1940's/50's? Mechanic's Work Station base cabinet?

Alienbaby17 · Aug 1, 2014

I am posting this on the HAMB as well so if you see it in both places please excuse the repetition.

I went to an estate sale yesterday. A family was selling off the estate of their parents. The father had been a Ford dealership mechanic since the 1950's. Here is a photo of the stuff I brought home.

Obviously this fellow saved a lot of old things and I was very happy that he did. Incidentally when I showed up in my '55 F100 to pick the stuff up the seller almost got a little choked up saying that he thought his dad was looking down smiling that the things he had saved all of those years were going to someone that would appreciate them.

One of the items I bought was this 'work station'.

As you can see it's a fairly large piece. Despite looking like it is sitting on the ground it actually has four wheels tucked underneath and still rolls fairly well.

I was hoping to find out a little bit more about this piece.

It looks like there are three small holes on each side spaced fairly evenly from top-to-bottom of the cabinet. They are pretty close to the back edge of the cabinet. It seems like something should have bolted onto both sides. In doing my research I wondered if it originally might have been part of a 1940's type dealership work stations.

I know several companies; Graco, Lincoln, Shure, Kent Moore etc. made stations like this. I wondered in the holes on both sides might have been for bolting on the side cabinets.

Any thoughts on the origin of this piece?

FJ 432 · Aug 1, 2014

First off you got some great items.

Does the cabinet in question allow for storage on either side of the doors? It looks like there is a metal wall flush on the inside where the piano hinge for each door.

jakemac · Aug 1, 2014

I was thinking the same thing. It looks like dead space on each side of the doors. I wonder why.

Alienbaby17 · Aug 1, 2014

Yes, there is a wall inside that separates the contents behind each door.

Also it appears that the unit was originally white.

Alienbaby17 · Aug 1, 2014

Also, yes there is probably six inches of 'dead space' on either side between the outside wall and the storage area. Seemed strange to me as well.

zkling · Aug 1, 2014

I have nothing useful to add (sorry), but just wanted to say awesome pic. Vintage items and a vintage vehicle to bring them home in. :thumbup:

SweetD · Aug 1, 2014

Great stuff!

Question - the SO red roller you have pictured - other than the badge, have you found any other identification stamped into the metal anywhere on the chest?

Reason I ask is that I have an old chest VERY similar to that one, with the rolled corners, same handle style (although mine has single, centered handles per drawer), same drawer config, etc. I can find NO markings on mine at all. There must have been a badge on mine at one point, but the holes for the rivets are to the right side of one of the drawers, not centered like yours:

Thanks for any ID info you can provide on that cool little SO chest!

:beer:

Dave

Alienbaby17 · Aug 1, 2014

SweetD said:
Question - the SO red roller you have pictured - other than the badge, have you found any other identification stamped into the metal anywhere on the chest?

Reason I ask is that I have an old chest VERY similar to that one, with the rolled corners, same handle style (although mine has single, centered handles per drawer), same drawer config, etc. I can find NO markings on mine at all. There must have been a badge on mine at one point, but the holes for the rivets are to the right side of one of the drawers, not centered like yours:

Thanks for any ID info you can provide on that cool little SO chest!

Dave

Dave, I didn't see anything on it anywhere. I have a few other Snap On boxes and I never had any trouble finding the ID on the back of the box. Nothing to see on this one.

SweetD · Aug 1, 2014

Alienbaby17 said:
Dave, I didn't see anything on it anywhere. I have a few other Snap On boxes and I never had any trouble finding the ID on the back of the box. Nothing to see on this one.

Interesting, thanks. I wonder if yours is indeed a SO box, or someone has added the badge...I agree that every other SO box I have seen ever has ID on the back...dating back years...weird!

:beer:

Dave

Alienbaby17 · Aug 1, 2014

Well, Dave you DID have me worried there for a moment. I thought I might have gotten taken at the estate sale.

Then I did some more research and was relieved to find that I think the box is a KR 352.

I found that picture on the Collecting Snap On website. It is from the 1954 Industrial Catalog.

