Craftsman Crown 8-drawer Machinist chest

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 9, 2018

I picked this up the Saturday before Xmas along with a couple of other vintage Craftsman toolboxes. It's got the wrinkle brown paint like a Kennedy. Approximate measurements are 26-1/2" x 8-1/2" x 13-1/2". It's in really great condition IMO. Needs cleaning up but absolutely no rust that I've seen. I'm hoping to get some information on it so I posted it as a separate thread. Hoping you guys can help!

Does anyone know who made these boxes for Craftsman?

Has anyone seen these in the catalogs?

How common are they?

What time period would we be looking at the '60s? I can't find a manufacture date. Is there a stamp on the chest anywhere?

This one has brown felt in the drawers. Any ideas if it would be original or a "value-add" by a previous owner? Based on what I see in some of the drawers, I'm thinking it may be original. Really in pretty great shape to be so old.

There are some aluminum dividers that are held in place with a clip on just one end. The clip has two "spurs" which appear to "grab hold" of the felt so as to not move around. I mention the clips as it may help to identify the maker if their original chests have similar dividers.

Thanks in advance!
Mike

larry_g · Jan 9, 2018

Looks to be a Kennedy. The dividers and clips sound just like what my old Kennedy has.

lg
no neat sig line

d42jeep · Jan 9, 2018

I have the same one I got back in October. It is an exact match to my Kennedy as well. They both came with the brown felt.
-Don

BuffettFan · Jan 9, 2018

Agreed!
Looks like Kennedy to me.

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 9, 2018

So I take it we're basing the identical aspects of the boxes to deduce that this chest was made by Kennedy and rebranded as Craftsman? Did Kennedy make their own boxes?

Any date for manufacture on these chests?

bmwrd0 · Jan 9, 2018

Kennedy makes their own boxes. On the date, sixties from the crown logo and the pulls. The hole in the middle drawer is to push out the Machineries Handbook which would sit in that drawer.

Toolmaker65 · Jan 9, 2018

The Craftsman box is a Kennedy box. Craftsman (Sears) contracts their boxes out to whoever gives them the best price. All of the machinist boxes from the 1960's and 1970's were made by Kennedy - you can even interchange the drawers between the two. That is when Sears still sold quality tools. I remember walking into the tool department as a kid and looking at all the machinist tools in the nice glass fronted cabinets similar to what Starrett distributors had hanging on their walls.

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 9, 2018

bmwrd0 said:
Kennedy makes their own boxes. On the date, sixties from the crown logo and the pulls. The hole in the middle drawer is to push out the Machineries Handbook which would sit in that drawer.

Thanks mbwrd0 that's great to know about Kennedy making these boxes. And a google search educated me regarding both the Machinery's Handbook and helped me understand the hole and "to push out the" book.

Mike

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 9, 2018

Did Kennedy put a manufacture date on their boxes back then?

Learning a bit more about these boxes I'd expect they are fairly common. ???

d42jeep · Jan 10, 2018

I've seen a few Craftsman machinists boxs but the Kennedy branded ones are much more common. Kennedy is still making these boxes so they possibly may be able to help with dating. They didn't change the boxes much over the years so the crown emblem ('60 to '73) may be as close as you can come to establishing when yours was made. Here is my Kennedy box as found at the Tahoe flea a couple of years ago.
-Don

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 10, 2018

d42jeep said:
I've seen a few Craftsman machinists boxs but the Kennedy branded ones are much more common. Kennedy is still making these boxes so they possibly may be able to help with dating. They didn't change the boxes much over the years so the crown emblem ('60 to '73) may be as close as you can come to establishing when yours was made. Here is my Kennedy box as found at the Tahoe flea a couple of years ago.
-Don

Don,
Nice box! I notice yours is also an 8-drawer but it has those supports for the top which my Craftsman doesn't. I wonder if that's an age thing (I'm assuming my box is older and maybe Kennedy wasn't doing these then) or a differentiator between a Kennedy branded chest versus an OEM chest.

I have to say I love this being a Craftsman Crown box over it being a Kennedy. Feel lucky to have been in the right spot at the right time to have picked it up.

Mike

d42jeep · Jan 10, 2018

Yeah, there are a few differences. The Kennedy has the two clips that aren't on the Craftsman box as well as having the top supports. I got my Craftsman box with a large lot of tools. It was really dirty and required quite a bit of cleanup. I was lucky that the key came with it.
-Don

bmwrd0 · Jan 10, 2018

I have my grandfathers Kennedy 7 drawer down in the basement and I just checked, it has the lid supports. It is from the '30's, so there is that.

