Proto LA Collections-Lets see yum
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sickboy motors inc.
Well-known member
Ok I will give this a go! I will get pics in a few mins. Here ya go
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cmandp
Well-known member
My 5249 ratchet.
I have a 1" combination wrench too that I'll have to get a decent picture of.
I have a 1" combination wrench too that I'll have to get a decent picture of.
Bolster
Well-known member
Are people diggin on Proto LA? When I drifted off these lists what, two years ago, nobody was very interested in Proto LA. What did I miss?
I basically drifted from an interest in Plomb to one in Proto LA, in part because they were available and local, in part because they seemed simple and understated.
Ol friend Jabberwoki has recently stoked my interest in Proto LA with a rather fabulous gift, more on that soon.
I basically drifted from an interest in Plomb to one in Proto LA, in part because they were available and local, in part because they seemed simple and understated.
Ol friend Jabberwoki has recently stoked my interest in Proto LA with a rather fabulous gift, more on that soon.
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Yes.
http://www.stanleyproto.com/default.asp?TYPE=STATIC&PAGE=HOME.HTM
Seems to me that Proto in any form doesn't seem to generate a great deal of interest on any tool forums. Maybe because it's not a truck brand, and it's not carried by any of the major retailers (although our local NAPA affiliate carried some Proto at one time).
It's always been my favorite brand. Partly because I've mainly worked in the industrial machinery and heavy vehicle trade, not just automotive. Proto is the primary brand in my work toolbox, and my Proto tools outnumber my Snap-On tools by at least 2 to 1.
Until fairly recently I never paid any attention to Proto LA vs Proto USA. Proto was Proto
so compared to my Plomb and Proto USA, my Proto LA collection is pretty slim:
justin10054
Well-known member
Back in May I was at a swap meet in Orange County (can't remember if it was Cypress or Goldenwest) where one guy was selling tons of Proto tools all with the same etching on them. The tools spanned from the Los Angeles period to the modern Professional stuff and was all SAE. He must have bought a shop liquidation or something. Lots of ratchets, sockets, wrenches, hammers, etc. and lots of duplicates of each. Were I so inclined, I could have put together a nice collection of Proto LA tools. I didn't buy anything from him, but I remember getting Plomb wrenches from the guy for $1 a piece in the past.
Does anyone have any metric Proto LA tools? I've been looking all over for them, but haven't found any. Do they even exist?
Does anyone have any metric Proto LA tools? I've been looking all over for them, but haven't found any. Do they even exist?
woody 73
Well-known member
Oy Vey I need to join some kind of Web-group that showes pictures of Beautiful naked women ; now it is Show me your proto LA tools... Between show me your hammers to your old vises I am lost in a sea of tool overload!
I wonder if they have an AA meeting for toolitis?
I wonder if they have an AA meeting for toolitis?
justin10054
Well-known member
Got any pictures?
1949 Proto catalog lists 10 sizes of metric open end wrenches ranging from 6x7 to 24x26.
1953 catalog lists the same selection of metric open ends, plus 9 sizes of 6 pt 1/4" drive sockets and 20 sizes of 12 pt 1/2" drive sockets.
That's all I have for Proto LA era catalogs, so no idea if there were any other things offered before the Proto LA era ended.
justin10054
Well-known member
My small collection of Proto Los Angeles. I usually only pick these up if they are of an uncommon/interesting item or if they are a useful one I don't have in Plomb.
My grandfather kept this pipe wrench in the pool shed.
Note the 1216s, they each have the pebble fields on opposite sides. The top one belonged to my grandfather.
The 5420 belonged to my grandfather.
The 5209-S is 4-point. What would that be used for? I've never heard of a 9/32 square head bolt.
The 5270 is also a PWA contract tool.
My only metric Proto wrenches. From the period immediately following the Los Angeles period.
My Plomb Los Angeles Collection.
It seems strange that two of my LA sockets are uncommon sizes, 19/32 and 25/32.
My grandfather kept this pipe wrench in the pool shed.
Note the 1216s, they each have the pebble fields on opposite sides. The top one belonged to my grandfather.
The 5420 belonged to my grandfather.
The 5209-S is 4-point. What would that be used for? I've never heard of a 9/32 square head bolt.
The 5270 is also a PWA contract tool.
My only metric Proto wrenches. From the period immediately following the Los Angeles period.
My Plomb Los Angeles Collection.
It seems strange that two of my LA sockets are uncommon sizes, 19/32 and 25/32.
