Craftsman 1/2 V series ratchet
- Thread starter kdchr11
- Start date
Richard Cranium
Well-known member
good luck, they are not made any more, you might check ebay.
I haven't seen those kits on Ebay. Did you try cleaning it and relubing? If not, maybe a kit from a co-brand (Armstrong, KD, etc) would work...
r_olson_06
Well-known member
I think those ones were made by plomb. They are hard to come by might have to find a donor to repair. They are pretty easy to find online.
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r_olson_06
Well-known member
U thought the very first pearheads under the v series were plomb?
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Huh? Were did you get the idea that I think the very 1st pearheads under the V series were made by Plomb, when I directly contest that in my previous comment??
1944-1948 pearhead = Circle U = Plomb
1948-1956 pearhead = (=V=) = Moore Drop Forge
ganymede
Well-known member
Looking a Dooms circle U specimen above...
Sheesh ! It's really easy to imagine what they looked like on the shelf at a 1940's Sears.
Sheesh ! It's really easy to imagine what they looked like on the shelf at a 1940's Sears.
r_olson_06
Well-known member
Sorry fat fingered that one should have been an I not a u. But I can't remember where reading it I always knew the circle u items were plomb and I also thought the first pear heads were due to a stamping of an U on them.
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If you have any additions to the Craftsman ratchet to kit listing that I have, please provide them. I realize the older models don't have model #s on them so it would be tough to add those to the list.
Thanks...
Haha! Yeah, I wanted specimens that were in as original condition as possible. There were plenty that I bought/traded for that were damned near mint condition or they were in great shape and just needed a cleaning, refurbishment, or repair. The more contemporary the easier it was, while the older the piece was the more difficult it became. I'm very pleased what 6 months of digging up resulted.
You can learn more about them via my little hobby for the last 1/2 a year: The Craftsman Ratchet History Project (http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310995)
While I can't be 100% for sure, my suspicions lead me to believe that the Circle U Craftsman ratchets were only available via the catalog as a part of a multi-piece set rather than being sold individually. I've scoured through all of the early catalogs and didn't find a shred of evidence to see individual sale unfortunately. That doesn't mean it couldn't have happened at a Sears store, but I think the Craftsman BE & Circle Hs would have likely dominated the store shelves at the time.
Hilariously, if memory serves me correctly, in 1948 Sears Catalog the very 1st iteration of the Craftsman Raised Panel (the =V= we've been talking about in this thread) was available for purchase in a multi-piece set (later sold individually in 1949), competing against the Circle U (also mentioned on this thread) and the legacy Craftsman BE & Circle H variants of ratchets all in the same catalog. So you could either buy the designs that had been out since the 1930s, buy the Plomb design that had a short half-life, or ride the lightning and buy the new generation of compact singular pawl ratchets.
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Speaking of the Circle U again:
Health tip: Circle U ratchets are composed of a Chrome-Molybdenum Steel w/ cadmium plating. Cadmium a neurotoxin. The plating is stable for tool use, but do not wire-brush these without wearing a proper respirator. Wash those hands after cleaning!
While there are very very few examples of the Circle U ratchets that are chrome plated post-WW2, most are cadmium plated due to government rationing of chromium during the war.
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There isn't a specified kit number for the =V= that you mentioned, nor were there designated identifiers for any of the specific ratchets up until 1967. You'll have to wait and see if I have the proper repair pack. I'll get back to you on that.
FYI, if I do have the proper repair pack, and the, problem is your pawl, you'll need to carefully be able to drive the retaining pin through the selector and into the pawl. Its a one way trip, and if you nerf it your SOL sadly...
ganymede
Well-known member
That makes sense. Sort of like today there are several different ratchets to choose .
I think that back in the 40's the quality was more level and the differences were more for feel.
Of them all the New Britains of either code, BE or H, seem to grow on trees.
Box heads are next up and the damn Plombs are rare, at least around here.
Thanks for the vid link! Cant wait to get to a better connection area and check it out !
Edit: Thanks for the cadmium reminder. It's no joke what that does to your system as it builds up!
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If you can send me a email or text I can send pictures of mine. [email protected] or281-797-00five six Karl
Hello again Karl,
Unfortunately, you are on your own with this one. I do not have a spare gear & selector pack to offer you in the 1/2 size. There is a probability that you may not have to replace anything. Open that ratchet up and give the interior a good cleaning. You can wash the tool in paint thinner to remove all of the built up grime and then clean with a small plastic or brass bristle brush. Once the ratchet is dry, spray the interior and drive components with something like Liquid Wrench to give the components a bit of corrosion resistance, then wipe the excess. Use a non-corrosive lubricant like Super Lube. You can be pretty liberal with the amount in both the interior and drive mechanism pieces. After you complete these steps, reassemble.
You'd be surprised by what may be holding your drive mechanism back. Even small particulate contaminates can halt the gear and pawl. Most of the time, from my experience, with ratchets of this age you'll end up finding small longitudinal slivers of the gear that were artifacts of their original machining that didn't disassociate during their final prep process.
If that doesn't work, your best bet would be to look for a reasonable condition ratchet on eBay and swap the gear into your father's ratchet.
Good luck to you! Also, fyi, you may want to reconsider posting your personal phone number on the internet for everyone to see...just sayin'
