Help with Craftsman Professional Wrenches

[Lesserstore]

Some of you may know that I have been working on a series over in the vintage tool discussion about USA craftsman wrenches. Since craftsman professional is more modern I thought I would post the questions I asked over there here. So here it is:

I'm going to need y'all's help with Part III as I don't own a single Craftsman Professional wrench. Here's a list of what models I know:
Full polished long combo wrenches
Stubby combo wrenches
Deep offset DBEs
Reversible ratcheting combo wrenches
Cross Pattern Combo wrenches
Cross pattern ratcheting combo wrenches
Locking flex combo wrenches
Locking flex stubby combo wrenches

Here's the codes I came up with:
Danaher:
V^
VV
GK-A
GK-F
GK-G
GK-X

SK:
K
W
X

Am I missing any codes or models?
Does anybody know when which models were released? The only one I know is the full polish combo wrenches were released in 1994.
Also when did Danaher start making craftsman pro? I know they overlapped with SK but that's about all I know.

 

[WinMod21]

I don't know about the histories, but I have the Cman Pro flare nut wrench sets in metric #9 42013 and sae #9 42012, and the Cman Pro reversible ratcheting flex-head combo wrenches (#'s at another residence).

Edit — Removed the Ace Hardware link - as I don't know why I posted it, and cuz it didn't appear relevant. :~\

 

[drtyler]

The Ace Hardware link is for item number CMMT99333, which is the new Stanley Craftsman. They are just using an old picture.

 

[Fedwrench]

You're missing the standard length sets that were only available around Christmas time when they first came out.

 

[Lesserstore]

You're missing the standard length sets that were only available around Christmas time when they first came out.

What year was that?

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

Apex also made some of the Professional wrenches at one point too.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[BlakeTheCarGuy]

I think Armstrong made some too around 2000 or so but I know SK made them before that not after.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[JR 42]

Armstrong was Danaher and then Apex, and Apex Armstrong US production lasted several years after Cman was offshored (to Chinese Apex plants). They offered the same long panel full polish US- made combo wrenches in Craftsman Industrial branding at some point- mostly closeouts through Sears's website and outlet store around 2013 IIRC.

OP, I just have a handful of basic combos and offset DBE's, I'll try to dig them out soon and see how they're marked (I suspect all V^).

 

[BrandoJames]

Here's pix of four Craftsman Professional USA combo wrenches (12mm, 14mm, 17mm, 19mm). I took pix of both sides. I bought these off eBay last year and probably paid too much for them. I hope that helps.

 

[Jim C.]

Practically everything you ever wanted to know about Cman Pro wrenches can be found here.


http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=25550.msg145956#msg145956

 

[Lesserstore]

Practically everything you ever wanted to know about Cman Pro wrenches can be found here.


http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=25550.msg145956#msg145956

Thanks that's going to make it a lot more easier.

 

[DadsTools]

Thanks that's going to make it a lot more easier.

Ol' Todd spent a lot of time, effort and money on that type study. If you're going to lift sizable portions of info from it (since, as you say, you don't own any of these wrenches yourself), be sure to give credit where credit's due. It's no fun investing all that only to find someone else lifting a bunch of it and then presenting it as their own work. Just sayin' from experience. You don't want it to look like you're just copying others' work that's already been published, so it also helps to come up with some of your own discoveries and new findings, else there's not much point in it. Hard to imagine being able to add much to Todd's thesis.

For instance, when one is pulling the mfr code dating from Lauver's work for their own paper, doesn't hurt to mention his name. It's the right thing to do.

 

[Lesserstore]

Ol' Todd spent a lot of time, effort and money on that type study. If you're going to lift sizable portions of info from it (since, as you say, you don't own any of these wrenches yourself), be sure to give credit where credit's due. It's no fun investing all that only to find someone else lifting a bunch of it and then presenting it as their own work. Just sayin' from experience. You don't want it to look like you're just copying others' work that's already been published, so it also helps to come up with some of your own discoveries and new findings, else there's not much point in it. Hard to imagine being able to add much to Todd's thesis.

For instance, when one is pulling the mfr code dating from Lauver's work for their own paper, doesn't hurt to mention his name. It's the right thing to do.

I don't think I'll even do part III, there's just no way I could match his article and I don't want to take away his audience. I'll leave a link to his page in my thread though and add a source page on my articles.

 

[DadsTools]

I don't think I'll even do part III, there's just no way I could match his article and I don't want to take away his audience. I'll leave a link to his page in my thread though and add a source page on my articles.

I think these choices are appropriate. I don't think you have to worry about taking away his audience. It's not a matter of 'market share'. It's simply a matter of professional courtesy and scholastic integrity.