Huot Experts, Help ID This Box?

[MN Falcon]

I just got back to sanding and priming the drawers on an old "Huot" tool box I acquired a couple years ago. In another thread, Outlawmws suggested that I find an image of the Huot sticker on the front of the box so that I can have one made. Ironically, I have not seen another Huot box that looks like this one.

I have another Huot set that I commonly see here and there and can easily now spot the repainted ones without the stickers based on the embossed oval on the covers:

What I am wondering is if this is a true Huot box or is it just likely that that sticker got placed on a generic box? Looking at styling, if the big set I have is 50s-60s vintage the single box is likely 70s? The corners, except for the front and back corners of the top cover are square, it just doesn't fit the styling of the tower. I can't imagine something from the 40s being so square? The handles on the sides are near matches for the ones on the tower, same screw holes etc but are slightly different as well.

Thanks for any input.

 

[930dreamer]

Is this one the same model box?

 

[MN Falcon]

That top box looks very similar to the the one I have. The handles on the drawers look very similar, but the head of the rivets on mine look bigger. The front side corners on yours also look rounded where as mine are square (are those corners rounded, it could just be the way the pict looks) Outside of a few minor things like the handle on the front panel they are very similar boxes and could be the same. The front cover actually fits into a lip at the bottom and the lock hooks into the bottom in the center, it kind of looks like you box is set up the same way?

 

[930dreamer]

I looked at a few other Huot boxes and some have an oval raised area where the decal goes.

 

[MN Falcon]

So is that box in your pict supposed to be a Huot? Any idea of age? Sorry, here is a better pict of the tower with the covers down, you can see the embossed oval on these covers. These are really the only style Huot boxes I ever see, until I got that chest above.

 

[930dreamer]

I bought it as a Blackhawk but can't confirm the maker, mine doesn't have the raised oval area. The handles are similar to the Blackhawk bottom box.

 

[MN Falcon]

Its my understanding that companies like Huot, Kennedy and Waterloo made boxes for other companies, so its common to find craftsman boxes that are duplicates of a Kennedy. It very well could be a Huot made Blackhawk, assuming mine is a Huot

It looks like the handles on the drawers for your bottom have a rib and the top box are plain like mine. Another thing I noticed about yours is the top front rail on mine looks wider, this could again be slightly different versions over a few years.

Does your box have side carry handles?

 

[930dreamer]

One handle on the right side.

 

[MN Falcon]

Should it have two, one seems odd?

 

[MN Falcon]

I mocked up one of the carry handles. Like I say it is very similar to the ones on the Huot Tower, not exact but very close and would use the same screw holes. Notice here how rounded the front and back of the top are, but all the other corners are square.

Just an image of how the cover fits into the lip on the front

 

[vssjim]

You can always contact Huot and ask, last time when I bought a box from them in the early nineties I talked to one of the owners. They still sell a couple of boxes to the US government under a GSA deal so they still know about the old ones. I think the small sticker makes it real as I don't know were you would get a sticker like that in that time frame.

 

[930dreamer]

No front pull for the cover.

 

[MN Falcon]

No front pull, no holes for one. I was looking at yours thinking it might be a good addition though. I have a similar no name brand that also has a pull on the front cover.

On yours I pointed out the front top brace looks thinner than on mine. I noticed when I went out to the garage that on mine the top of the front and sides match in height. Yours looks like the front is cut a little lower than the sides. This might be a modification to the design on mine, I was thinking maybe it has to do with the hinge on the cover, on mine the hinge actually presses against the top brace and caused a wear issue there, its possible that your model had that cut down so the hinge did not press there (and they added the pull on the cover to make it easier to open and close

 

[flathead74]

I've got a blue square cornered Huot box like that. It has the old style Huot decal rather than a sticker. I don't know the model number as it isn't shown in the Huot catalog sheets I have. I'd like to get reproductions of the decals in sizes to fit my big chests and my other small box.

 

[MN Falcon]

930dreamer, Check out these pages and look for the MAC boxes. They look more similar to yours. The first one you can see the cover locking mechanism, is yours also like that one?

Post #207
http://66.154.66.47/forum/showthread.php?t=146631&page=11

This one looks like it has the same cover locking mechanism as you can see the slots in the side for the "bars" to slide into. Notice both have a shorter front top brace than the sides like yours. But even these 2 have minor differences between the 2 such as the cover pull and the sides at the top seem different, #207 looks like the sides are straight to the top (but that could be an illusion) where as #500 is a "bent lip" at the top. The more I look at your pict it looks like your box has similar style drawer pulls where as mine look really plain. I wonder if MAC built their own boxes or if they subbed that out.

Post #500
http://66.154.66.47/forum/showthread.php?t=146631&page=25

 

[930dreamer]

The paint color is dead on, mine has a single lock and no bars, could be missing though.

