Chrome Plomb WF-38?

SCscoutguy · Nov 5, 2011

I have had several Plomb WF-38 ratchets but I have never seen one this style. Does anyone here have one of these? What is the story on this style Plomb ratchet?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-PLO..._Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr&hash=item336dba70e0

lbgradwell · Nov 5, 2011

Yes, very odd indeed.

That is a Bog ratchet. Must be rare...

Gort the giant robot · Nov 5, 2011

I also have never seen a Plomb ratchet in that style. Plomb bought Bog and may have used the Bog factory and tooling towards the war effort. I think there will be many new surprises from Plomb for years to come.

Gort the giant robot.

DOUGD · Nov 5, 2011

The WF stands for Wright field ,these tools were a Plomb WW2 war contract . Found an interesting web sight a while back,on the history of Plomb tools (sorry don't know the link) It talked about the WF tools, and they were trying to collect photos of each WF tool. I have a couple of WF 3/8 extensions in my tool box I bought new sometime in the 1980's.

Gort the giant robot · Nov 5, 2011

Alloy Artifacts is one of the best tool history sites. You can also go to a search engine and type in Plomb Tools and find the Plomb only tool site.

Gort

SCscoutguy · Nov 5, 2011

Gort the giant robot said:
I also have never seen a Plomb ratchet in that style. Plomb bought Bog and may have used the Bog factory and tooling towards the war effort. I think there will be many new surprises from Plomb for years to come.

Gort the giant robot.

They must not have done it for very long because it seems no one has ever seen one of these. It would be cool to own but I bet someone will pay stupid money for it.

J.A.F.E. · Nov 5, 2011

That is a BOG ratchet Gort The Giant Robot is correct. The handle detailing is different - the BOGs had regular knurling and the Plomb has straight flutes.

SCscoutguy · May 24, 2012

Another one has surfaced.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-No-...357?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c73a54ed

kxxr · May 24, 2012

J.A.F.E. said:
That is a BOG ratchet Gort The Giant Robot is correct. The handle detailing is different - the BOGs had regular knurling and the Plomb has straight flutes.

Anybody else think this doesn't make sense? I know it's an old post, but JAFE is still around. Could you re-state your point here?

SCscoutguy · May 24, 2012

kxxr said:
Anybody else think this doesn't make sense? I know it's an old post, but JAFE is still around. Could you re-state your point here?

It makes perfect sense to me?

kxxr · May 24, 2012

J.A.F.E. said:
That is a BOG ratchet Gort The Giant Robot is correct. The handle detailing is different - the BOGs had regular knurling and the Plomb has straight flutes.

Huh, well let me try again. The picture is of a Plomb marked ratchet with 'straight flutes'. JAFE's post says: "That is a Bog ratchet".
Well, if it is, and it may be, it is a Bog ratchet marked Plomb. He goes on to say that "Bog had regular knurling", but the one pictured, even if made by Bog, has 'straight flutes', not regular knurling, as a Bog ratchet should have, according to JAFE. So, if it is a Bog, it is one without regular knurling and is marked Plomb. So, a literal interpretation of the post does not make sense. To me, anyway.

lbgradwell · May 24, 2012

kxxr said:
Could you re-state your point here?

He means the handles are different:

SCscoutguy · May 24, 2012

kxxr said:
Huh, well let me try again. The picture is of a Plomb marked ratchet with 'straight flutes'. JAFE's post says: "That is a Bog ratchet".
Well, if it is, and it may be, it is a Bog ratchet marked Plomb. He goes on to say that "Bog had regular knurling", but the one pictured, even if made by Bog, has 'straight flutes', not regular knurling, as a Bog ratchet should have, according to JAFE. So, if it is a Bog, it is one without regular knurling and is marked Plomb. So, a literal interpretation of the post does not make sense. To me, anyway.

What he is saying is it is in fact a BOG ratchet marked as a Plomb. The BOG ratchets actually had knurling on the handle while the Plomb version of the BOG ratchet had straight flutes instead of the knurling. Everything he said made perfect sense to me.

kxxr · May 24, 2012

Ok, I think I get it now. Thanks.
So, are you going to try and win this one? It is starting out pretty reasonable. Interesting that another one pops up after all this time. I think I remember seeing a third one somewhere but I'll never recall where. I also think I saw the 3 dimple owners mark somewhere very recently too, but that's probably just coincidence.

