little carry box with mainly junk in it. It was like a shaving kit compared to everything else.
John E. Coe patented (1,675,484, 1928) these clever exo-skeletal style boxes (external cantilevers), made them for Good Mfg Co, and then his own company, from c. 1932 through 1957 when a fire burned down the factory in Sherman, NY. Examples abound all over GJ in various 3rd party guises, most notably Snap-on. (Strangely, enough, it was not Snap-on who bought the rights out of the ashes, but Pendleton Tool Technologies, Inc., i.e., Plomb.)
But typically we see the standard size that Duplex made for themselves and other. I have never seen this teeny tiny model (only 14" long!) here or anywhere else, and I believe they only made them for Snap-on.
This is a 1942 catalog page, because it's the most informative with specs, but they were introduced by Snap-on in the 1933 catalog. My box has the pre-1948 Snap-on logo and it's red, not OD green, so I am guesstimating post-war on this. They were "battleship grey duco enamel" up to 1942. Red post-war. The size we normally see branded Duplex is the size that Snap-on branded the K-11, Master Handikit.
At first I was a little disappointed, but now it's growing on me! It's kind of cute!
On the other hand, boy is it uglied up with some nasty silver foil tape and some equally nasty black electrical tape. I don't know if it was originally reflective, or just for easy ID, but there is no functional reason for what the PO did. It wraps all the way around on the base of the box plus the two strips on the lids.
I already cut into the one lid to reveal the markings with Simple Green and a hard plastic scraper, and it was a chore and a half, and I am losing more paint in the process. There is no way I am keeping the tape on there, but I have my doubts about removing it without losing more paint. I need some magic goo-off! Or I may just punt and re-paint OD green. (Also a potential trade in the offing, so I may just let it sit for awhile...)
It was tractor-trailer trucker's carry box. One of the liquidators had his stuff spread out all over the place - chains, straps, ropes, come-alongs, big *** wrenches, etc, and this lonely little carry box with mainly junk in it. It was like a shaving kit compared to everything else.
John E. Coe patented (1,675,484, 1928) these clever exo-skeletal style boxes (external cantilevers), made them for Good Mfg Co, and then his own company, from c. 1932 through 1957 when a fire burned down the factory in Sherman, NY. Examples abound all over GJ in various 3rd party guises, most notably Snap-on. (Strangely, enough, it was not Snap-on who bought the rights out of the ashes, but Pendleton Tool Technologies, Inc., i.e., Plomb.)
But typically we see the standard size that Duplex made for themselves and other. I have never seen this teeny tiny model (only 14" long!) here or anywhere else, and I believe they only made them for Snap-on.
This is a 1942 catalog page, because it's the most informative with specs, but they were introduced by Snap-on in the 1933 catalog. My box has the pre-1948 Snap-on logo and it's red, not OD green, so I am guesstimating post-war on this. They were "battleship grey duco enamel" up to 1942. Red post-war. The size we normally see branded Duplex is the size that Snap-on branded the K-11, Master Handikit.
At first I was a little disappointed, but now it's growing on me! It's kind of cute!
On the other hand, boy is it uglied up with some nasty silver foil tape and some equally nasty black electrical tape. I don't know if it was originally reflective, or just for easy ID, but there is no functional reason for what the PO did. It wraps all the way around on the base of the box plus the two strips on the lids.
I already cut into the one lid to reveal the markings with Simple Green and a hard plastic scraper, and it was a chore and a half, and I am losing more paint in the process. There is no way I am keeping the tape on there, but I have my doubts about removing it without losing more paint. I need some magic goo-off! Or I may just punt and re-paint OD green. (Also a potential trade in the offing, so I may just let it sit for awhile...)
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