My Small But Growing 1/4" drive Socket Set Collection

[Private Lugnutz]

^ ??!! Did you mean to post that here, @Tom "Python" Aycock ?

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Ha ha wrong thread!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

4766 is a part number on the Plomb crossbar and also on a Plomb 1/4" breaker bar.

Technically, the P/N was 4766PH, PH for "Pin Handle", which is what Plomb called their crossbars, to distinguish them for purchasing. Same for other sizes, e.g., 5266 and 5266PH, 5466 and 5466PH, etc. But yeah.

////

Older deeper dive thread on crossbars in general...

Vintage breaker bars with hole in the end

I have been collecting vintage tools for a long time. I have several different vintage 1/2 drive breaker bars with the cross hole in the end for a slide bar. My two vintage SK breaker bars even have a detent ball. Like many pieces of antique sets, the little cross bars are nowhere to be found...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Finally found a S/O TM-40 spinner in the wild.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Recently got this box for my wizard set

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a post Heritage =v= 1/4” drive set I found at Saturday’s estate sale. I cleaned it up and added a socket. It came with a crossbar.
-Don

I went through and made sure some of my early Craftsman 1/4”drive sets were accurate and complete. A couple of them were picked up over the summer. I posted some on another thread as well.
Two Heritage sets.
Two post Heritage sets.
-Don

 

[Beerhippie]

Freshly picked today:







1/4" hex L handle, 1/4" 6 pt, 1/4" square, knurl, 5/16" 6 pt, 11/32" 6 pt, case.

Need to find those missing bits. I'm guessing 3/8" and 7/16" 6 pt.

This is truly a "midget" set, as it fits in a coin pocket (4 1/4" OAL). With the knurl driver, I'm calling it a "radio set".

 

[d42jeep]

Mine was a throw in with some eBay stuff.
-Don

 

[four.cycle]

^ that's an odd driver handle there, Don.... where'd that come from?

@Beerhippie - your 350 Indestro (or Duro-Chrome, as the case may be) was marketed as their "Vest pocket" set. They are fairly common:

 

[Beerhippie]

Thanks, @four.cycle !

@d42jeep : Mine was also a "throw-in" with $20 of Powr Kraft by Barcalo combo wrenches a friend bought from a local honey-hole. He showed me some wrenches he found at a yard sale the other day and asked about the "scoop" combo wrenches. I told him they were made by Barcalo od Buffalo and suddenly he became a Powr Kraft and Barcalo collector! What have I sown?

Now to find the 3/8 and 7/16" sockets for my "vest pocket" set....

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Here's one on ebay now

Pardon Our Interruption...

Aaagh, now I gotta find a pilfer proof insert...but, at least that's pretty good proof that its a Thorsen box!

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Help. I picked up this Duro box off ebay. It says 5605 but the catalogs on ITCL show 5605 as a 25 piece 1/4 drive set. Perhaps just mislabled but the number looks like part of the sticker. This box appears as a 3/8 drive set. I've snapped a pic with 3/8" drive sockets in it. Anybody have any ideas? The box measures at 11" x 4"

 

[four.cycle]

^ Off the top of my head, I'd say "3/8" drive box" - the only long 1/4" drive box we know of that Duro made was that dark khaki green WWII vintage model.
Don knows Duro-Chrome much better than I do.

 

[d42jeep]

I don’t understand why the slot is so wide if the correct label is on the box. They did offer some 3/8” drive sets but the part numbers are different.
-Don

 

[Beerhippie]

Didn't you say it's a 25-piece kit?

I think that's your answer.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

It says 5605

FWIW, I have never seen a set number hand-scrawled like that before. Don owns and has seen more sets than me, and he may know better, but the set numbers on mine and those I have seen are stamped or machine printed there. That may mean absolutely nothing.
EDIT: One caveat to that is that the style of your label is later than any sets I collect. It matches the labels in the 1962 catalog.

The only other thing that might be worth trying to track down is the other part number that is printed on the label: "DU-L87". I have no idea what it signifies. The "DU" seems to be a prefix for an internal DUro-Chrome part numbering system. The "L" may be Large. I do see part numbers for boxes only with an "87" in them, which also might mean nothing.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Didn't you say it's a 25-piece kit?

The box for the 25-pc kit with that set number shows a provision for six (6) deep sockets in the main compartment. And the socket tray as depicted is narrow/tight and wouldn't dwarf 1/4-inch drive sockets, which would rattle around loose in a tray that wide and tapering out even wider. I think that's the source of the quandary.

