The VINTAGE toolboxes of Garage Journal!

nine4gmc · May 18, 2012

Just picked this S-K machinist box and contents at auction, had one S-K Wayne socket, a couple VV and V craftsman wrenches, some bits and taps and all kinds of other things. I pulled the drawers to dump the dirt out and found the owners Kelvinator AMC employee badge and a check stub from 01/07/1973 inside!

Anyone know what year/model this box is?

nine4gmc · May 20, 2012

Dumpster Save!! This Craftsman was literally in the dumpster in the storage facility my warehouse is in. I find cool things in there often but this is the first tool box. It needed the latch hoop so I bent one out of 3/16 rod I had laying around. Anyone know what year, it has 65161 stamped between handle posts on lid.

Outlawmws · May 20, 2012

nine4gmc said:
Dumpster Save!! This Craftsman was literally in the dumpster in the storage facility my warehouse is in. I find cool things in there often but this is the first tool box. It needed the latch hoop so I bent one out of 3/16 rod I had laying around. Anyone know what year, it has 65161 stamped between handle posts on lid.

Crown logo says early 60's but the logo was also used sporadically into the early 70's

lauver · May 21, 2012

The Crown Logo was generally in use from 1959 -1977, but there were exceptions to this rule on certain power tools and tool boxes. This should get you in the ball park though.

nine4gmc · May 21, 2012

cool, thanks guys!

bluebolt · May 22, 2012

nine4gmc said:
Dumpster Save!! This Craftsman was literally in the dumpster in the storage facility my warehouse is in. I find cool things in there often but this is the first tool box. It needed the latch hoop so I bent one out of 3/16 rod I had laying around. Anyone know what year, it has 65161 stamped between handle posts on lid.

The plastic handle probably means its late 60's early 70's, the earlier ones had metal handles.

m0ondoggy · Jun 3, 2012

Here's an old Cornwell we use to store bodyworking tools and some other random stuff in. I have no idea how old it is, but it's old. I'd guess mid 30's?

This craftsman is early to mid 60's I think.

We inherited these both from a family friend years ago. The cornwell is kind of a pain, but the Craftsman is a quality unit.

Souljer · Jun 8, 2012

Hi,

That Cornwell is probably half a century old or more, just needs a little TLC to get it back up to top form.

Look at those handles! That's pure Art Deco. I have no idea and this is just a wild guess but if those handles are original I'd say it's a 1930s - 1940s box or earlier.

jeffmoss26 · Jun 8, 2012

Very nice stuff!!

WWIIjeep · Jun 8, 2012

m0ondoggy said:
This craftsman is early to mid 60's I think.

We inherited these both from a family friend years ago. The cornwell is kind of a pain, but the Craftsman is a quality unit.

You can find the production date in the vicinity of the left corner of the top till on the upper, and near the right-hand side of the bottom rail on the lower.

That Craftsman unit is in beautiful condition for being around 50 years old! :thumbup:

So, here I was, happy to have found this thread on vintage tool boxes, because that other "show your tool box" thread with all those giant modern boxes is sort of intimidating, and then m0ondoggy posts his incredibly clean 50 year old Craftsman, and now I'm intimidated all over again, :sad:

but here goes anyway...

These are a few of my vintage ones, starting with some Craftsmans. I've never had one of those giant modern boxes. We weren’t allocated enough shop space for much more than a single-stack. When I used to be a field tech, we carried our tools in a really big shiny box, but it had dual rear wheels and a V8 or diesel engine. :lol2:

Craftsman machinist's chest, c1950s. Original finish. I had to replace the felt in 2 of the drawers, and do a lot of cleaning and polishing on the wood, but otherwise the box was in pretty good shape when I got it about 10 years ago:

Craftsman 65262 6-drawer chest (1/73) and 65035 5-drawer roller cabinet (10/72). Original finish, one owner. These were home boxes, not for work, so they've stayed pretty clean. The roller cabinet was a Christmas present in '72 and I bought the chest a couple of months later. Didn't have enough money to buy the 10-drawer chest like m0ondoggy's, :sad:

had to settle for the 6-drawer. Hey, we had a new baby and a lot of bills, and skipping those four extra drawers bought a lot of strained carrots. :lol:

