Lets make an all vintage Snap-on tool picture thread!

[d42jeep]

Here are my Snap-on and Par X finds from two estate sales yesterday. It looks like the brown paint was to hide the Chevron markings.
-Don

 

[snapmom]

Some Snap on 1/2 dr round heads.
bottom to top
L67 pat. date 1942, probably made for the war effort, does not show in the cats. very hard to find.
SR-84 date code 1950. only shows in the 48 cat. one of the rarest Snap on rats. why the SR instead of LR
LR-42 date code 1954. very hard to find. same rat as the SR-84, just a diff. model number
LR-42 date code 1954 very hard to find. just a different logo.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Nice roundheads!

 

[d42jeep]

I cleaned up my new snap ring pliers and checked them out on Collecting Snap-on. They have a date code from 1982.
-Don

 

[Mintgrun]

This is the first carry box I've come across. It's a little rusty, but not too bad. I don't know what the aluminum pieces attached to the lid were for, but they're nicely riveted on, so I'll leave them there.

 

[d42jeep]

I can’t figure out the number on this wartime 1/2” drive extension. Nothing came up on a search on Collecting Snap-on.
-Don

 

[snapmom]

I have seen that model before, as near as I can figure out, it is probably part of a aircraft set

 

[d42jeep]

I have seen that model before, as near as I can figure out, it is probably part of a aircraft set

Thanks. Maybe I’ll add it to my Navy NAF toolbox.
-Don

 

[RagTopTA]

Found this tool box for 5 bucks at the swap meet. Needs a total resto. few little sockets ... Also what kind of adapter is this?

 

[Shelbylex]

Good deal, RagTopTA. Bling guess - is the adapter for 1/4-9/32 conversion?

 

[RagTopTA]

Good deal, RagTopTA. Bling guess - is the adapter for 1/4-9/32 conversion?

its 3/4 drive both sides weird... and the holes are turned about 45 degrees from one another

 

[Shelbylex]

May be it was some special application to give you better angle to use hinge handle bar?

 

[RagTopTA]

May be it was some special application to give you better angle to use hinge handle bar?

I wondered that.. It was on a 3/4 T that came with that box. Thought maybe its for if you needed a different angle... its weird no part number or marking other than the SO logo and what looks like a pin in it

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Maybe just an old square extension end

 

[snapmom]

Yes, the top of a extension from the 20s

 

[RagTopTA]

Yes, the top of a extension from the 20s

So the extensios were interchangeable with the drive end? Thats pretty neat.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Not supposed to come off but sometimes it happens

 

[RagTopTA]

Not supposed to come off but sometimes it happens

Thanks for the info yall. Now to figure out what to use it for, or just throw it in my snappy drawers.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Can use as a pipe plug socket

 

[outofbounds]

Happy to turn up this SG12 up at an "After-Estate Sale". Was amazed at the value and the quality that was left behind.

 

[outofbounds]

This also came off the same "leftover table" as the Swivel Grip Ext. above. PU-10 Swivel 1/2 drive socket 1/2" 6 Point.

 

[snapmom]

some times you just gets lucky.

 

[snapmom]

The last of the Mohicans
The No. 3 Tee. Last shows up in the 41 cat. This one has a 44 code. War finish. Instead of No. 3 just has a 3. Has Made in USA.
Probably one of the last ones made. Quite rare, but not valuable as far as money, but one of the things collectors like to have.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

That's the latest one I've seen

 

[Old Radar]

I picked up a bit of Snap-on at an Estate sale this week.

F-720 Ratchet - 1985
F-670 Flex Head - 1962
F-4-L Speeder - 1956 w/patent number for the handle design issued in 1942
FX-11 12" Extension - 1960
AT-55 1/4" Hex Bit - 1956
FP-42A Phillips #4 - 1960
FS-18 Swivel Socket - 1966
FS-14 Swivel Socket - 1963
PS-12 10" Extension - 1956
F281 thru F081 12pt sockets w/patent number - no date code. This is their "Flank Drive" patent issued in 1966. There is an additional F281 that has a 1950 date and an F261 from 1949.
KTA 215A Socket Tray

 

[Private Lugnutz]

As you may know, I only buy things on eBay when I'm desperate to complete a set with something I just can't seem to find in the wild, or when it's something special. I was watching and bidding on this unique midget bits set recently, which somebody else won for $47.00. I wanted it, if only for the novelty, but I didn't want it that bad. I did steal the photos, though, because it's the weirdassest thing I've ever seen "associated" (which might be too strong a term..) with Snap-on.



If you're not quite sure what you're looking at, let me describe it, so you don't doubt your own eyeballs.

Yes, that is a vintage snap-shut eyeglass case.

Yes, it has the Pittsburgh area Snap-on dealer sticker on the lid. (The dealer had been at that address since 1958, if you're curious.)



And yes, that is a Snap-on 1/4" x 5/16" Ratcheting "Boxocket" wrench.

You may not recognize the little bits in the see-through vinyl case (and the eBay seller never provided photos of them out of the case...), but I do. They are Chapman 1/4-inch hex drive hex wrench and screwdriver bits.

Are you starting to put two and two together yet?

If not, perhaps this photo of my vintage wartime Chapman CM-1400 midget bits set, in its original factory case, with its original Chapman ratchet, and all the bits, will help!



Got it now?!

Somebody was copycatting Chapman. I don't know if it was actually the Pittsburgh Snap-on dealership itself - although the sticker sure seems to suggest it, but somebody put this set together to mimic a Chapman set, with the intention of turning the Chapman bits with the 1/4-inch drive hex opening in the Snap-on Ratcheting "Boxocket" wrench instead. If it was the store, it only makes you wonder if they were doing it in quantity. Buying bits from Chapman, buying the Ratcheting "Boxocket" wrenches from the factory, buying eyeglass cases from an eyeglass case maker and putting their sticker on the lid.

 

[Old Radar]

Well Lugz, that proves it. You're knowledge is a mile wide AND a mile deep! I went to get a hat just so I could take it off to you!

 

[LesserSon]

Recently-cleaned No27 FSP VacuumGrip narrow nose slipjoints. Missing most of the original plated finish, I think nickel, but maybe cadmium.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

You're far too kind, OR. The only reason I recognized it is because I happen to have a 1940's era Chapman set. Tools that came inside an eyeglass case - from the factory, is not an easy thing to forget!

If you want to read more about them, here is a link to an older thread.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Here is the set in 65 catalog

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, OTG. Believe it or not, even though it seemed almost impossible for me to imagine that the set was factory, and I never saw anyone here on GJ mention it before - not even when my Chapman midget sets thread was active (first in 2015, when I found my first wartime set, donated to the company museum at Chapman; and then again in 2019, when I found another wartime set, which I kept), I did look through some catalogs, just in case. Just not late enough. And there's a reason for that, as I will explain.

If anything, this whole thing just got more wonderfully bizarre for me.

Apparently Snap-on carried the set from 1960 through 1965. I can't find it any earlier, anyway. In 1960 (Cat X, page 63), their phonetic part number for the set (CMS-160) - Chapman Midget Set, was even more revealing of the supplier. No case was listed or annotated in a footnote. Just the bits and their standard R-180 "Boxocket" ratcheting wrench. In 1962 (Cat Y, page 65) a footnote said it came in "C-20 kit bag", which is probably the see-through vinyl pouch in the eBay sale. No case mentioned. In 1965 (Cat CZ, page 69), they changed the part number to CRA-180, I suppose implying Chapman RAtcheting, and now the footnote includes a "GA-168 metal case." No photo of the case, unfortunately.

I already think it's kind of odd and quaint that Snap-on would sell a midget screwdriver set centered around the idea of ignoring the 5/16" hex opening on their standard R-180 "Boxocket." I mean, c'mon, guys. It's something improvisational that one of us would do in our shop in a pinch. But they actually developed and sold a set around that concept!

Then Snap-on went out and found an OEM for the bits. You have to understand that Chapman is still a small operation. Still family-owned, too, by the way. But small. Excellent reputation among many, nonpareil with some, including me. But they were even smaller back then. Catering to specialty markets, such as gunsmiths. So small, so mom-and-popish, that their early kits were supplied in eyeglass cases. Early as in WWII. Were they still providing their sets in eyeglass cases in the 60's? (I didn't think so. In 2017 their plans to issue a 75th anniversary set in vintage eyeglass cases were scuttled by their inability to find a supplier. But I plan to call them today to talk about it.)

It doesn't strike anyone else as strange that Snap-on was selling midget bits sets in the 60's - in eyeglass cases?!

Now look at that Pittsburgh area Snap-on dealer sticker again. It has a pre-Zip Code postal code. Okay. Those were in place as late as 1963, so it's possible that was put on that lid in 1963, and maybe even in 1964, using up old stickers, after the Zip Code was established. But the phone number is hard to explain. Area codes were established in 1947. It's true that it took a decade or so to fully cover the US, but cities had them right away, including Pittsburgh (412). So why is there a 1930's and wartime phone number on the Pittsburgh dealer's eyeglass case?

 

[d42jeep]

Your question about phone prefixes got me curious so I checked out a 1960 Liz Taylor movie Butterfield 8 and discovered this little gem.

“The title of the novel and film[10] (capitalized "B" and "U") derives from the pattern of old telephone exchange names in the United States and Canada. Until the early 1970s telephone exchanges were commonly referred to by name instead of by number. BUtterfield 8 was an exchange that provided service to upper-class neighborhoods of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Dialing the letters "BU" equates to 28 on the lettered telephone dial, so "BUtterfield 8" would equate to 288 as the first three digits of a five-digit phone number.