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Didn't you say it's a 25-piece kit?

I think that's your answer.

The first mention of 5605 is in the 1962 catalog. But, as you can see, it's structural design is different than my box. I'm thinking the box is just mislabeled. 1/4" drive sockets would be swallowed by the socket bin area.

 

[RTM]

It says 5605 but the catalogs on ITCL show 5605 as a 25 piece 1/4 drive set.

Ok, from my perspective, the 5605 in this pic looks like a handwritten mark. Unless there is some other mark, I think we are barking up the wrong tree. (I'm working off my phone, so pix aren't blowing up well.)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

from my perspective, the 5605 in this pic looks like a handwritten mark.

Well, that makes two of us.

, I have never seen a set number hand-scrawled like that before

 

[Oregon Dave]

Well, that makes two of us.

Maybe the original printed 5605 was wiped off cleaning with like gasoline; user wrote it back on to leave us a mystery.

Other than the 5605 are other things kosher?

 

[d42jeep]

I took a look at my much earlier refrigeration set and it has a wide socket groove and some 3/8” drive sockets. I suppose there is a possibility that the box could have held one of those.
-Don

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Well, that makes two of us.

Concur. Now if I could just find a 3/8 drive set that matches this one in size and construction. I've looked through every catalog on ITCL yielding nothing. Looks like I need a catalog for late 1950s up to 1961...sigh...

 

[RTM]

Well, that makes two of us.

Just backing you up. Got interrupted with dinner plans

The writing looks off to be 5605. The first and last 5s are made differently, the pen strokes are not the same. The leftmost stroke on the first 5 is odd, the reverse at the "top" of the five is not the same. The 6 could be a G due to smudges The 0 looks smaller than all the other letters. Wondering if it is something like S Gos.

 

[Oregon Dave]

Just backing you up. Got interrupted with dinner plans

The writing looks off to be 5605. The first and last 5s are made differently, the pen strokes are not the same. The leftmost stroke on the first 5 is odd, the reverse at the "top" of the five is not the same. The 6 could be a G due to smudges The 0 looks smaller than all the other letters. Wondering if it is something like S Gos.

Looks like the penmanship of a good mechanic; do the dimensions match a 5605 box?

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Looks like the penmanship of a good mechanic; do the dimensions match a 5605 box?

No. Size and layout are different

 

[LesserSon]

Interesting observations by @RTM
The leftmost vertical stroke is separate, and the rightmost stroke extends outside the whitish field, intruding into the red. It does look handwritten, but with what? The pale blueish fill simultaneous with the thin black outline delivered by a single stylus… a paint marker?
Of the two refr sets posted by @d42jeep 5655 seems to require fewer misstrokes than 5654.

 

[d42jeep]

Interesting observations by @RTM
The leftmost vertical stroke is separate, and the rightmost stroke extends outside the whitish field, intruding into the red. It does look handwritten, but with what? The pale blueish fill simultaneous with the thin black outline delivered by a single stylus… a paint marker?
Of the two refr sets posted by @d42jeep 5655 seems to require fewer misstrokes than 5654.

If I had found that box, I would be tempted to add these pieces to it on my way to calling it a 5655. Of course there would be some items to add but it would probably be doable. I think that I now even have a more presentable ratchet. Even the listed dimensions of the box aren’t that far off.
-Don

 

[LesserSon]

Another thiught: what if the set number really is a decal, but it was mangled? The weird strokes could be displaced parts of other characters, overlapping in places. I don’t have a layered graphics editor, or I try it. Alternately, find a same-era Duro set and look at that set number to see if the script font matches.

 

[RTM]

Of the two refr sets posted by @d42jeep 5655 seems to require fewer misstrokes than 5654.

Any chance there was a 5665 set? Even fewer missed strokes.

 

[Oregon Dave]

Another thiught: what if the set number really is a decal, but it was mangled? The weird strokes could be displaced parts of other characters, overlapping in places. I don’t have a layered graphics editor, or I try it. Alternately, find a same-era Duro set and look at that set number to see if the script font matches.

Compositively:
O.P. measured the box 4 x 11 - none of the boxes in the catalog images submitted have even inch W or L.
d42jeep posted . . . “if the correct label is on the box.”
LesserSon mentioned mangled.
The “5605” is obviously hand written.
The O.P. lid photo - decal is off-center & skewed.