Original paperwork in the rack on the lid:

Next is a Craftsman 65039 roller cabinet from 1975. I bought it around Y2K. It's a little beat up, but not too bad. Some of the drawers needed a little tin-knocking and slide repairs. I took the wheels off to line it up as an extension for a workbench:

Moving on from Craftsman, a Snap-On Rolla-Bench, including the optional KR-431 3-drawer lower section, topped off with a 1980 Proto 9939 3-drawer chest made by Waterloo. I think the Rolla-Bench is a late 1940s KR-300:

jeffmoss26 · Jun 8, 2012

Man, they sure don't make them like they used to!!

nine4gmc · Jun 8, 2012

Love the snap on but im partial to the one owner craftsman 72/73 stack, me being born in 2/73. if you ever decide to let it go, let me know!

bluebolt · Jun 9, 2012

m0ondoggy said:
Here's an old Cornwell we use to store bodyworking tools and some other random stuff in. I have no idea how old it is, but it's old. I'd guess mid 30's?

This craftsman is early to mid 60's I think.

We inherited these both from a family friend years ago. The cornwell is kind of a pain, but the Craftsman is a quality unit.

Yup 60's Craftsman boxes. The give aways are the side handle on the lower box and the ribs in the lid on the upper box. The later lowers are the "I beam" constuction and have the handle recessed and the top box is smooth on teh later ones. I have a 1963 3 drawer bottom and 1967 3 drawer top like yours.

bluebolt · Jun 9, 2012

The latest status in my vintage Craftsman boxes. The red one on the left is 50's I think, was grey originally. May be a date code under that re-paint. Next is a 3 drawer 12-67 date code top I picked up at a garage sale for $60 with a lot of tools with a 3 drawer 8-63 bottom I found at Pate swap meet this year for $40. Notice the ribs inteh lid on the top chest and the side handle on the bottom, different than the later style ones. The 2 drawer top is a 07-75 date code I got at Pate for $35 and the 5 drawer bottom is a 07-73 I picked up at an estate sale for $60. The 6 drawer top and 3 drawer bottom next to it are both dated 10-74 and I paid $125 at an estate cell for both at an estate sale locally. They are in very fine shape, compare the red paint to the faded red on the other ones. The final ones on the right are a 12 drawer top dated 04-75 and 9 drawer bottom I bought together with some tools in them for $350 at an estate sale

jeffmoss26 · Jun 9, 2012

Beautiful!

wornoutoldman · Jun 9, 2012

Looks like it may be time for a vintage Craftsman toolbox thread.

Souljer · Jun 11, 2012

Hi,

Just got this box.
Looks like it's been painted at least once. For some reason someone wrapped the handles in electrical tape and laid down a strip on the lower edge. I was going to remove the tape and eventually may line the drawers with cork. Seen a few examples of that here and like the way it looks.

Am going to take it apart and clean it up before deciding on how much restoration to put into it. I thought I saw one of these in a gray color on this thread and would not mind repainting it that if it's worth it, but I might be mistaken. So many boxes on here it's easy to get dizzy.

I would like to repair some of the dings and dents. Anyone here know how I should go about that? Just use pliers to bend the parts back to straight?

The tracks are overflowing with grease and in shipping the box got turned over a few times so all dirt and metal shavings, etc. got everywhere and the grease is filthy. All that will be cleaned up.

Anyone know how to date these? There are no model numbers on back of box. It seems that there are a lot of these with different handles or slightly different badges (angled vs. rectangle). So I figure that must be how one can determine year.

Any help or clues appreciated.

Enloe · Jun 11, 2012

Cool, if you look back i believe i have the same box.

Outlawmws · Jun 11, 2012

Souljer said:
Hi,

I would like to repair some of the dings and dents. Anyone here know how I should go about that? Just use pliers to bend the parts back to straight?

Any help or clues appreciated.

Generally treat it like you would doing auto body work with minimal or no bondo/putty.

Pliers are generally a bad tool to straighten metal as the teeth leave marks.

I made a tool for straightening edges like that from a bunged set of nippers.

The yellow handled pair are standard a sheet metal tool, and simply lack the power needed to do this job effectively, unless its really thin metal.

