Proto Tools Picture Thread - Post Yours!

[Private Lugnutz]

Can anyone confirm the date (thinking 1950's)...

There might be a date code. Some Plomb / PTII pliers made in the former JP Danielson plant continued to bear them. To be honest, yours don't have a classic JPD shape, and I think PTII started using other vendors (e.g., Chanbellock) for some pliers. But AA has some Proto era water pumps with codes. Derust, scrub hard, and look for three digits.

...and any details on the military use?

Water pump pliers were issued to GMTKs, but they may have been issued to other kits as well.

I would think Vietnam WarEra.

I would say these are probably late 60's/early 70's based on the mfd marking

I'd like to see the rationale on that. Not challenging you guys. I would just like to see how you arrived at that production era. The MFD was used by Plomb as early as the mid- to late-40s. The earliest Proto markings continued using it, granted, also with a Los Angeles marking, a handy tell. AA dates MFD USA, no LA, to a vague "ca. 1957+" after that, ostensibly because they have no way of differentiating late 50s MFD from 60s or 70s MFD. In fact, AA has an example of the same exact tool as @mgmlvks, including the extra, martial "U.S." marking, and they date it to the amorphously vague "ca. 1957+". What is your reasoning for dating it to Vietnam?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here's a link to the AA example, scroll down a little...

The Proto Empire

An article on Proto Tools and Its Affiliated Companies.

alloy-artifacts.org

 

[Mintgrun]

When did they add the ® symbol to the logo?

 

[JohnDeere]

Anyone know when this was made? I’m not familiar with it.

I’d guess anywhere between 1984-present.

When did they add the ® symbol to the logo?

Stanley era.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

When did they add the ® symbol to the logo?

Stanley era.

Good question, but not much narrowing help on the back end in this case if JD is correct. The symbol was created by the USPTO in 1947, and Stanley bought the Proto Tools Division of Ingersoll-Rand in 1984. So we're still in the vague ca. 1957+, unless OTG and Smoke can tell us what rationale they're using.

 

[Smokeshow69]

There might be a date code. Some Plomb / PTII pliers made in the former JP Danielson plant continued to bear them. To be honest, yours don't have a classic JPD shape, and I think PTII started using other vendors (e.g., Chanbellock) for some pliers. But AA has some Proto era water pumps with codes. Derust, scrub hard, and look for three digits.

Water pump pliers were issued to GMTKs, but they may have been issued to other kits as well.


I'd like to see the rationale on that. Not challenging you guys. I would just like to see how you arrived at that production era. The MFD was used by Plomb as early as the mid- to late-40s. The earliest Proto markings continued using it, granted, also with a Los Angeles marking, a handy tell. AA dates MFD USA, no LA, to a vague "ca. 1957+" after that, ostensibly because they have no way of differentiating late 50s MFD from 60s or 70s MFD. In fact, AA has an example of the same exact tool as @mgmlvks, including the extra, martial "U.S." marking, and they date it to the amorphously vague "ca. 1957+". What is your reasoning for dating it to Vietnam?

To be honest I’m going off pure gut reasoning and spitballing. I’m aware of the mfd marking being used that early. But I don’t have any hard evidence to my wartime conclusions and I certainly could be wrong .

 

[JohnDeere]

I can’t recall seeing the ® symbol on any MFD USA tools. I see it appearing on tools with the rounded proto font used by Stanley.

 

[mgmlvks]

Derust, scrub hard, and look for three digits.

I'm away from my supplies, but a little effort with some vinegar and towel finds these numbers .

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Interesting. Can you read them? Is that a 039? Hard to make out.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Might not be a date code. Might be some other code, such as a model number, etc. The AA example like yours has a three digit # with an S prefix.

While poking around there, I did note that AA noted, helpfully, that Plomb's P&C subsidiary was using the (R) in the late 50s and it appears on tools in the 1961 P&C catalog. That probably plays into the reasoning behind this statement about Proto proper...

• Registered Trademark Symbol for Proto Tools. Later Proto tools were marked with the R-Circle registered trademark symbol following the Proto name. Although the beginning date of the marking is not yet known, it appears to have been sometime in the mid 1960s.

..., based on goose/gander reasoning, and if they're right, your water pumps, and theirs, which don't have the (R) TM code, would've been made before that.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

But I don’t have any hard evidence to my wartime conclusions

Thanks.

 

[mgmlvks]

Interesting. Can you read them? Is that a 039? Hard to make out.

Hard to! I'll take closer look this eve. Initial ideas were C,0,O 3,5. 4,9. I don't study this nearly as close as many others, so my ideas may be off a bit

 

[Oldtuleguy]

We were in Vietnam as early as 55 in some capacity, and did not leave until 1975, thus my statement as to vietnam war Era. They look like pre professional era and post los angeles.

 

[mgmlvks]

X

 

[JohnDeere]

This doesn’t make any sense, there is no way it started in the 60s. I have adjustable wrenches dated from the 70s without the ® symbol. I will admit I was incorrect with my earlier statement of Stanley era as it seems to have started With IR era “USA professional” tools. This wrench is from 1976 wearing the ® symbol.

