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Everybody's got some Snap-On...

K

knock knock

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Joined
Nov 30, 2024
Messages
76
I pick Snap-On on when I see it at garage and estate sales or on market place for a good deal. Found all of this in the last month or so. Gave $125 for the parts washer new version is close to four grand. Gave $50 a box no idea what the new version would cost. I find a lot digging though the dollar piles at sales one or two at a time. Just the radiator hose pick and lady’s foot in the pile of tools picture.
 

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B

bonneyman

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Apr 22, 2010
Messages
8,779
Location
Desert SW
One thing I gotta give to Snap-On is that they still make rebuild kits for all the ratchets they've made. So "buy once, cry once" has validity. How cool would it be to have say my grandfather's ratchet and STILL be able to rebuild it?
 
J

jeffmoss26

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Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
12,854
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
When I was four, my dad happened to see a Snap-on truck and asked if he would do a birthday party for me 🤣🤣
He did give me a catalog which I wish I still had. GJ has definitely influenced me! Here are a few pics I could find easily. I have a couple small screwdrivers and picks that I use daily at work as a locksmith. This last year’s GJSS sent me a pair of the Talon grip pliers which are fantastic!
1748727411871.jpeg
 

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N

neharr41

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Jan 25, 2025
Messages
79
Location
Southern Nevada
bonneyman said:
One thing I gotta give to Snap-On is that they still make rebuild kits for all the ratchets they've made. So "buy once, cry once" has validity. How cool would it be to have say my grandfather's ratchet and STILL be able to rebuild it?
Click to expand...
This is definitely one thing I also appreciate about Snap-on. I had a couple of Mac ratchets from the 70s that needed rebuilds and when I contacted them to get the part number, they said the kits were no longer available. Kind of a bummer coming from a tool truck brand.
 
W

Wrench97

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Jun 23, 2018
Messages
12,059
Location
Southeastern Pa
neharr41 said:
This is definitely one thing I also appreciate about Snap-on. I had a couple of Mac ratchets from the 70s that needed rebuilds and when I contacted them to get the part number, they said the kits were no longer available. Kind of a bummer coming from a tool truck brand.
Click to expand...
I'd bet that has to do with being bought out by Stanley in 1980, the newer design ratchets are likely built by Proto.
Where the older designs depending on age could have been produced by Mac Allied, Clinton tool company or Mechanics Tool & Forge Company. All 3 were combined in the mid 40's to form Mac Tool, Mac had several large government contracts to fill and bought the other two companies to gain the manufacturing space. The old Mac production facilities are long gone now with Stanley providing the manufacturing and engineering space to produce Mac tools.
 
M

MushCreek

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Joined
Jan 14, 2015
Messages
9,757
Location
Upstate South Carolina
I have two SO combination wrenches (1-1/8 and 1-1/4) because my employer at the time bought them for everyone. They fit a particular machine we all worked on. Oddly enough, they are the only wrenches I own that have significant plating failure. Mostly I have SK and Craftsman. I'm not sure why the SO rusted; all of my SK wrenches were used in the same environment and stored in the same drawer.
 
A

ATC

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Joined
May 12, 2012
Messages
8,268
Location
VA
I guess I forgot about these freebies. Mechanic left them at work when he left. I let them sit for a year before bringing them home.

IMG_2926.jpeg
 
R

Rinspeed

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Apr 26, 2020
Messages
1,818
Location
NY
pmcGXlYuj
po5CGWEij
 
5

50of4064

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Joined
Mar 24, 2019
Messages
72
Location
Whittier, CA.
ecotec said:
I don’t need another punch or chisel… but I can’t say no if it says Snap-on…IMG_5085.jpeg
Here is the punch drawer, it is less than 10% Snap-on and Blue-Point. It is a good mix of tool truck brands, industrial brands and machinist brands.

Here is my extension drawer, it is about 15-20% Snap-on (some is the bare metal Snap-on that you can still find cheap from the wars. Some is still in 1951 Cosmoline.) Overall, it is 90% truck tool and industrial brands. IMG_5087.jpeg

I make an effort to leave behind the Snap-on with inscriptions or chrome loss. My 3/8” chrome semi-deeps is an exception. Out of 14 sockets, only 8 are Snap-on… and 6 are inscribed…

I try to buy cream puffs as much as possible. The sooner that you get picky, the better your collection is. Sometimes, there are so many pickers breathing down your neck, that you are just grabbing everything as fast as you can… and you miss heavy wear, chrome loss, inscriptions… I do my best.

There is a ghoulish nature to the hobby… you are picking the bones of the recently dead and people being forced into nursing homes…

I have told this story way too many times on GJ… but, my first honeyhole estate sale was the estate sale of a guy who had previously owned a collision shop. I got 2/3rds of a five gallon bucket of truck tool sockets. The family brought the homeowner… and he thought we were stealing his stuff… he had dimentia… it was a great and terrible day…
Click to expand...
Ya just may be a little overExtended?
Loving you pix.
 
W

Wamsutta

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Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
10,870
Location
Amarillo, Texas
I remember one day I stepped on a Snap-on truck. The dealer watched my hands constantly. Everywhere my hands went his eyes would follow.
 
A

AJHD

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Joined
Jan 4, 2020
Messages
3,010
Location
AZ
Wamsutta said:
I remember one day I stepped on a Snap-on truck. The dealer watched my hands constantly. Everywhere my hands went his eyes would follow.
Click to expand...

And your point would be what?
Tons of loose product on the truck, easy to pocket something.
 
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Houdini5150

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Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
566
Location
Arizona
I have a few ratchets that I picked up used. I got a broken ratchet from the early 2000s and I warrantied it through their website. They sent me a brand new F80. I bought a brand new one from a someone online. Got another snap on ratchet with a softgrip from some dude who prob found it in the junkyard for 50 bucks. Works great and the grip cleaned up nice.
 
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B

bonneyman

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Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
8,779
Location
Desert SW
I've got a question about Snap-On, here is probably as good a place as any to ask. Where did the name Snap-On come from?
I've heard it was from the idea in their advertising early on that claimed that their sockets would "snap on" to their ratchets. And the name stuck.
Is that really the reason? Or have I fallen for a tool myth?
 
C

cgrutt

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Joined
Mar 4, 2016
Messages
8,202
bonneyman said:
I've got a question about Snap-On, here is probably as good a place as any to ask. Where did the name Snap-On come from?
I've heard it was from the idea in their advertising early on that claimed that their sockets would "snap on" to their ratchets. And the name stuck.
Is that really the reason? Or have I fallen for a tool myth?
Click to expand...

From Snap-on's site...

In 1920, Snap-on started with an idea that revolutionized professional tool sets across the industry. Joseph Johnson and William Seidemann pioneered the idea of taking five handles of different configurations and ten sockets of varying dimensions and fashioning them to “Snap-on” to each other interchangeably. The concept of “Five Do the Work of Fifty” was just the start of our relentless determination to be the best, providing practical, original and inventive solutions to the professionals we serve.
Click to expand...
 
G

GaryM909

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Apr 11, 2016
Messages
1,520
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I bought a Snap On tool cabinet off the truck when I apprenticing in a machine shop 49 years ago. It was the smallest one they had but the size of the drawers fit my needs at the time. I probably could have went to Sears and bought the same size of box complete with a full set of tools for the same price. I still have the box and turned it into a welding cart.
I have accumulated a few ratchets and some other tools over the years only from garage sales and used tool stores.
I also bought a real Snap On light from Costco quite a few years ago. Good thing I didn't have to chase a truck down to find one.
 
E

ecotec

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Oct 5, 2010
Messages
5,426
I gathered up all the Snap-on punches, that I had around my garage, and put them all in the punch. It displaced all of the Wilde, except for one punch.

The next things that will come out of the drawer will be the Stanley USA nail sets and the non-USA Starrett.IMG_5115.jpeg

The set in the pouch is a Snap-on spring punch set. The biggest Wilde was bigger than the Snap-on set goes, so the biggest Wilde still gets a place in the drawer.
 
E

ecotec

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Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
5,426
captmoto said:
I'm only chipping in here to be the only guy that doesn't own any Snap On tools. If I had F U money all my tools would be Snap On.
Click to expand...

If the majority of mine wasn’t from garage and estate sales, I couldn’t justify a fraction of what I have.

I am 51, and a good amount of it is from before I was born.
 
H

Hakeem

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Jan 22, 2024
Messages
1,246
Location
Chicago
ecotec said:
I gathered up all the Snap-on punches, that I had around my garage, and put them all in the punch. It displaced all of the Wilde, except for one punch.

The next things that will come out of the drawer will be the Stanley USA nail sets and the non-USA Starrett.IMG_5115.jpeg

The set in the pouch is a Snap-on spring punch set. The biggest Wilde was bigger than the Snap-on set goes, so the biggest Wilde still gets a place in the drawer.
Click to expand...
What kind of tool box is that?
 
E

ecotec

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Oct 5, 2010
Messages
5,426
Hakeem said:
What kind of tool box is that?
Click to expand...

Powr-Kraft with original paint. Most of them have turned orange from time and sunlight.

The guy that I bought it from bought it to use as a mechanic (before I was born). He soon found out that it would not work for that. He, then, took it to his parents house and put his dad’s tools in it. It was in the basement, which is why the paint hasn’t faded.

It was priced $400 at his parent’s estate sale… which was too much for me at that time. My wife told me to offer $100 without the tools. I gave him my phone number. We were only going to my in laws, which was about a mile away from the estate sale. He called before we even got there. He was very angrily taking the tools out… so I was treating the situation as something that could get weird. Anyways… that was more than a decade ago. The majority of the wear on the box has come from me.

While I love the box… I would never buy a box or cart with bulk storage on the bottom. It is drawers all the way down, or nothing.IMG_5118.jpeg
 
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E

ecotec

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Oct 5, 2010
Messages
5,426
I try, but often fail, to only buy original condition cream puffs in whatever I buy.

I include Snap-on in that. I try to avoid buying things with chrome loss, inscriptions, general rough condition.

Ideally, anything I buy should be in good enough condition to just bring it home, put it away, and just use it when called for. I often have failed to notice damage. With a garage or basement full of the “usual suspects”, it is often a race to get to the Snap-on and other tools and other goodies.
 
5

50of4064

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Joined
Mar 24, 2019
Messages
72
Location
Whittier, CA.
Pexto said:
I picked up a similar cart not too long ago; it must be from the same era. Doesn't look quite as good as @50of4064 's though!

It's getting a lot of use in my shop so I consider it $50 well spent.20250522_204806.jpg
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Outstanding!
There may be a manufacturers date stamp on one of the tray sides, under the right light you may be able to make it out. That's how I found out the year for mine
 
W

Wrench97

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Jun 23, 2018
Messages
12,059
Location
Southeastern Pa
ecotec said:
Powr-Kraft with original paint. Most of them have turned orange from time and sunlight.

The guy that I bought it from bought it to use as a mechanic (before I was born). He soon found out that it would not work for that. He, then, took it to his parents house and put his dad’s tools in it. It was in the basement, which is why the paint hasn’t faded.

It was priced $400 at his parent’s estate sale… which was too much for me at that time. My wife told me to offer $100 without the tools. I gave him my phone number. We were only going to my in laws, which was about a mile away from the estate sale. He called before we even got there. He was very angrily taking the tools out… so I was treating the situation as something that could get weird. Anyways… that was more than a decade ago. The majority of the wear on the box has come from me.

While I love the box… I would never buy a box or cart with bulk storage on the bottom. It is drawers all the way down, or nothing.IMG_5118.jpeg
Click to expand...
At one point around here at least they were known as bodymen's boxes the lower storage was for sanders lead files and other long bulky body tools.
 
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