VictorBravo
Well-known member
Being self-employed in a solo office, I seem to take vacations in small portions. Today, I took a few hours off, withdrew $100 cash, and hit some pawn shops. My hope was to replace some old Taiwanese and Chinese sockets and wrenches that ended up in my box years ago when I lent it to my Dad. Years went by, he passed away, and I eventually got the box back.
It originally was filled with SK, Williams, Wright, Easco, etc. that I bought from the farm store in the 70s and 80s. When I got it back, half the wrenches and most of the sockets were cheap 80s era dull imported specimens. The box was beyond recovery, the collection went into a drawer, but finally I wanted to put it sort of back to what it was.
At the two pawn shops I visited, I found these:
K-D 73-1111 fine tooth ½ drive NOS ratchet;
Craftsman used 3/8 ratchet in fairly good shape;
½ drive Easco SAE socket set, NOS, 11/16 through 1 ¼;
½ drive Easco/K-D socket set, metric, 10 mm- 35 mm NOS;
A set of Easco SAE 3/8 sockets, used in good condition;
Some twenty mixed used sockets, Craftsman USA and SK, to round out missing sockets;
8 deep metric S-K sockets;
Proto 7/8 wrench, Craftsman USA 1”, S-K 15/16;
Proto 23 mm, Armstrong 20 mm, Master Mechanic USA 19mm, Indestro 11 mm, various other sizes I can’t remember right now, but were on my list;
various ½ and 3/8 extensions, almost all were either S-K or Craftsman USA.
On the way home I hit the local Ace Hardware because I had a $10 rewards card ready to expire at the end of the month. I spent $20 on a set of new USA Craftsman metric wrenches from 6mm-18mm.
Nothing real dramatic, and not quite the quality I had 30 years ago, maybe, but it was a pleasure replacing those dull old swelling imports with some USA tools. I still had $19 left over out of that $100 I took out. Fair enough for me, nothing to really brag about, but I felt pleased at renewing that old collection.
I didn’t take pictures of everything, but some of it:
It originally was filled with SK, Williams, Wright, Easco, etc. that I bought from the farm store in the 70s and 80s. When I got it back, half the wrenches and most of the sockets were cheap 80s era dull imported specimens. The box was beyond recovery, the collection went into a drawer, but finally I wanted to put it sort of back to what it was.
At the two pawn shops I visited, I found these:
K-D 73-1111 fine tooth ½ drive NOS ratchet;
Craftsman used 3/8 ratchet in fairly good shape;
½ drive Easco SAE socket set, NOS, 11/16 through 1 ¼;
½ drive Easco/K-D socket set, metric, 10 mm- 35 mm NOS;
A set of Easco SAE 3/8 sockets, used in good condition;
Some twenty mixed used sockets, Craftsman USA and SK, to round out missing sockets;
8 deep metric S-K sockets;
Proto 7/8 wrench, Craftsman USA 1”, S-K 15/16;
Proto 23 mm, Armstrong 20 mm, Master Mechanic USA 19mm, Indestro 11 mm, various other sizes I can’t remember right now, but were on my list;
various ½ and 3/8 extensions, almost all were either S-K or Craftsman USA.
On the way home I hit the local Ace Hardware because I had a $10 rewards card ready to expire at the end of the month. I spent $20 on a set of new USA Craftsman metric wrenches from 6mm-18mm.
Nothing real dramatic, and not quite the quality I had 30 years ago, maybe, but it was a pleasure replacing those dull old swelling imports with some USA tools. I still had $19 left over out of that $100 I took out. Fair enough for me, nothing to really brag about, but I felt pleased at renewing that old collection.
I didn’t take pictures of everything, but some of it:
