Interesting Proto Wrenches

[YellowLakeWelding]

Thought you all might like to see these Proto Wrenches, came from my Grandad's collection. Anyone seen these before? Rare?

 

[J.A.F.E.]

Those are Proto line wrenches and are excellent wrenches. The early versions were marked Plomb until the lawsuit/namechange. They came up to 1 1/2 I believe. skfarmer has a complete, or nearly complete, set.

Harry Epstein had or may even still have some NOS in some of the larger sizes.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

Those are Proto line wrenches and are excellent wrenches. The early versions were marked Plomb until the lawsuit/namechange. They came up to 1 1/2 I believe. skfarmer has a complete, or nearly complete, set.

Harry Epstein had or may even still have some NOS in some of the larger sizes.

I take it there isn't many out there.

 

[SCscoutguy]

I take it there isn't many out there.

They are actually pretty common. A bunch of people here collect them.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

They are actually pretty common. A bunch of people here collect them.

Good to know, any modern equivalents?

 

[Bolster]

Worthless, common, not worth your time. (Hand wave.) You are not interested in collecting Proto flare nut wrenches. (Hand wave.) These are not the flare nut wrenches you are looking for.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

Worthless, common, not worth your time. (Hand wave.) You are not interested in collecting Proto flare nut wrenches. (Hand wave.) These are not the flare nut wrenches you are looking for.

Apparently not...I see the force is strong in this one.

 

[matthew]

So common that Bolster has a dozen of them just laying about...

Interesting stuff, anyways...

 

[sk farmer]

i have a set of proto's up to 1 1/8 if you call that complete.i am halfheartedly looking for larger sizes. i saw a few that include an 1 1/4 last week on the bay. it went nuts and i just don't need any more doubles. a special thanks to j.a.f.e who helped immensely on my quest for these. enjoy the pics.

 

[Skin]

So common that Bolster has a dozen of them just laying about...

Interesting stuff, anyways...

he did just buy those recently. If i remember correctly they were from an elderly woman who was near blind trying to raise money at a church sale to afford her eye drop meds. She was asking $10 for the lot but he talked her down to $5.

 

[littletoes]

he did just buy those recently. If i remember correctly they were from an elderly woman who was near blind trying to raise money at a church sale to afford her eye drop meds. She was asking $10 for the lot but he talked her down to $5.

Now THAT is funny!

 

[Bull]

i have a set of proto's up to 1 1/8 if you call that complete.i am halfheartedly looking for larger sizes. i saw a few that include an 1 1/4 last week on the bay. it went nuts and i just don't need any more doubles. a special thanks to j.a.f.e who helped immensely on my quest for these. enjoy the pics.

For a farmer, you sure do set up some purty poses for them tool photos

 

[sk farmer]

For a farmer, you sure do set up some purty poses for them tool photos

aw shucks bull, it was nothin but a couple blue shop towels off the roll.....

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

So far I've only seen two of these wrenches on Ebay today...seriously thinking about starting to hunt these down to make a set.

 

[sk farmer]

have a wad of cash in your pocket? they have not gone down in value as of late. not discouraging you just giving you a heads up. took me about a year of hunting and much help from some good friends to put those together. they are pretty when you get them put together though.

 

[Elroy]

...seriously thinking about starting to hunt these down to make a set.

A worthy endeavor that will not be easily accomplished.

Elroy is stuck with these

They're out there but people ****** up loose examples as they are highly collectable.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

have a wad of cash in your pocket? they have not gone down in value as of late. not discouraging you just giving you a heads up. took me about a year of hunting and much help from some good friends to put those together. they are pretty when you get them put together though.

I dropped $300 for a ratchet, $200 for a adjustable wrench...I could see myself spending a wad for a set of these wrenches easily, I'm pretty stupid like that.

 

[sk farmer]

then let the hunt begin...............

 

[Lump]

I have four Proto line wrenches, found one at a time last summer. GJ member "Even 11" asked me for them first, so I will give him first right of refusal. But if he passes, these will be available next week.

 

[crewchief888]

i have a couple of them laying around that belonged to my dad.
i'm assuming he bought them in the late 50's - early 60's.
they were in his toolbox for as long as i can remember.

never thought to ask him back then what he bought them for.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

I have four Proto line wrenches, found one at a time last summer. GJ member "Even 11" asked me for them first, so I will give him first right of refusal. But if he passes, these will be available next week.

Alright, yeah let me know. Thanks

 

[Bolster]

he did just buy those recently. If i remember correctly they were from an elderly woman who was near blind trying to raise money at a church sale to afford her eye drop meds. She was asking $10 for the lot but he talked her down to $5.

No! No, you're remembering it all wrong. It was a blind elderly lady whose husband had recently died and she was trying to raise money for a cancer surgery she needed. Cancer, not eye drop meds. Sheesh. She was asking $20 but I browbeat her, intimidated and insulted her until she gave them up for $5. And yes, I accidentally ran over her kitty as I left the sale, but that wasn't on purpose.

The mofo sized f.n. wrench you saw in my photo was a ... wait for it ... 1-3/4 monster that was used for hydraulics on USAF rockets. I use that 1-3/4 constantly. (As a paperweight.)

Yellow, it is actually enjoyable to collect these...not so rare, that you can actually do it, not so plentiful it's done in a month. I encourage you to finish the collection your gfather started.

 

[Bolster]

Here's your shopping list:

3712...3/8
3714...7/16
3716...1/2
3718...9/16
3720...5/8
3722...11/16
3724...3/4 (Mine looks like ****)
3726...13/16
3728...7/8
3730...15/16
3732...1 inch (I DO NOT OWN ONE! Still looking!)
3734...1-1/16
3736...1-1/8

 

[sk farmer]

one kitty? a bona fide soggy bottom boy like you should have finished off a whole passel of gophers in the dignified collection of them thar fine tools..........

