Recent Snap-On Socket History

[Ralf11]

Sometime in the 1960s or 1970s metric SnapOn sockets had a black ring (or two) running around the circumference.

Then in 19?? they went to all chrome with the size and lettering reading correctly when the socket was sitting on the drive end.

Later, in 19?? they reversed that so that if the socket was sitting on the drive end, all lettering was upside down - you held the socket with the drive end up to read the size, etc.

Anybody know when they made these changes?

no info at collecting S-O and AFAIK all of the above are Flank Drive but not FDX

 

[Ralf11]

No historians on here eh?

 

[Richard Cranium]

snapon mom would be who you want to talk to

 

[J.A.F.E.]

The black band metrics show up about 74/75 and are gone by 79 replaced by a double band of straight knurling.

Not sure about later changes.

 

[snapmom]

Metric socks are shown in the 38 cat.
38 to mid 40s. knurling with two bands. model numbers like F-18M
mid 40s to about 50 knurling with one band same model numbers
about 50 to mid 50s knurling is gone, same model numbers, the mm size the mm is offset. after the mid 50s the mm was side by side. 70s the black band came in and a new model number.

 

[Ralf11]

Thanks. My sockets with no black band are all after the 1970s, but they reversed the numbering at some point.