My tool works well because the short fulcrum from the hinge to the business end gives it a lot of pressure to work with. They are the red handled pair with the angle iron jaw welded in. if you make a pair, set it up so they are gripping a piece of sheet metal so they are mostly parallel when in use, otherwise the jaws don't quite close in use.at the tips:

Before getting squeezed by the home made tongs:

And afterward:

willy3486 · Jun 11, 2012

Outlawmws said:
I made a tool for straightening edges like that from a bunged set of nippers.

My tool works well because the short fulcrum from the hinge to the business end gives it a lot of pressure to work with. They are the red handled pair with the angle iron jaw welded in. if you make a pair, set it up so they are gripping a piece of sheet metal so they are mostly parallel when in use, otherwise the jaws don't quite close in use.at the tips:

Nice tool. I may just have to make me some like this. I don't do a lot of straightening but that would be perfect when I do. There have been times when I would have loved to have one like this.

DarkMonohue · Jun 11, 2012

Thank you very much for sharing that idea, Outlaw. I need to finess some of the slides on my recently acquired KR-557C, and a modified version of that should work better than the hammer-and-dolly and rolling-pin techniques I've been using. Just need to get them all apart and clean 30 years' worth of grease and gunk out of some very narrow channels.

Not sure how to do about that short of pushing a Scotchbrite pad soaked in acetone through every groove... :headscrat

Outlawmws · Jun 11, 2012

DarkMonohue said:
Thank you very much for sharing that idea, Outlaw. I need to finess some of the slides on my recently acquired KR-557C, and a modified version of that should work better than the hammer-and-dolly and rolling-pin techniques I've been using. Just need to get them all apart and clean 30 years' worth of grease and gunk out of some very narrow channels.

Not sure how to do about that short of pushing a Scotchbrite pad soaked in acetone through every groove...

Your welcome! I'm planning on a second pair that is only about 2" wide for when I need it for tight spots.

Someone here made a "slide solvent tank" out of some 1-1.2" PVC pipe, a glue cap, and a screw cap/adapter.

For slides that are part of the box, heat the handle of a tooth brush and angle it a bit so it can be scrubbed in there (you need a righty and a lefty). Full strength Simple green generally works well for the gunk.

Souljer · Jun 11, 2012

Outlawmws said:
Generally treat it like you would doing auto body work with minimal or no bondo/putty.

Pliers are generally a bad tool to straighten metal as the teeth leave marks.

I made a tool for straightening edges like that from a bunged set of nippers.

The yellow handled pair are standard a sheet metal tool, and simply lack the power needed to do this job effectively, unless its really thin metal.

My tool works well because the short fulcrum from the hinge to the business end gives it a lot of pressure to work with. They are the red handled pair with the angle iron jaw welded in. if you make a pair, set it up so they are gripping a piece of sheet metal so they are mostly parallel when in use, otherwise the jaws don't quite close in use.at the tips:

Hi,

Thanks Outlaw, I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
I've never had the joy of steel body work so I don't know what that would involve. Does that mean, "Push and pull until it's better than it was"?

Also I can't weld stuff so I can't make what you made. However it looks like you are simply going for a smooth jaw and a wide surface to do this work of gently straightening the edges. Perhaps I could put some steel or aluminum strips between my adjustable pliers to make a clumsy assembly that would work for one or two boxes. I'm thinking of clamping the plates to the box then squeezing with the pliers. How does that sound?

If I can make these in the future, how does adjustable pliers sound? Adjustable pliers in the second, more open, position would allow enough room between the jaw faces so the additional flat plates can be parallel when closed, which was what you were indicating, if I understood you correctly. When closed or clamping, you want the the flat jaw surfaces to be able to touch from the back of the jaw to the tip, correct?

Working on it this morning got all the drawers out. Question for the experienced of GarageJournal: Do we need another drawer removal thread? I don't know how many there are. I did take pix but how useful would another instructional thread be?

Thanx again for your help.

Brian_B_ · Jun 11, 2012

mjozefow said:
Post em' up guys. Lets say anything over 20 yrs. and older only.

The newer boxes are cool, but I LOVE the lines of the older ones.

............I know there are some great boxes, so lets see em.