 

[MN Falcon]

Not necessarily on the lock. Mine does not have the bars either, mine has flat metal hook attached to the lock that turns into a tab on the bottom of the box. So looking through that entire thread I think I found some Snap-ons front he 40s that had square corners, so maybe my impression of when it was built could be way off, I was thinking all 40s stuff would be round corners.

 

[Huot Mfg. Company]

Here goes nothing...Although the box looks like the model #101 that we made for many years, I don't think this is one of ours and here is why:

The squared off corners are the first clue. However as someone else in this thread mentioned, we have made boxes under other brand names as well as for the government. But if this were made for someone else it would not have our brand (decal) on it, and, we've only made boxes for the government in more recent decades. This box is clearly much older than that.

The next clue is the location of the decal. I cannot recall any time in our history where we placed a decal in the center of a box. Someone else mentioned the missing embossing around the decal. They are correct in that is generally the case but not always, and back when our logo was rectangular (1940s) instead of oval, there was no emboss.

The biggest clue is the drawer pulls. Gene Huot (Grampa) built the original tooling for our drawer pulls and they are not the same as those shown in the photo. Its possible there was a period of time that we purchased someone elses handles, but not that I am aware of.

The real clue should be in the slides. If you post an end view and side view of the slides, we may be able to give this an absolute yes or no.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
HUOT MFG. COMPANY
John Huot

PS
I'm not one to look at the web all that often. Should you ever have an urgent question, feel free to email me at the factory at [email protected]

 

[FJ 432]

John,

Just some feedback. I wanted to restore an old drill bit cabinet that my dad had and I needed some Huot stickers to complete the project. I wrote to your website and received a very quick response from Terry Peterson. He hooked me up with some stickers and I can't thank you guys enough. Keep doing what you do best!

Randy

 

[Huot Mfg. Company]

Thanks Randy. Glad Terry was able to take care of you.

 

[nine4gmc]

Now that is customer service!

 

[posaune]

John,

Just some feedback. I wanted to restore an old drill bit cabinet that my dad had and I needed some Huot stickers to complete the project. I wrote to your website and received a very quick response from Terry Peterson. He hooked me up with some stickers and I can't thank you guys enough. Keep doing what you do best!

Randy

So how did you order them? I need the same thing for my cabinets (THIS one and post #1054 HERE). He got right back to me with the price but then didn't respond to my question of how to order.

 

[FJ 432]

I went to their website and there's a place where you can type them a note. I sent a request for some stickers for my project and he responded within two hours. They don't have any of the vintage stickers (my cabinet was from the 70's) but he gave me a couple of their new stickers.

 

[posaune]

I went to their website and there's a place where you can type them a note. I sent a request for some stickers for my project and he responded within two hours. They don't have any of the vintage stickers (my cabinet was from the 70's) but he gave me a couple of their new stickers.

That is what I did and that is why he got back to me with the price, but then I had no way of actually ordering them. I suppose I'll just try again when I think about it.

Thanks for the reply and apologies to MN Falcon for the hijack. Beautiful box, btw....

 

[Huot Mfg. Company]

Hey MN Falcon,

I found something yesterday that you may find interesting...My Father, Henry Huot Sr., wrote a journal titled "Orgins and memories of the Huot Manufacturing Company". I had never seen this document before yesterday and its filled with fascinating (to me anyway) information about my Grandfather Gene and how Huot began....I won't bore you with the details but when I happened across a few paragraphs about tool boxes and chests, i thought of your inquiry and I'm sure my Dad wouldn't mind my sharing this with you...In June of 1947 they had just completed building the factory that we are in yet today. Steel was being rationed so they were having difficulty meeting their orders and my Father writes "I recall a stack of orders over two feet high. Litte by little they worked the pile down. Then one day, dawn broke and there were no new orders coming in. We were getting desperate. Here we were with a brand new building and no orders. What to do?" (Remember MN Falcon, this was written many years ago during a kinder, gentler time.) Dad goes on; "Maybe a little heavy duty praying helped? About that time two manufacturers agents stopped by the office"...and Dad went on to say these fellas convinced Huot manufacturing that we should get into the automotive tool box business. At that time, only Waterloo Industries were making professional grade tool chests and there was a huge demand that wasn't being met. Dad said "We built 100 chests and cabinets (to test the waters) and I have to admit they were rather crude. We had no special tools but they were all sold within a few days by our local (Minnesota) sales representatives".

Whew, sorry MN Falcon. Clearly I can be even more long-winded then my dear old Pop. My point in telling you all of this was that its entirely possible and quite likely the old chest you have is from that era as no one alive today recognizes it.

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksiving,
John

 

[nine4gmc]

dude, if you have one of the "100", you have something real special!

Thanks for sharing HUOT^!

 

[MN Falcon]

Wow, interesting. I have been gone for a while dealing with some major personal issues and I come here and my post is on top again.