Billy Jack · Jan 10, 2018

Wow! Other than the one in the corner of our shop, these are the first ones I've seen. I bought the top box and a two drawer middle section used from the Mac truck in the 80's for $50 to use as the track box for our Sprint Car team. Somehow, it survived 15 years of being dragged around weekly on an un-suspended open trailer. Over the winter, I'd pull out the drawers, clean the dirt from the slides, lube and pack it up for another season. At first I was doubtful it would ever work as a mechanic's toolbox, but the shallow drawers kept tools accessible without a lot of digging, important when repair time was tight in the pits. Plus, it didn't take two people to unload and reload it every race night.
Being a mechanic rather than a machinist, I still think it's an ugly box, but I have a lot of respect for its durability after all those years of abuse.
Thanks for the pics, guys!

Bill

taumac · Jan 10, 2018

I have 2 craftsman machinist ( Kennedy 520) and one Kennedy 520. One of them is Kennedy wrinkle brown and other is the gray hammertone craftsman used back in 60’s and 70’s. I also have a Craftsman (Kennedy 526) but that came in gray hammertone. Nobody had never found a date stamp or way to find when this where made. Never small changes over the years is only way to even put them in a era. Square corners, leather handle etc. IMO Kennedy made them for Craftsman and just rebranded with the crown logo. Only difference I’ve found is latches are different from Kennedy to Craftsman. The Craftsman has diamonds on the pulls where as Kennedy doesn’t. Also the number of holes to hold pulls are different. Kennedy has 2 and Craftsman has 1. The holes might be a “ when it was made “ type difference. My Kennedy has leather handle while all my Craftsman’s have a stamped steel. No matter is it’s a Kennedy or a rebranded Craftsman these boxes where build well and can be very useless.

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 10, 2018

So...for what it's worth. I contacted Kennedy today. The person I talked to in customer service has worked for Kennedy for 32 years. She doesn't think the chest was made by Kennedy. She also mentioned that she didn't think Kennedy ever made boxes/chests for Sears although there may have been a year or two. She backtracked on the year or two comment when I questioned her about it later. I've sent pics in and requested they check it out and see if they believe it could be a Kennedy chest. Waiting to hear back. When I asked about replacement keys she want to know if there was a number on the lock. Let her know I couldn't tell but it was either 9911 or 9977. She said it wasn't one of theirs.

I called Waterloo. The customer service person said yes they made brown wrinkle machinist chests for Sears under the Craftsman brand. I asked her about the replacement keys. She asked for the lock number and I told her the same as I told Kennedy I couldn't be exactly sure. She said the number is LL66. It's a Waterloo box. I know the lock could have been replaced but this chest is in really good overall condition. I also sent her the same pics. She came back with a Waterloo model number (40526)/Sears model number 706.65228 which looks identical.

At this point, I'm inclined to believe this machinist chest was made by Waterloo not Kennedy.

Thoughts?

Mike

Packard V8 · Jan 10, 2018

FWIW, I've got a Craftsman grey hammertone machinist's chest which is definitely a step down from the similar-but-not-the-same Kennedy.

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jack vines

taumac · Jan 10, 2018

Txlonghorn, your right. When you mentioned Waterloo I remember something I totally forgot about. Yes OP box made by Waterloo and here’s how you know. If look at where key is if it has the bumps it’s a made by Waterloo. Now with info Kennedy said if they don’t have them then who made them if Kennedy. Are they still Waterloo?

If you follow Craftsman boxes those boxes also had those bumps besides the locks.

d42jeep · Jan 10, 2018

It's interesting that Packard's Craftsman box doesn't have the bumps by the lock and does have the lid supports. It's difficult to imagine that two manufacturers were making such similar boxes but I suppose that anything is possible.
-Don

taumac · Jan 10, 2018

d42jeep said:
It's interesting that Packard's Craftsman box doesn't have the bumps by the lock and does have the lid supports. It's difficult to imagine that two manufacturers were making such similar boxes but I suppose that anything is possible.