Although the logo is in a different spot on the one in the photo if you 'Google' "KR 352" you will find models exactly like mine with the logo in the same spot as mine.

I'm pretty sure it's legit as well as yours. :rocker:

SweetD · Aug 1, 2014

Alienbaby17 said:
Well, Dave you DID have me worried there for a moment. I thought I might have gotten taken at the estate sale.

Then I did some more research and was relieved to find that I think the box is a KR 352.

I found that picture on the Collecting Snap On website. It is from the 1954 Industrial Catalog.

Although the logo is in a different spot on the one in the photo if you 'Google' "KR 352" you will find models exactly like mine with the logo in the same spot as mine.

I'm pretty sure it's legit as well as yours.

Sweet! Thanks for the info!

Dave

zkling · Aug 1, 2014

Alienbaby17 said:
Dave, I didn't see anything on it anywhere. I have a few other Snap On boxes and I never had any trouble finding the ID on the back of the box. Nothing to see on this one.

You are correct on the model, KR352, it is from the very late 50's, around the time they started stamping the boxes. It may or may not be stamped, but...

http://collectingsnapon.com/catalogs/catalogs.php?loggedin=0&catalogPage=1492

SweetD said:
Great stuff!

Question - the SO red roller you have pictured - other than the badge, have you found any other identification stamped into the metal anywhere on the chest?

Reason I ask is that I have an old chest VERY similar to that one, with the rolled corners, same handle style (although mine has single, centered handles per drawer), same drawer config, etc. I can find NO markings on mine at all. There must have been a badge on mine at one point, but the holes for the rivets are to the right side of one of the drawers, not centered like yours:

Thanks for any ID info you can provide on that cool little SO chest!

Dave

Take a picture of the drawer slides. I'm not sure if that is a snap on box or not.

Alienbaby17 · Aug 2, 2014

Spent the better part of the evening sitting around studying this (and downing some beers and BS'ing) with some friends.

Although we all agree it is cool no one can figure out its origin.

Theories ranged from some kind chemical storage cabinet to a display fixture or even some kind of cooler but no one knows for sure. We even went over it pretty carefully looking for some kind of makers mark. The multiple coats of paint are pretty thick but no one could find anything.

One friend thinks we should strip it to bare metal, clear coat it and make a TV stand out of it. Another thought was to make it into a bar. Personally I'd like to keep it kind of automotive somehow. Definitely nothing will happen until we figure out what it is/ was.

Alienbaby17 · Aug 2, 2014

I was up until 4AM trying to find something that explains what this is.

I did take the top off and snap a picture of the unit as viewed from above. I had wondered if the two bracket things on the rear wall inside the cabinet once held some kind of top that dropped into those from above?

930dreamer · Aug 2, 2014

It looks to be a center piece possibly for an Alemite work station. Great finds. :thumbup:

SweetD · Aug 2, 2014

zkling said:
Take a picture of the drawer slides. I'm not sure if that is a snap on box or not.

I'm going to start a thread on my chest so as not to hijack this one...

:beer:

Dave

Alienbaby17 · Aug 10, 2014

I'm giving it one last try here. I did find a website specifically dedicated to old gas station item collecting. Even the experts there aren't exactly sure. A couple have speculated that it may originally have been the base cabinet for a "lube bar" from the '30's- '40's. If that were the case it would have had something like this mounted on it.

While cleaning it I discovered that the blue paint came off fairly easily. So I stripped it all off. Surprisingly the speckled white coating underneath stayed on.
Here is a picture of it all cleaned up.

I'm still listening if anyone has any thoughts to add.

Thanks.

930dreamer · Aug 10, 2014

Here's my neighbors;

Alienbaby17 · Aug 10, 2014

Wow, 930Dreamer that thing is awesome. Although it would be pretty impractical and take up WAY too much space in my garage I would love to find something like that.

I've even toyed with the idea of trying to find some other pieces to replicate something like that using this cabinet as the center.

Cool pictures. Thanks for sharing!

1940's/50's? Mechanic's Work Station base cabinet?

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