This wrench is a 1974 without the ® symbol.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

They look like pre professional era and post los angeles.

Agreed.

This doesn’t make any sense, there is no way it started in the 60s

Assuming this is in reference to the AA excerpt I posted, it wouldn't be the first time they're wrong, and, while I'm not in the habit of defending them (just the opposite), you'd have to go through their pages and examples to see their rationale. I don't have enough interest to deep dive it.

 

[JohnDeere]

I would guess is started in 75 or 76 when IR stopped marking tools MFD USA.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Here's a proto professional set and an earlier mfd usa set. Notice the circle r on the professional era ratchet.

 

[d42jeep]

Here are examples. I don’t have enough interest to try and figure out the date codes. Maybe the earlier Professional wrenches didn’t have the R circle but the later ones did. It seems likely.
-Don
The top wrench was probably sourced from Crescent or some other manufacturer.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I suspect there was no hard start date.

 

[Etchase]

Here is an example of a registered trade mark on an mfd wrench. Presumably 1975, because if it was 1965 I think it would have forged alloy Steel. In the third photo in Don’s post there are examples of forged alloy steel, with and without the registered trade mark. With Proto’s trademark problems, I can’t imagine they waited too long to incorporate the circle R.

 

[genog]

Today was Proto Day
Spotted screwdrivers and a spinner from three different sellers

Also, some miscellaneous tidbits

 

[Oldtuleguy]

The flying lady and proto professional nameplates have the circle r

 

[Smokeshow69]

The circle r is pretty pronounced on this mfd era toolmobile

 

[mgmlvks]

I'll take closer look this eve. Initial ideas were C,0,O 3,5. 4,9.

Little bit of Ultra Sonic with touch of citric, and some brass brushes creates a much better look. I believe this is 064 (possibly 054). Thanks for the interest and education!

 

[Oldtuleguy]

How long were they putting the dates on tools from the old Danielson factory?

Here's my rechromed stuff from my toolmobile, and indeed the circle r is present. Good catch smoke, I never noticed it before.

 

[Etchase]

How long were they putting the dates on tools from the old Danielson factory?

Here's my rechromed stuff from my toolmobile, and indeed the circle r is present. Good catch smoke, I never noticed it before.

I’d be interested in when the Danielson codes ended too, and what the codes on the WF versions mean. I have a click stop that was billed as the last run on eBay, with an AH U code, so possibly the last letter is the Proto date code U for 2020, when WF closed? There seem to be some adjustable wrenches, like the one I asked about in #1760, with no codes, that I think came between Danielson and WF, where the professional had been dropped, and the R is rounded.

 

[Mintgrun]

The circle r is pretty pronounced on this mfd era toolmobile

That ® might be associated with TOOLMOBILE® (as opposed to Proto), based on the location.

 

[Smokeshow69]

That ® might be associated with TOOLMOBILE® (as opposed to Proto), based on the location.

That’s probably the case. I just posted it to throw out something with the circle r on it

 

[Stubby1743]

I picked up this interesting modified ratchet handle at a motorcycle jumble on Friday for next to nothing.



I decided to remove the aluminium tube extension as I am never likely to need it. It was obvious that the steel handle had been turned down to fit inside the aluminium tube and so I was not surprised to find this.





It's a pity that the anvil is pin drive'

 

[Stubby1743]

Here is my take.

I would really like to do that to the ratchet in my previous post. How do you remove the handle from the nut spinner and what size hole are you left with? My ratchet handle has been turned down to 13mm dia.

It will be pretty hard for me to find a 3/8 nut spinner here in the UK and so in the short term I will probably just put a couple of layers of heat shrink tubing over the ratchet handle.

 

[JohnDeere]

I clamped the shank of the nut driver in my vice and tapped the handle off with a soft hammer. The hole in the nut driver handle was about 5/16. I drilled it out to 9/16 to fit over my knurling and tapped on the handle.

 

[Stubby1743]

OK, thanks for that. It was easier than I expected, I had assumed that the nut driver shaft had pressed flats on it that the handle was moulded around.

Now I just need to find a 3/8 Proto nut driver to donate its handle. Not too easy in the UK.

 

[JohnDeere]

Try Ebay.

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a wrench I spotted at my neighbor’s. The Professional is marked on the opposite side.
-Don

 

[Stubby1743]

A large imperial spanner that I had no use for, but I still bought it as it was very cheap.

 

[genog]

A couple more pieces, that for some reason, were not included in the last Photo Shoot

I am starting to develop an Eye for Proto screwdrivers.
Starting to be able to spot them in piles and from a distance....
Only had a couple for the Longest Time..... now I am starting to accumulate too many of them

 

[JohnDeere]

I have a whole set and I still buy them.

 

[JohnDeere]

I bet someone really wants that dual marked chisel

 

[d42jeep]

Any guesses who?
-Don