-Don

I always thought that too and thought maybe they had some deal together. If I pull slides out of my 520 style boxes from Craftsman and Kennedy they are identical. Same deal on some Waterloo made Craftsman from early mid 60’s. You see them and I have hard time believing they where not made by Kennedy.

d42jeep · Jan 10, 2018

I just did some more comparisons of the two boxes and I am starting to believe that two different manufacturers are involved. My Waterloo made Proto box does have the two bumps as does the Craftsman box. When I compared the front covers the Craftsman cover has a slot at the top to lock it in place while the Kennedy has the two pins that they've been using for a really long time and that all of my Kennedy boxes have. Both the Kennedy and Craftsman boxes have diamonds in the pulls, though. I also noticed that the Kennedy front was double wall whereas the Craftsman was single wall. The locks are very different as well. Good job of getting the information from the two manufacturers!
-Don

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 11, 2018

taumac said:
I always thought that too and thought maybe they had some deal together. If I pull slides out of my 520 style boxes from Craftsman and Kennedy they are identical. Same deal on some Waterloo made Craftsman from early mid 60’s. You see them and I have hard time believing they where not made by Kennedy.

The CS rep from Kennedy did say that between Kennedy, Waterloo and Gertsner there were vendors whose parts were used by more than just one of these companies. Based on that piece of information and the slides apparently being identical on the Kennedy and Craftsman/Waterloo chests I would guess that the slides were from the same 3rd party manufacturer for both companies. Could make sense. I don't know.

rsanter · Jan 11, 2018

If anyone with one of these boxes needs some of the dividers and clips for the drawer, I have some extras that are not being used

taumac · Jan 11, 2018

txlonghorn1989 said:
The CS rep from Kennedy did say that between Kennedy, Waterloo and Gertsner there were vendors whose parts were used by more than just one of these companies. Based on that piece of information and the slides apparently being identical on the Kennedy and Craftsman/Waterloo chests I would guess that the slides were from the same 3rd party manufacturer for both companies. Could make sense. I don't know.

3 party vendors? I never thought of that but it would explain a lot similarities I’ve seen over the years.

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 11, 2018

rsanter said:
If anyone with one of these boxes needs some of the dividers and clips for the drawer, I have some extras that are not being used

Nice offer rsanter!

I was going to say that Waterloo said they only have replacement locks and keys. Kennedy has replacement felt kits, slides and dividers with clips or either separately (eg, just clips or just dividers). Apparently, they have keys and locks too. Those were all I inquired about.

Mike

txlonghorn1989 · Jan 18, 2018

Well, I heard from Kennedy today on the pics I sent them and asking if it was made by Kennedy. Apparently, the CS department had forwarded my email and pics to one of their Senior Engineers. I think we'd already figured out it was a Waterloo and not a Kennedy and that's pretty much what the Engineer said in his reply which was just forwarded to me. However, to confirm what a lot of people mentioned and believe he stated that "while Kennedy did make machinist chests for Sears this box was made by Waterloo.".

Just wanted to close the loop since I'd ask the questions and let everyone know what I heard back from Kennedy.

Ricky Joe,
I don't know for sure but I believe Waterloo Industries is probably very high if not #1 in terms of making toolboxes for Sears. I hope someone else will come along and definitively answer that question for you.

Mike

exmaxima1 · May 21, 2018

My Crown Top Machinist chest has no barrel lock or dimples. Waterloo, maybe??

406Rich · May 21, 2018

txlonghorn1989 said:
Well, I heard from Kennedy today on the pics I sent them and asking if it was made by Kennedy. Apparently, the CS department had forwarded my email and pics to one of their Senior Engineers. I think we'd already figured out it was a Waterloo and not a Kennedy and that's pretty much what the Engineer said in his reply which was just forwarded to me. However, to confirm what a lot of people mentioned and believe he stated that "while Kennedy did make machinist chests for Sears this box was made by Waterloo.".

Just wanted to close the loop since I'd ask the questions and let everyone know what I heard back from Kennedy.

Ricky Joe,
I don't know for sure but I believe Waterloo Industries is probably very high if not #1 in terms of making toolboxes for Sears. I hope someone else will come along and definitively answer that question for you.

Mike

I have the same box, felt lined, with the removable dividers, bought new in 1971..sears.

d42jeep · May 21, 2018

I see that your box has the two locking pins that lock the front cover on when the top is closed which my Kennedy boxes have. My Waterloo made Craftsman box does not have that feature.
-Don

Stuart in MN · May 21, 2018

Mr. Pete recently posted a Youtube video on Kennedy/Craftsman machinist's boxes that is interesting:

At about 18 minutes into the video he shows a half width box, I've never seen one like that before.