And the obligatory:

So 82-83 counts? :headscrat

That is 29-30 years old.

My first box (still using). Craftsman still sells one that looks just like this.

Outlawmws · Jun 11, 2012

Souljer said:
Hi,

Thanks Outlaw, I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
I've never had the joy of steel body work so I don't know what that would involve. Does that mean, "Push and pull until it's better than it was"?

Also I can't weld stuff so I can't make what you made. However it looks like you are simply going for a smooth jaw and a wide surface to do this work of gently straightening the edges. Perhaps I could put some steel or aluminum strips between my adjustable pliers to make a clumsy assembly that would work for one or two boxes. I'm thinking of clamping the plates to the box then squeezing with the pliers. How does that sound?

If I can make these in the future, how does adjustable pliers sound? Adjustable pliers in the second, more open, position would allow enough room between the jaw faces so the additional flat plates can be parallel when closed, which was what you were indicating, if I understood you correctly. When closed or clamping, you want the the flat jaw surfaces to be able to touch from the back of the jaw to the tip, correct?

Working on it this morning got all the drawers out. Question for the experienced of GarageJournal: Do we need another drawer removal thread? I don't know how many there are. I did take pix but how useful would another instructional thread be?

Thanx again for your help.

The key that makes these work so well is the short distance from the jaw tip to the fulcrum point (Archimedes lives!). The length of regular slip joint pliers jaws defeats that.

Instead of pliers, maybe vice grips? it's a cantilever design and applies :rocker:

MUCH more pressure, at least with the short jaw types.

For the other metal work (dents) a sheet metal hammer for flat work or a basic body hammer you need something to hit against as well but that can be just a block of steel at the low end, or a body dolly at the higher end.

Basically something to support the dented side, and carefully beat the high side flat.

neonnblack · Jun 11, 2012

From what i found out, a 70's maybe someone has better info?
I'm not one to keep things original, i like putting different colors/customizing. it was black crinkle paint (you can see it inside the box still) with the fake wood on the drawer faces. it is now a very deep purple with flakes and black faces.

Outlawmws · Jun 11, 2012

willy3486 said:
Nice tool. I may just have to make me some like this. I don't do a lot of straightening but that would be perfect when I do. There have been times when I would have loved to have one like this.

When I made these I figured I'd use them a couple of time in my life, unless I got into the SM trades, but I find I use them more and more often, especially for sheet metal furniture (cabinets and the like in particular) to clean up the stray kink and "ruined" door with a kink in it. I find once the kink is out of the standing seam edge, often the slight issues on the face are gone, certainly easier to get out... I probably use these a dozen time a year or more these days, which is why I want the narrower set...

Thumper · Jun 11, 2012

neonnblack said:
From what i found out, a 70's maybe someone has better info?
I'm not one to keep things original, i like putting different colors/customizing. it was black crinkle paint (you can see it inside the box still) with the fake wood on the drawer faces. it is now a very deep purple with flakes and black faces.

Yeah.....early to mid 70's.......A Rally box....should have been black wrinkle with wood grain on the drawer fronts when it was new. Cool piece !! :rocker:

Russ T. Nutz · Jun 11, 2012

Russ T. Nutz said:
The old boxes are cool...back when steel was steel.

A few of my boxes (once I get a better handle on re-sizing/posting pictures I put up more).

Craftsman (36 drawers of where the hell did I put that).
P&C rolling cabinet
9 Drawer Snapon

Found a Snap-on KRA149. I'd never seen one of these before and couldn't pass it up.

Great shape. Previous owner used it for RC cars/plane parts. All I did was replace drawer liners.

Originally I bought with intent to sell, but now that its here and I'll never find another one as nice, I don't think I can part with it.

CRTDI · Jun 12, 2012

Russ T. Nutz said:
Found a Snap-on KRA149. I'd never seen one of these before and couldn't pass it up.

Great shape. Previous owner used it for RC cars/plane parts. All I did was replace drawer liners.

Originally I bought with intent to sell, but now that its here and I'll never find another one as nice, I don't think I can part with it.

That is a nice box. :thumbup:

I wouldn't want to sell it either.

lilredex · Jun 12, 2012

Some recent finds..