Anyone suspecting a user transferred decal ???

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Hmm. With Don reminding me of the reefer sets, I have to take back what I said in reply to @Beerhippie about the 1/4-inch drive sockets being dwarfed and rattling around loose in that oversized tray. All of that is still obviously true, but that didn't deter Duro from putting their 1/4-inch drive reefer sets in boxes that - now that I think about it further, sure do seem to be designed for 3/8-inch drive sockets. As can be seen in the photos of my ca. 1951 No. 4518-RS set below posted years ago on the DI thread. It's not as evident when the sockets are out of the box, but it's quite evident when they're loaded.

I'm not saying, per se, that @Tom "Python" Aycock 's box is a mislabeled reefer set. But if they had a propensity for putting large (qty of pcs) 1/4-inch drive reefer sets in boxes that seemed designed for 3/8-inch drive sets, it follows that they may have done it at times for large (qty of pcs) regular 1/4-inch drive sets. That doesn't explain the hand-scrawled, partially mangled number, but there are other explanations for that (supply of stamped decals ran out, expedience, etc).

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Hmm. With Don reminding me of the reefer sets, I have to take back what I said in reply to @Beerhippie about the 1/4-inch drive sockets being dwarfed and rattling around loose in that oversized tray. All of that is still obviously true, but that didn't deter Duro from putting their 1/4-inch drive reefer sets in boxes that - now that I think about it further, sure do seem to be designed for 3/8-inch drive sockets. As can be seen in the photos of my ca. 1951 No. 4518-RS set below posted years ago on the DI thread. It's not as evident when the sockets are out of the box, but it's quite evident when they're loaded.

I'm not saying, per se, that @Tom "Python" Aycock 's box is a mislabeled reefer set. But if they had a propensity for putting large (qty of pcs) 1/4-inch drive reefer sets in boxes that seemed designed for 3/8-inch drive sets, it follows that they may have done it at times for large (qty of pcs) regular 1/4-inch drive sets. That doesn't explain the hand-scrawled, partially mangled number, but there are other explanations for that (supply of stamped decals ran out, expedience, etc).

Well, that just answers the question I was gonna pose to Don. About how a Reefer box might be slimmer to hold those 1/4 drive pieces. Thanks for those pictures. I Remeasured the box and it is exactly 11" wide x 4 1/8" deep and 1 1/4" tall. The socket "tray" is 1 1/2" at its largest and peters down to 1" toward the right side. The label is slightly offset and the script number looks like a silver paint marker (there's even a slight sheen to it). Interesting hole on the socket holder bar that I don't believe I've seen before and I've added a couple of more pictures to show the hasp style. I wish I had another 60s era DURO box to compare it with but don't.

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

Important to note that I have some Indestro boxes that also have skewed, canted labels so don't believe that the box isn't original DURO.

 

[four.cycle]

^ the labels are always cockeyed.

 

[d42jeep]

I don’t think that there is any doubt about it being a Duro box. I have plenty that are that color but none with that more modern label.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks for those pictures.

 

[LesserSon]

Another thiught: what if the set number really is a decal, but it was mangled? The weird strokes could be displaced parts of other characters, overlapping in places. I don’t have a layered graphics editor, or I try it. Alternately, find a same-era Duro set and look at that set number to see if the script font matches.

I don’t mean the whole label is mangled - just the numerals of the set number, which I think are printed - not handwritten - possibly on a separate decal applied over the general Duro decal.
Take a look at this set, especially the set number.


Too bad we don’t have a close-up, but those numerals (the lead “5” is the only identical number) are the same style and color as the “5605” under discussion.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

^ Also has the other number on the decal I pointed out earlier, and what looks like a date.

 

[Tom "Python" Aycock]

I don’t mean the whole label is mangled - just the numerals of the set number, which I think are printed - not handwritten - possibly on a separate decal applied over the general Duro decal.
Take a look at this set, especially the set number.


Too bad we don’t have a close-up, but those numerals (the lead “5” is the only identical number) are the same style and color as the “5605” under discussion.

Hey, thanks for that link. Wasn't aware of that website! And thanks for that picture, helps to clarify this 5605 may be official. This, along with looking at those reefer sets and the fact known that DURO does put small 1/4" drive sockets in larger spaces, I'm gonna surmise I've got a 5605 1/4 drive 25 pc set. Perhaps the late 50s version of the set had my internal design along with the type hasp mine has? It's definitely different than the one pictured in the 1962 catalog.