Toolmaker65 · May 21, 2018

That is one heck of a cute little beast :drool:

d42jeep · May 21, 2018

It looks like the gentleman doing the YouTube needs to read through this thread so he can tell his Waterloo made box from his Kennedys. I definitely learned the difference from the wealth of knowledge found here.
-Don

taumac · May 21, 2018

Wow, I never seen the Remline or that half box. Those are cool.

txlonghorn1989 · May 22, 2018

d42jeep said:
I see that your box has the two locking pins that lock the front cover on when the top is closed which my Kennedy boxes have. My Waterloo made Craftsman box does not have that feature.
-Don

I picked up the Kennedy version of this box last week at moving sale ($25 full of tools) so now I've got both the Kennedy and Waterloo-made Craftsman Crown box chests. After reading the last few updates on this thread I did some measurements between the two this morning and also noticed that in addition to the two dimples on either side of the lock on the Waterloo box the indention for the face cover knob are different widths. On the Kennedy it's 2.5" at it's widest while it's 3" on the Waterloo box. The W-L-H are identical on these boxes. Noticed today the different mechanisms for locking the face as well which you mention.

That half box is pretty cool too!!!

Mike

txlonghorn1989 · May 22, 2018

ecotec said:
I have a later logo version.

Interesting that your badge is outside the box and the Crown badges seem to be inside on the bottom drawer. Nice chest!

Cruzan80 · May 22, 2018

Along with a CM 8-drawer, I just picked up a Waterloo Industrial 7drawer (layout copy of the Kennedy 520). Willing to take side-by-side pics if anyone needs details next to an actual Kennedy. Weirdest part of this one was the "tray" in each drawer, instead of felt.

txlonghorn1989 · May 23, 2018

ecotec said:
That is an old picture. I found an MC28 for $20 since that picture was taken.

ecotec,
Is that a CM middie? If so I love it! I just picked up a Kennedy middie with the 8-drawer chest but I'd love to have a CM to match my Craftsman Crown. Forgive my ignorance, what is a MC28?

Mike

Toolmaker65 · May 23, 2018

ecotec,

I do believe you are correct on that point. I have never seen one either. Sears/Craftsman offered steel 'machinists' chest up until about 2004 or 2005 but they were not the old school style machinist chest like Kennedy. They seemed to be nothing more than a standard mechanic's box painted with brown wrinkle paint with no brown flocked plastic trays, let alone actual felt. I think the tray thing was probably a cost saving measure as all they had to do was toss one in each drawer as opposed to positioning and gluing the felt in each drawer. A cheap and tacky way of doiong things imo.

leg17 · May 25, 2018

Sears offered gray 7-drawer machinist boxes with the Dunlap name around WWII.
Looks like around 1969 was the first offering in brown wrinkle.
The 2-drawer riser for the 20" box appeared in around 1976.
The 10" wide 6-drawer Porta-Box also showed up in 1976.
The 2-drawer riser for the 28" box was first seen around 1978 still with the Crown badge.
By 1979 the badges had all been updated to the rectangular one.
I bought the 8-drawer Crown badge around 1970 and the 2-drawer mid base in the early 1980's.
Like most guys buying Craftsman machinist tools, their credit system was the handiest in the pre-visa days.

Toolmaker65 · May 26, 2018

Good looking set there leg :thumbup:

As a kid of 7 or 8, I did see the Dunlap boxes and some wooden Craftsman ones every now and then at auctions or garage sales - thought they were the coolest things in the world with all of the drawers in them. At that age I was just falling down the rabbit hole of tool acquisition and was looking more for hammers, saws, wrenches, screwdrivers and stuff like that. Coupling that with limited funds (a few bucks saved up here and there for things like digging up garden for neighbor, etc) placed those boxes out of my reach (but not out of mind).

I remember seeing the Craftsman 7 and 8 drawer boxes in Sears when they still sold machinists tools, but never saw either riser there (or just never really noticed them).

Started using Kennedy (Dad used them too), but have had both top boxes that were Craftsman - they were in kind of rough shape (rusty, dented, missing paint and 1 with a bad red rattle can repaint job) when I got them. They both went out with the trash one day after I got tired of hearing my father ***** and moan about those @*$$*!! pieces of junk and all of those damn tools that you just keep bringing home. That was long before the internet and sites like AA and GJ as well as others that showed I was not alone in my interest in tools and their history and that I was not a junk collector like Fred Sanford.

Gives me something to look for now, as I can always use a little more (lot?) tool storage space :drool:

Craftsman Crown 8-drawer Machinist chest

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