Gort the giant robot
Well-known member
My L.A. Proto collection consists of about 6 adjustable wrenches, about 2 dozen regular wrenches, about 3 dozen sockets and 1 half inch drive ratchet. I still have several hundred tools to go thru that i bought and just tossed in boxes and buckets till i have time to go thru them. Many are Proto because i have gone insane and started buying anything related to the Plomb / Proto empire.
Gort.
Gort.
Gort the giant robot
Well-known member
19/32 and 25/32 socket sizes were very common in the L.A. Proto time frame. There is a lot of 32 sized sockets.
Gort.
Gort.
justin10054
Well-known member
Do you happen to know if they ever made metric box-end wrenches in the old non-offset style?
Bolster
Well-known member
Proto Junk
Was looking around for my Proto LA tools and...what the heck is this pile of junk? Can't tell if it's Plomb or if it's Proto. Tools with a split personality? If it were Plomb I'd have kept it. If it were Proto, I'd have kept it. But this mismarked stuff with both names on it? Junk. Anyway, took a photo of it before tossing the entire irritating pile of it into the trash. Don't ask for it, the trash man has already come and gone.
Was looking around for my Proto LA tools and...what the heck is this pile of junk? Can't tell if it's Plomb or if it's Proto. Tools with a split personality? If it were Plomb I'd have kept it. If it were Proto, I'd have kept it. But this mismarked stuff with both names on it? Junk. Anyway, took a photo of it before tossing the entire irritating pile of it into the trash. Don't ask for it, the trash man has already come and gone.
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Gort the giant robot
Well-known member
Bolster,
you are just showing off now. You should put together a set of lawsuit tools just for that box.
EvilGort.
you are just showing off now. You should put together a set of lawsuit tools just for that box.
EvilGort.
Completely flat? I don't think so.
By the early 60s they were offering 15-degree combination, 15-degree box, and 45-degree deep offset box in metric.
justin10054
Well-known member
That's what I mean, plain old 15 degree offset. The only metric ones I've ever seen are craftsman.
Proto did. In the 60s and 70s though, not Proto LA era. I've got a couple somewhere in one of my work boxes.
Bolster
Well-known member
A nearly complete of Proto LA combo wrenches (new pouch tho)...
And sadly only a few Proto LA flare nuts in a pebble proto flare nut collection...
And sadly only a few Proto LA flare nuts in a pebble proto flare nut collection...
A nearly complete of Proto LA combo wrenches (new pouch tho)...
Yeah, whaddup with that?
Feel free to print this and paste it over your StanleyProto logo:
SCscoutguy
Well-known member
I picked up a box of Proto wrenches this morning at the flea market and noticed that one of the DOE Proto LA wrenches was metric. It is a 32426 24/26mm in pretty good shape. I never knew they made metric wrenches that old so you learn something new every day.
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bigcaddy
Well-known member
davesnothere
Well-known member
Note to self:
Find out where Bolster lives, and begin digging thru his trash.
Find out where Bolster lives, and begin digging thru his trash.
My 5249 ratchet.
I have a 1" combination wrench too that I'll have to get a decent picture of.
I am not a fan of the lobster head ratchet.
vssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I always liked the towns being marked in hand tools as being a good thing and think that the LosAngeles stamped Proto tools being neat in that a major urban center like LA making hand tools and being proud of it as a company.
Conductor562
Well-known member
I don't have any Proto Los Angeles stuff All I've got are are 8 War Finish combos, a 3/8 War Finish ratchet, and a 1/2 WF-38.
All I've got are are 8 War Finish combos, a 3/8 War Finish ratchet, and a 1/2 WF-38.rickhigginshtbr
Well-known member
My 5249 ratchet is nearly identical in condition to the one already posted, lol.
bigcaddy
Well-known member
Ive got a few of the 5249 ratchets in varying lengths in my work tool box and 2 more at my workshop right now. One is in a small box with a set of crows feet and the other is a 1/4" drive with a missing spring.
I'm actually ordering the spring from McMaster Carr right now. I couldn't pay 12.00 for a rebuild kit when the thing is just missing a spring!!