Thanks John for taking the time to respond to my post. I will try to get some picts of the drawer slides. I do recall that they worked the same way as my big Huot tower. Unfortunately, I didn't think this would be a really odd box so I started to strip it and repaint it. It had lots of rust and a PO of the box had done a crappy job of spraying over it. So now the only identifier is gone. I was just trying to make it a little nicer to put some tools in :-( Well at least I have the picts to prove it Now I wish I would have procrastinated on that project a little longer.

 

[Thumper]

I think it's cool that a manufacturer takes time to try to assist here.....Thanks Mr. Huot !

 

[MN Falcon]

John, I uploaded a bunch of picts of the Huot Middle box from my tower and the trying to focus on the drawer slides for both boxes. The slides on the Huot top and bottom box are different.

Find all of the picts I took here:
http://s286.beta.photobucket.com/user/MN_Falcon/library/Huot

Unknown Chest inner drawer slides:
<img src="http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/MN_Falcon/Huot/20121125_135935.jpg" border="0" alt="Unknown Chest Inner Drawer Slides"/>

Unknown Chest drawer slide:
<img src="http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/MN_Falcon/Huot/20121125_135745.jpg" border="0" alt="Unknown Chest Drawer Slide"/>

Silver slide is Unknown chest Black slide is Huot
<img src="http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/MN_Falcon/Huot/20121125_135636.jpg" border="0" alt="Silver Unknown Chest Slide Black Huot Slide"/>

Based on the side by side I cannot convince myself that they are both Huot. They are very similar and could posses only subtle changes over time. While the slides fit well in either box, the silver ones are longer. The main 2 differences that I saw though were the tab on the silver and black slides, the silver tab is spot welded into place while the known Huot black slides are stamped out of the slide material.

The other big difference is the catch for the tab on the drawer part of the slide. The known Huot is a more simple tab stamped out again, while the Unknown chest has a more elaborate stamp where the whole back of the slide formed.

John, from these picts and the ones on photobucket if you can get to them, if you can convince yourself that this is one of the original 100 mechanics boxes as you describe, would you be interested in it as a gift from me to you? As you can see one of the drawers is still in the original color. As I say though unfortunately the sticker on the front of the box is now gone :-(

 

[Huot Mfg. Company]

MN Falcon,
The photos you have provided have pretty much (still not 100%) convinced us this is not an early Huot product.
The biggest clues come from the photos you had sent of the drawer slides... The ends of the slides should have a slight radius or champher on all four points... The slides were always put through a black oxide process and were never silver (perhaps galvanized?) until more recent years...The "tang" on the slide looks as if it were welded on after the fact although that alone isn't conclusive evidence because a previous owner may have made their own replacement slides...But the one thing we cannot get around is the view of the bump on the drawer rail. It appears to be hard tooled and that simply wouldn't be the case on a run that was essentially a batch of prototypes.
Thanks very much for the kind offer, MN Falcon. It would've been fun to own one of the true originals.
Very best regards,
John

 

[t384]

I have the six drawer Hout and have been looking for the decal that fits the logo. Is it still possible to get one?

 

[jojovandal]

I have that same bottom tower and I cannot figure out how to get the drawers out. Does anyone on here know how?

 

[jakemac]

Perhaps one of these methods will help -

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238554

 

[jojovandal]

Perhaps one of these methods will help -

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238554

That worked thank you very much!

 

[jakemac]

You're welcome. I'm glad that the thread was good for more than just documenting my worthless ramblings.

 

[SeabeeVet]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and to posting anything so I have no forum skills yet. I have just received my Grandpa's Huot tool box. He passed away 10 years ago and my Father had the set until he told me to come pick it up. My Grandpa was my role model in life. He was a Master Mechanic and fed his family from this box. I am on a quest to find out everything I can about this Huot box. Anything and everything known about the history of this box will be greatly appreciated and I will keep watch to quickly answer any questions to help identify features or whatever is needed. Thank you in advance.

 

[SeabeeVet]

The info Dad told me was that Grandpa had this box before he started as a Mechanic which was before 1956. It has never been painted except for the socket tray. The box is a hammered blue shell with grey drawers. Some of the drawers have a sprayed-in green felt. Is this original to the manufacture? In talking with Terry Peterson (Huot Co.), he sent me a page from a flyer and stating that it looks like Model 101 and 250. The differences of my box and the ones in the picture are: There is no embossing around a Huot logo on top drawer cover. No identifying Huot decals (Box is in good enough condition that if they were there, they'd be there). The handles are bolted on and not stamped in. The drawer pulls are flat, not dished (if I'm reading the picture right).

 

[SeabeeVet]

There is a sticker on one of the drawers from a MAC dealer. Could it be that Huot built this box for MAC? Maybe that's why there is no embossing on the top drawer cover? There is a thin formed straight bead at the top of the top box on the front and sides. Dad says it's a MAC box but I'm not sure if he knows. Here is a stretch: Does anyone have any info on this guy?

 

[wrenchguy]

nice, real nice. its all Huot. i believe its just b4 embossed front but missing sticker. he probable bought tools from mac.

 

[SeabeeVet]

Thanks. The vise on your pic looks awesome.