The preface to the novel is a notice by the telephone company that an extra digit will be added to all exchanges, "for instance, the exchange BUtterfield will become BUtterfield 8."

In my neighborhood, the prefix LAndscape was commonly used until around the 70s. My home phone still begins with 524-****. Area Codes were seldom mentioned back then.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I just got off the phone with Chapman. We're going to talk again later after they do some digging, but they confirmed my initial recollection, which is that the eyeglass case was very early only. They've been supplying Snap-on for a long time, but they don't know exactly when that started. Early records are sketchy.

Interesting, Don. The 70s is a lot longer than I would've suspected the old phonetic exchanges lasted. I will have to re-visit that for the Sticky v2.

 

[MShaw]

I had one of those sets I bought in 1962. The ratcheting box wrench failed and the bits melted into the haze. I have a larger set I was given in about 1987. And I have since added the metric hex bits to the set.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I had one of those sets I bought in 1962.

Do you remember if it came in an eyeglass case? You probably would've found something like that quirky and memorable, no?

 

[LesserSon]

The 70s is a lot longer than I would've suspected the old phonetic exchanges lasted.

The switching equipment didn’t use phonetics. (The piecemeal changes to equipment and operation are not identical to the dialing procedures you’re referencing, and dialing procedures continued to vary by location into the 1990s, if the memory of my experiences in north-central PA are accurate.)
In any case, the phonetics are a mnemonic device for the customer, not the equipment, making it a social custom independant from the rollout of technology. They were never necessary, as history has shown (since humans CAN remember eleven-digit phone numbers today.) Look at your cell dialpad - mine has the alphabet broken out over the digits. A younger S-O customer in the 1960s could have as easily dialed 242-5551, while an older one could have dialed CH2-5551, well - today! In fact you could dial AGgressive2-5551, BioHazard(or BIohazard)2-551, AHem2-5551, etc, with the same results. A merchant who dealt with a more mature clientelle could advertise the phonetic prefix today, if wanted.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I was referring to their expression in print, in advertising and on packaging, etc, LS. Age plays funny tricks, but I don't recall them lasting that long. Having had numerous passwords to classified safes, special rooms, networks, and other restricted access for nearly 30 years, I am painfully too familiar with the mnemonic alphanumerical correlation quality of older dial and later punch button phones. It was an old trick.

 

[Old Radar]

Which reminds me of a painful story.

The short version of which is: When standing nuclear alert back in the early eighties, the Two-Man rule required the nuclear codes to be locked in a container aboard alert B-52s secured by two padlocks controlled by two members of the crew. The combinations to these padlocks were mechanically programed by the individual crew member. On the weekly alert crew changeover, the off-going crew took their locks off the container, inventoried the contents in front of the on-coming crew, who, when satisfied that all was in order, placed their two locks on the container, completed the required checklists and then the off-going crew departed for a well-earned beer or two.

An unnamed nuclear certified crew member happened to be a big fan of Star Trek and it turns out he decided to program his lock with the Starship Enterprise's hull number: NCC-1701, so he would always remember it. Unfortunately, it was nigh-on impossible to directly translate the hull number into a sequence that would fit as a combination in the lock. Compromises, adjustments and abbreviations to the number were made to make it fit...

The story gets ugly when, during crew changeover, this crew member was unable remember the exact compromises, adjustments and abbreviations he made to his well-remembered hull number and was unable to open his lock. A delay ensued. This occurred on a cramped aircraft with no meaningful ventilation on a hot ramp in a place were the humidity approached 100%. In fact, it was over 100% inside the aircraft--water vapor condensed on equipment and dripped from the ceiling... People became agitated. His crew was late for their beer. After a couple of hours he finally gave up and maintenance sent for some big bolt biters and they cut the lock off.

Of course the larger implications of the effect on mission accomplishment and national security escaped no one. SAC was not happy. **** rolled down hill.

Mnemonics are great but you have to be smart enough to remember them...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

My still very active NDA prevents me from telling a similar story involving a similar two-man courier rule and Heathrow airport.

Getting us back on track...

The people in the front office of Chapman (still the same family) have no records to substantiate how long they supplied their sets in eyeglass cases, and their "historian" (an employee from 1966 to 1996!) passed away last year. But, they had never seen that Snap-on set before. In fact, they have not seen any third party set including Chapman bits in a Chapman eyeglass case before. They still sell tools to Snap-on and others, and those tools are sometimes combined with the vendors' own tools, but they had no idea they were supplying eyeglass cases to others and found it just as intriguing as me. I fact, they are going to post it as a story on their blog hoping someone comes forward with more information.

 

[LesserSon]

As frustrating as it may be to collectors and historians, a LOT happens that does not get recorded. As with WWJacobs’ tale, it’s probably for the best that we can’t wish it back into existance.