Everyone seems to be making some great finds--congratulations all!
Here's my story:
I drove out to Seguin on Thursday to a sale that promised two sheds with tools. There were a lot of interesting pictures including a couple of small vises and a couple of CM stacks. The vices were too pricy for me and both the CM stacks sold in the three minutes I was late for the opening...
I did find a few things I couldn’t pass up. The gray plastic tool box contained all the pictured screwdrivers and most of the wrenches, a Proto Pro 3/8 speeder, Indestro 6272 3/8 ratchet, SO ¼dr 6” extension, Vlchek WBH 3032 DBE, CM Long C DBE (CI), CM (circle U) 3/8 flex handle, a cool Tecalemit (England) grease gun—and the most exciting—a large group of J.H. Williams USA ½dr chromed sockets. The guy in charge told me the estate was a mess—as far as the tools went—with tools randomly spread out in every place imaginable. He was a tool guy and had been trying to collect and combine the older names as he ran across them in the run up to the sale and he had put all the Williams stuff he found in the tool box. After some good-natured talk and cajolery he came down to $15 for the box and contents but wouldn’t go lower. I agreed to his price with the caveat that any other Williams items associated with the sockets would be included in the price. Deal!
I spent another 30-40 minutes looking around and found a roller stool, $12; a Proto Challenger 3/4dr breaker bar, $2; CM ball peen hammer, $1; unused hammer handle, $0.50; a Chinese DP clamp, $1; and best of all—both the 5” and 10” Williams ½” extensions and the S-52 Superratchet! The guy was great and didn’t bat an eye about the extra Williams finds. He did ask if I had seen the CM wrench set in the house. He walked me in there and showed a very nice set of large combo wrenches, mostly Gs but a few Vs and VVs. I wasn’t interested in the $75 price, but looked next to them and saw a Holo-Krome No.66 Hex set for $12. Well, after all the discussion about the No. 22 and No. 44 sets a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t just leave it there. Turns out only about a third of the contents were HK. Out the door for $43.50.
The second stop was back in town. Plenty of tools but nothing I could really get interested in except the Scherr-Tumico 8” Vernier Caliper. The agent in the garage didn’t know what it was and when the boss said he needed $20, I handed it back to him. We ultimately settled on $8.
Side note: I examined a New Britain 3/8dr flex head ratchet and noted with some horror that the handle was bent about 20 degrees, and about 10 degrees left of the drive head. The old sales agent saw me looking at it and claimed it had been “special ordered” that way to enable the owner to reach some bolt on his 10 year old truck. I told him even if New Britain had consented to supply a wrench with a bent handle, there was no way they would have made the bend out of plane with the drive head. I also told him the owner would have had to have had the foresight to order it 50 years ago. He didn’t much care for that, but assured me as I started to leave that I would be back the next day to buy that $40 bent ratchet when it was 25% off. I assured him I would not.
When I got home and started to examine my goods, I quickly realized three things. First, when I departed the first sale, my hands were full I didn’t realize I left the roller stool under the hold table—a quick call and I was assured the stool was there and I could pick it up anytime. Second, was that the PO was a dedicated tool marker—almost every piece of metal (except ratchets!) was inscribed with KARL or splashed with red paint, or both. Oh, well. Third, was that the Williams set was missing three sockets. The set ranged from 3/8 through 1-1/4 and I was missing the 3/8, ¾ and 15/16.
The next day I drove all the way back to Seguin to retrieve my stool and of course look around for those missing sockets. I picked up the stool and marched it straight out to the car so I wouldn’t forget it again. I told the boss about the missing sockets and he said if I found any he would consider them part of yesterday’s deal. What a guy!
I rummaged around for about an hour and picked up a nice collection of things but no more sockets. I found a Proto 810 10” pipe wrench, Proto LA ½dr slotted driver socket, a Proto LA sliding T, some Craftsman items: ¼dr 2” extension (G), ¼dr 1-¼" extension (circle U), Phillips #0 (C) and a ¼dr V-selector ratchet; a New Britain NM45 ¼dr ratchet, two tiny Vlchek W068 ¼“ wrenches and an interesting set of drill bits made of Vitallium. $7 total. I also snagged a 1990 Tripp Lite 4.5 Amp, 13.8 volt DC power supply to possibly experiment with electroplating… $8.
Finally, I was very excited to find an orange metal tool case with a socket section that I just knew belonged to my Williams sockets. It was beginning to look like I was in partial position of a Williams S-5 set. When I related my belief, my buddy gave me the case.
Unfortunately, when I got it home, the four largest sockets were too tall for the case. I don’t know who else had orange cases, but my hopes were dashed—at least until next week!
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