I'm actually ordering the spring from McMaster Carr right now. I couldn't pay 12.00 for a rebuild kit when the thing is just missing a spring!!
shocksandstrutz
Well-known member
Ive got one monster 6pt socket, but it doesnt take a drive tool, it just has a hole in it to slide a bar into, ill try and snap pics of it tonight, i actually just started cleaning it up the other day when i was in the garage drinking a beer after working on my BIL's car. its a PROTO LA. i think i have a few other items in thee too, ill get pics tonight.
ok, once i got home, i decided to clean up the socket a little and noticed that it is not one huge socket, its a socket and a drive tool, guess its missing the t-handle part.
anyways this is my small collection, i think i have an adjustable somewhere too
ok, once i got home, i decided to clean up the socket a little and noticed that it is not one huge socket, its a socket and a drive tool, guess its missing the t-handle part.
anyways this is my small collection, i think i have an adjustable somewhere too
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macgee
Well-known member
Hi,
Not sure if this is the right thread, I've got a bunch of Proto LA but I have one particular 1/2" wrench that stands out over all my other nice wrenches. It doesn't list LA but has a very unique finish and feel, non chromed with a brushed satin finish. Not sure if it's a war finish, I got it from a retired aeronautical mechanic in LA along with a ton of other nice vintage Plomb, Mac, Bonney, Matco, snap-on, Starrett........etc.
The Proto stuff he had is awesome. Does anyone know this wrench? Each end is different but both ends are 1/2", hand finished, super light weight and marked:
"1/2 P-W-A 4323 Proto".
Maybe Pratt & Whitney?
Thanks in advance for the help
Not sure if this is the right thread, I've got a bunch of Proto LA but I have one particular 1/2" wrench that stands out over all my other nice wrenches. It doesn't list LA but has a very unique finish and feel, non chromed with a brushed satin finish. Not sure if it's a war finish, I got it from a retired aeronautical mechanic in LA along with a ton of other nice vintage Plomb, Mac, Bonney, Matco, snap-on, Starrett........etc.
The Proto stuff he had is awesome. Does anyone know this wrench? Each end is different but both ends are 1/2", hand finished, super light weight and marked:
"1/2 P-W-A 4323 Proto".
Maybe Pratt & Whitney?
Thanks in advance for the help
macgee
Well-known member
Just finished soaking a set of Proto LA in Evaporust for several days. Machined not chrome.
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3baygarage
Well-known member
Very nice. The P-W-A on the box wrench stands for Pratt Whitney Aircraft in case you didn't know.
After reading through again, looks like you did know.
After reading through again, looks like you did know.
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3baygarage
Well-known member
macgee, I'm glad you dug this thread up. I've had this Proto L.A. ratchet for a little bit.
#5449
It works like a champ
It has a non-knurled handle which to me is unusual for a Proto.
Can anybody tell me more about it? When were they produced without knurling?
Looks like it may have been plated at one time.
#5449
It works like a champ
It has a non-knurled handle which to me is unusual for a Proto.
Can anybody tell me more about it? When were they produced without knurling?
Looks like it may have been plated at one time.
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Conductor562
Well-known member
Regarding metric Proto LA (and Plomb possibly?) I can offer this. No metric tools appear in the 1940 catalog. There are also no metric tools that appear in the 1942-47 catalog. The first catalog appearance of metric tools was a very limited offering consisting of a 10 piece DOE wrench set # 30000A and a 6 piece DOE wrench set # 30000R in the 1948 catalog.
The catalog upkeep fell by the wayside during WWII. Catalogs weren't ever really printed every year without exception, but the 5 year stretch during the war was unusually long. I have to believe there were likely supplements that I don't have access too.
Metric sockets don't appear for the first time until 1952.
By 56 there had been no expansion of the metric line. The next catalog I have is 1962 and by that time there were many more metric options available.
The point it is that somewhere out there are Dual stamped metric DOE's and a good bit of Proto LA variations. One could also theorize that there exists a possibility that there may be some metric Plomb DOE's hiding out there. I've never seen or heard of one, but there is no mention of them being brand new in the 48 catalog. Food for thought.
If they're out the I feel pretty confident they would be pebble grain as well
The catalog upkeep fell by the wayside during WWII. Catalogs weren't ever really printed every year without exception, but the 5 year stretch during the war was unusually long. I have to believe there were likely supplements that I don't have access too.
Metric sockets don't appear for the first time until 1952.
By 56 there had been no expansion of the metric line. The next catalog I have is 1962 and by that time there were many more metric options available.
The point it is that somewhere out there are Dual stamped metric DOE's and a good bit of Proto LA variations. One could also theorize that there exists a possibility that there may be some metric Plomb DOE's hiding out there. I've never seen or heard of one, but there is no mention of them being brand new in the 48 catalog. Food for thought.
If they're out the I feel pretty confident they would be pebble grain as well