Gort the giant robot · May 25, 2012

Years from now when i m lying on my death bed and getting my last rites, Someone will enter the room and say excuse me father, i need to talk to Gort. Gort you are not gonna believe what i just found on Craig's List------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

otis66 · May 25, 2012

It looks like an old Cornwell ratchet head. It also looks like the plastic handle is missing.

lbgradwell · Jun 26, 2012

How about as a Hinsdale?!

MR.X · Jul 6, 2012

Right?! good eye on the Hinsdale (another Chicago... and Western Auto Co. for that matter). It looks to be exactly the same as the Plomb/ Bog contract filler W-38 except it's a 3/8' drive. I've never seen that Bog style in 3/8 before.

r_olson_06 · Jul 27, 2012

I have yet to see a know compilation of pictures of all the known wf series of Plomb. There could be more differences that we could have in a certain area of the country compared to others. A person wouldn't know that they have a more rare ratchet if that is all that were used in that area. Especially with plombtool.com going down and alloy artifacts not updating anymore. This site has alot of Plomb collectors, maybe we could find some of the missing links. I know alot of people in my area have no idea what plomb tools are and think they are junk. I can start a thread and we can fill in the gaps and unlock some of these mysteries.

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 28, 2012

r_olson_06 said:
I have yet to see a know compilation of pictures of all the known wf series of Plomb. There could be more differences that we could have in a certain area of the country compared to others. A person wouldn't know that they have a more rare ratchet if that is all that were used in that area. Especially with plombtool.com going down and alloy artifacts not updating anymore. This site has alot of Plomb collectors, maybe we could find some of the missing links. I know alot of people in my area have no idea what plomb tools are and think they are junk. I can start a thread and we can fill in the gaps and unlock some of these mysteries.

I'll dig what I can out of the collection, there are WF ratchets with Proto on them also.

Here is a teaser to prime the pump...............the Plomb version resides in the collection also.

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 28, 2012

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 28, 2012

3 WF-38's, with oval cover plates. Two Plomb, one Proto.

The top ratchet someone drilled a hanger hole in, not factory.

The Proto has machining around its different styled reversing lever that acts as stops for on & off.

(3 more on deck..................)

cruiser808 · Jul 28, 2012

Here we have a 1/2" Proto pebble ratchet. While the Plomb pebble's seem to be quite common, the 5449 Proto pebble ratchet is the only one I've ever seen. Also, the gear diameter is smaller seems to match the WF Plomb gear diameter as opposed to the common size Proto gears. A more contemporary 5449 gear will not fit this ratchet. :dunno:

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 28, 2012

I'd seen 3/4" and 1" drive pebble Protos, but never a 1/2". Cool find cruiser808. Unusual it has WF internals.

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 28, 2012

Top and bottom ratchets are Proto WF38's with Oval cover plates.

Middle WF38 ratchet has some cool looking raised panels on the handle, but is blank as far as brand, has neither Plomb nor Proto on it. Machining on its cover is from someone trying to remover owner's marks.

All 3 ratchets have the machining to acts as stops for the on and off reversing lever.

(3 more waiting on deck........stay tuned........)

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 29, 2012

All 3 of these WF-38's have blank handles, and no stamping or casting of WF-38 on them.

In fact, the top and bottom ratchets have oval plates, and the only tell-tale mark on them is one that looks like an "O" on their handle. These ratchets are identicle, if you can picture the top ratchet having the ratchet mechanism installed facing the opposite direction.

The middle ratchet doesn't have the "O", but does have Plomb stamped in the face plate on the back side. A pattern that has been picked up on so far is the "plomb bobs" face opposite directions (whether they are stamped or cast with Plomb) on the WF ratchets with hour glass plates, like this one shows.

(3 more waiting on deck........stay tuned........)

MOPARHOUND! · Jul 30, 2012

Notice the top and bottom WF-38 ratchets in this pic with the small font Plomb logo cast into them. Consistent with theory, these hour glass face plated ratchets have the Plomb logo with the "plomb bobs" facing opposite directions. The bottom-most ratchet is unusual, it has what appears to be a factory drilled and beveled(?) hole in the handle for hanging, or for attaching something. The hole's finish is consistent with the rest of the ratchet, unlike those drilled by individual owners for convenience.

The middle ratchet has oval face plates, and is identical to 2 of the ratchets in the previous post, except instead of the handle being left blank, this one has been stamped from the factory with the Plomb logo, etc.

(More to come........later.)

Chrome Plomb WF-38?

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