Post your “permanex” Craftsman sets
- Thread starter JohnDeere
- Start date
d42jeep
Well-known member
I think that they used the Permanex boxes for quite a while. I’ve never really researched the exact contents. Fortunately, there are a lot of Craftsman catalogs available for you to do your homework in. I’ve had a few of the sets. Most I’ve sold off. I have a couple of 1/4” boxes left, one with a broken latch. Here is a 3/8” drive example I sold on eBay. I doubt that it came with two different sizes of spark plug sockets. 
bmwrd0
Well-known member
That was one beat up spinner, JD. Good job on the clean up.
d42jeep
Well-known member
Here are the two partial 1/4” drive sets that I still have. 
-Don
-Don
d42jeep
Well-known member
I don’t know. I never actually did research to see what should go in one of the sets. They seemed to me like they might be useful. Here is another set I sold off. I generally use my Craftsman finds to raise money to fund tools I actually collect.
-Don
-DonFrankLee
Well-known member
Not a socket set, but just a plain, unpartitioned Permanex box that looks unused.
It's in the '88 catalog advertised as a 1/4" drive box. The label says Utility Case for 1/4 or 3/8 in sockets. Good for deep sockets, I suppose.
(yeah, I can sell it.)
It's in the '88 catalog advertised as a 1/4" drive box. The label says Utility Case for 1/4 or 3/8 in sockets. Good for deep sockets, I suppose.
(yeah, I can sell it.)
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alinc100
Well-known member
Heres a snapshot of the 1/4" sets from 1970 catalog:
Permanex first mentioned in 1969 catalog:
Permanex first mentioned in 1969 catalog:
driftpin
Well-known member
I suspect my acquisition of my 1/4" Craftsman socket set/Permanex box will trump beat anyone else's.
I was free-diving/snorkeling between the second and third reefs in the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ft. Lauderdale. I was spear-fishing with my venerable Hawaiian sling for fish and a net for lobsters. I got some yellowtail snappers and several lobsters, and was getting ready to return to shore, when I spied something out of place on the sandy ocean floor, between reefs. It was a pile of hand tools! I swam down to take a look, and they appeared to be a recent arrival. I spent my time retrieving all the pile placing it in my catch mesh bag. I tied it off my lanyard for my dive flag, and began swimming back to shore. The bag was too-heavy to carry, I just dragged it across the ocean floor which was mostly sandy, until I got to stand-up shallows, and I brought it to shore.
The bulkiest things were the Craftsman plastic 1/4" toolbox and a 3/8" VSR hammer drill. It looked like the Skil drill of that same type. There was a neat hexagon prybar, a two-grade whetstone, Craftsman screwdrivers, a red plastic Craftsman drillbit set, all there; a couple hole saws and a mandrel, quality ones; and some other things I cannot recall. This was nearly 30 years ago.
I rinsed-off everything, including the electric drill, which I disassembled, and doused with WD40, and the tools also got the WD40 treatment. In the end I decided that someone had been trying to do something to their boat, a 'flying-fix,' and they dropped their toolbox contents overboard. There was no metal, plastic, or cloth toolbox/toolbag with the 'deep-six' tools. Everything was in a central pile on the ocean floor, less than 20 ft depth at that far out from the shore. There was no algae, no barnacles, nothing to show the tools had been there for a considerable period of time. The die-cast pieces in the electric drill showed no signs of corrosion. After letting it dry-out and getting the WD40 treatment, it even ran, though the brushes were ozone-generators (sparks).
The 1/4" drive Permanex case has a date code of 1994. I've added a few things to the case, and it hangs on my wall above my workbench, and I use its contents frequently. Same for some of the other pieces, others lurk in toolboxes awaiting their need.
The internet isn't cooperating on posting pics, so that will have to wait, meanwhile, my story about Davy Jones' locker/toolbox will have to suffice.
OK finally was able to use my cell to get a flipped photo in
I was free-diving/snorkeling between the second and third reefs in the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ft. Lauderdale. I was spear-fishing with my venerable Hawaiian sling for fish and a net for lobsters. I got some yellowtail snappers and several lobsters, and was getting ready to return to shore, when I spied something out of place on the sandy ocean floor, between reefs. It was a pile of hand tools! I swam down to take a look, and they appeared to be a recent arrival. I spent my time retrieving all the pile placing it in my catch mesh bag. I tied it off my lanyard for my dive flag, and began swimming back to shore. The bag was too-heavy to carry, I just dragged it across the ocean floor which was mostly sandy, until I got to stand-up shallows, and I brought it to shore.
The bulkiest things were the Craftsman plastic 1/4" toolbox and a 3/8" VSR hammer drill. It looked like the Skil drill of that same type. There was a neat hexagon prybar, a two-grade whetstone, Craftsman screwdrivers, a red plastic Craftsman drillbit set, all there; a couple hole saws and a mandrel, quality ones; and some other things I cannot recall. This was nearly 30 years ago.
I rinsed-off everything, including the electric drill, which I disassembled, and doused with WD40, and the tools also got the WD40 treatment. In the end I decided that someone had been trying to do something to their boat, a 'flying-fix,' and they dropped their toolbox contents overboard. There was no metal, plastic, or cloth toolbox/toolbag with the 'deep-six' tools. Everything was in a central pile on the ocean floor, less than 20 ft depth at that far out from the shore. There was no algae, no barnacles, nothing to show the tools had been there for a considerable period of time. The die-cast pieces in the electric drill showed no signs of corrosion. After letting it dry-out and getting the WD40 treatment, it even ran, though the brushes were ozone-generators (sparks).
The 1/4" drive Permanex case has a date code of 1994. I've added a few things to the case, and it hangs on my wall above my workbench, and I use its contents frequently. Same for some of the other pieces, others lurk in toolboxes awaiting their need.
The internet isn't cooperating on posting pics, so that will have to wait, meanwhile, my story about Davy Jones' locker/toolbox will have to suffice.
OK finally was able to use my cell to get a flipped photo in
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genog
Well-known member
I got my set at the Flea Market a year or so ago.....
It was received as-is with the exception of the breaker bar in which I have half a dozen of the darn things, so I stashed one of them in this kit
mine came with a -v- ratchet with an oil hole, if that helps.
In any event, who cares?
Put a thumbwheel in there.
It was received as-is with the exception of the breaker bar in which I have half a dozen of the darn things, so I stashed one of them in this kit
...not a thumbwheel...
mine came with a -v- ratchet with an oil hole, if that helps.
In any event, who cares?
Put a thumbwheel in there.
StillTooManyHobbies
Well-known member
driftpin
Well-known member
Fishermen and some politicians, you know... . Spear-fishermen too, I suspect. But it is true. There was a wood chisel in-there too, I saw it a couple of days ago in one or another toolbox. That, and a cold chisel, courtesy of Davy Jones' chandlery.