When I first saw them, I was thinking "sixties" but not so sure now. There is only one clue on an end strap (first picture) ...."Made in England". So I started looking and, is likely these guys, only a little older.

http://www.talcotoolstorage.com/Tool Boxes/Cantilever17.html

http://www.talcotoolstorage.com/Tool Boxes/Barn.html (14" model)

Souljer · Jun 14, 2012

Souljer said:
Hi,

Just got this box.

When I got the box for the first time, it was night time. I had a flashlight with me and was looking at it as best I could in the back of the truck. While doing that I thought I saw something inside, behind the drawers. Paper with pictures. Too hard to see; not enough gap between the back of one drawer and the front of the upper drawer.

A few days later I had the time to remove the drawers whose rails were COVERED in grease. The box had been turned over at least once on it's journey to me so all the bits of dirt and metal shavings normally in the corners was now stuck to the greasy rails. They had to come out and the box had to be cleaned.

Anyway, removing a few drawers I could start to see what was back there...

After taking all the drawers out...

I found this small booklet. Sort of an owners manual?
A few shots of the front, back and table of contents.

Anyone seen this before? Could I use this to date the box? It's 24 pages. Beat up after over a half century of time travel in the back of a steel box, but still completely legible. In it there are a few pages with pictures demonstrating this box with tools in each drawer as an example set-up. At the end they identify the box shown as KR 56, so I know the model number.

In looking through this thread I've noticed quite a few tool chests of this model and drawer configuration. I'm pretty sure it's late 1940s to early 1950s based on the handles (black with ridges) and badge configuration (90º compared to 45º sides). Some do have nomenclature and some don't. Mine does not. So I'm thinking that Snap-On did not stamp model numbers and years on boxes before a certain year? Perhaps these boxes were made by another manufacturer before production moved to Snap-On? If so what year would that be? Just guessing. Would love to hear what really happened.

If there aren't too many "Drawer Removal" threads I was thinking of paying it forward and contributing such a thread and including some information from the book which gives instructions on how to remove the drawers.

Would have been great to have... before I had to remove the drawers to find it.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate any thoughts.

sselander · Jun 14, 2012

That would be a big help for a lot of people if you could scan the whole thing.
The rolling chest I just got was pretty beat up, but a little TLC took care of that. (Unknown
manufacturer)
Great find.

stormking · Jun 18, 2012

I promised myself I wasn't going to buy anymore toolboxes! That didn't last long because I couldn't pass up this Duplex box at an estate sale. This is not restored, it looks to have never been used. My less than expert guess would put this in the early fifties or before as a manufacture date. This is a very large hand carry box I've seen referred to as an armorer's box. Does anyone know any info for certain? By the way, there were a couple more boxes I couldn't pass up this weekend...slippery slope.

By stormking3 at 2012-06-17

nine4gmc · Jun 18, 2012

nice box, love the rounded corners....now show us the others.

Burgerkong · Jun 20, 2012

Just came back

With this!

Found out they had to drill the lock because it was full of tools and the key was lost. Drilled a tad bit deep and the bit walked across the metal, but not too deep. The slides slide GREAT, not bad for 60 something years. Have not taken the drawers out yet to confirm model, still think its a KR-61. Overall, pretty good condition, a bit of worn paint at the hinge areas and on the bottom, minimal surface rust.

Did I mention it was HEAVY?

The price? $130.

Now I just need to find a new lock and install it, where should I go about this? SO's website?

Brendan

boostedgt · Jun 20, 2012

this is one i picked up from a garage sale for $24 including some misc sockets. its a KRA 352A from 1967, someone painted it what appears to be petty blue at some point, i think im gonna clean the grunge off and leave it as is for storage of my vintage tools.

nine4gmc · Jun 21, 2012

anyone ever heard of "All American"?

bobcatdan · Jun 21, 2012

We had several of those All American carts just like that at home. They threw then out at my step dad's work. For being a cheap box, they held up pretty go for what we used them for.

Private Lugnutz · Jun 21, 2012

More of a toolcase than a toolbox, but at 82 years of age, I'll throw this just rejuvenated oldtimer from Blackhawk into the GJ record...

The VINTAGE toolboxes of Garage Journal!

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