 

[sk farmer]

Here's your shopping list:

3712...3/8
3714...7/16
3716...1/2
3718...9/16
3720...5/8
3722...11/16
3724...3/4
3726...13/16
3728...7/8
3730...15/16
3732...1 inch
3734...1-1/16
3736...1-1/8
3744...1-1/4

wrenches larger than the 3744 are extremely rare. epstein has a few of one size but they are buggered up with usaf scratched in them. if i have heard correctly those large size were often special order and not in any catalog so noone really knows for sure what sizes were made.

 

[Bolster]

SK quoted me before I took off the 1-1/4 size...I'm not actually sure it exists.

As SK says, the larger sizes were special order and exceedingly rare.

SK do you have a 3744? I don't.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

Thanks guys... I've seen a lot of extremely rare wrenches in a few collections from the service that I'll probably never find in my lifetime but they are out there. I have a friend who's a track mechanic in the army and he told me they have a lot of special order tools from snap on not available to the public.

Well I'm sure this collection will take me years to complete but I'll give it a shot.

 

[Bolster]

Good for you, Yellow! While you're hunting pick up a spare 1" would ya? Darn it if SK would just give me his home address, you and I could go pay him a night-time visit...hopefully he's not one of them gun-totin' types...

 

[sk farmer]

no i do not. it most definately exists. i saw one on ebay last week with 5 or 6 other line wrenches. when i last looked at it it was 160+ with several hours to go. i would bet that someone wanted just that one wrench and it sold for much higher than that. nissan crawler also has most of the common sizes. i think he may have an 1 3/16, 1 1/4 and maybe 1 7/16. maybe he will chime in.

 

[sk farmer]

Good for you, Yellow! While you're hunting pick up a spare 1" would ya? Darn it if SK would just give me his home address, you and I could go pay him a night-time visit...hopefully he's not one of them gun-totin' types...

how do you spose i keep the gopher population down?

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

how do you spose i keep the gopher population down?

The wife?

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

Bolster, Sk, I'm going to start the daily ebay search for these after I pay bills this month then I'll know how much I'm allowed to spend for sure. I got in trouble the last time I just started buy chit at random...wasn't pretty.

 

[Bolster]

Yeller. Not to complicate your search unnecessarily, but these FN wrenches fall into two easily identifiable types: Either they say USA on the back or LOS ANGELES on the back. You should hunt the ones your grandpappy gave you, whichever they were.

And cut yourself a break: it is OK to substitute a Plomb if'n you caint find a Proto. Generally pricier yet but sometimes you gotta sub. Any Plomb you pick up can easily be resold once you have your greedy mits on your Protos.

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

Deffinately noted, thanks. I've got the USA ones, I saw the Los Angeles in your collection. What's the deal on those?

 

[Bolster]

Los Angeles are an earlier version. Probably 1949-1956. The USA marked ones probably 1956 until quite late...nobody knows when it stops...possibly into the 1980s.

 

[sk farmer]

Yeller. Not to complicate your search unnecessarily, but these FN wrenches fall into two easily identifiable types: Either they say USA on the back or LOS ANGELES on the back. You should hunt the ones your grandpappy gave you, whichever they were.

And cut yourself a break: it is OK to substitute a Plomb if'n you caint find a Proto. Generally pricier yet but sometimes you gotta sub. Any Plomb you pick up can easily be resold once you have your greedy mits on your Protos.

don't be so sure about that bolster. look closely at the 15/16 in my collection. though it is an l.a. version it has the size stamped in the neck of the wrench rather than cast into the handle. it also is thicker near the head of the wrench. it kind of tapers narrower back toward the handle. if my theory is correct that is the earliest version and more like plomb wrenches. that makes at least 4 styles of wrench and if i look closely at my other wrenches ther are other subtle differances. the 4 major styles are plomb, tapered handle l.a., straight handle l.a. and usa.

 

[Elroy]

That's a sweet set of line wrenches

 

[Bolster]

don't be so sure about that bolster. look closely at the 15/16 in my collection. though it is an l.a. version it has the size stamped in the neck of the wrench rather than cast into the handle. it also is thicker near the head of the wrench. it kind of tapers narrower back toward the handle. if my theory is correct that is the earliest version and more like plomb wrenches. that makes at least 4 styles of wrench and if i look closely at my other wrenches ther are other subtle differances. the 4 major styles are plomb, tapered handle l.a., straight handle l.a. and usa.

I defer to the expert.

I agree, the stamp-on-neck is earlier than any cast-in-handle. So your 15/16 would be an early Proto version indeed.

I have two of those neck-stamp Protos that Jabberwoki was kind enough to obtain for me. (Thanks Jab.)

 

[YellowLakeWelding]

I'm glad you mentioned that SK, I was going to ask you about that one being it was tapered and stamped. I thought it was out of place.

 

[sk farmer]

I defer to the expert.

I agree, the stamp-on-neck is earlier than any cast-in-handle. So your 15/16 would be an early Proto version indeed.

I have two of those neck-stamp Protos that Jabberwoki was kind enough to obtain for me. (Thanks Jab.)

bolster you're killin me here. i am not an expert. i only know what i know from looking at my wrenches and pictures of others. line wrenches like these are scarce as hen's teeth in north dakota. most were sourced from out of state. i may know a thing or two about line wrenches but that is about as far as it goes. my proto-plomb-firestone collection is over 50% line wrenches so that hardly makes me an expert. now bolster, i hear he has a fine collection of that goodness and knows his stuff!