Show your Indestro and Duro-Chrome tools

[Outlawmws]

A USC will dislodge "stuff" I would go with a de-greaser first, then - maybe - Evaporust if a bare steel finish. then hopefully anything left can still get rinsed out or get carried to non working areas in the lube.

 

[four.cycle]

@Private Lugnutz -
Came across this label earlier this evening.
I seem to remember another label having different language also having been used. I will have to start looking closely at set boxes.

 

[d42jeep]

Excellent job of stating the obvious. I wonder what marketing genius thought of that?
-Don

 

[3baygarage]

Someone with a sense of humor. Seems it would be read after opening upside down with the sockets spilled out.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

^ Sorry you lost me there...

On which part of what I said?

...but I can understand why they thought it was a good idea (for the purposes of displaying the tool set.)

??!! If they were putting the tool set labels in the bottom of their boxes, and backwards, instead of the lid, by design, as a deliberate practice, against all common sense and industry practices, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, of course they would have to pose the box upside down - with the tools placed in the lid, and the bottom folded up as if it was the lid - if they wanted to display the set for marketing photos and brochures and catalogs etc in a way that showed the tools and the label at the same time. But I would call that necessary, not good, and a comedy of errors.

Came across this label earlier this evening.

Thanks, 4.c. In addition to the same reaction that Don and 3bay had, I do find this helpful.

It demonstrates a couple things. The folks in the final assembly department at Indestro did indeed understand the difference between the lid or top of a box and its bottom. Secondly, while it's not enough to call it a habit, the folks in the final assembly dept did put more than one sticker on backwards.

I don't think it shows they were putting branding and set info labels in the bottom and backwards deliberately, though.

If you have Indestro literature - brochures, catalogs, etc - that show tool sets being displayed like you're displaying the Tru-Test set in post #2830 as their intent, I would love to see them.

 

[four.cycle]

^ I've got most everything sorted out, and there are a mess of Indestro sets. I'll have to see if any of them have the other label inside the lid that "explains" it.
It is, admittedly, screwy. There was a reason they did that for purposes of displaying the set for retail sale.
Yes, they were very deliberately affixed to the working part of the box (NOT the lid) and the box was displayed upside-down for retail sale.
Eventually, the labels got beat to hell from the sockets sliding around on it, like the "Tru-Test" example I posted above.

 

[four.cycle]

The product illustrations (photos staged for the purposes of marketing) won't show that because... they were pitching the M.P.I. (Molded Plastic Insert) which covered up and hid that spot-welded partition.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

There was a reason they did that for purposes of displaying the set for retail sale.

You keep saying that and I am very eager to see the reason explained. Again, I understand why it would be necessary to display them for retail upside down if they were putting the labels in the tools compartment, and backwards. But that's not a reason for putting the labels there to begin with. That's tautological.

Tool-sets have been displayed for retail with the tools where they belong (in the bottom of the box), the label where it belongs (under the lid), and the lid open, such as this one...



...for decades.

But again, I am eager to see why Indestro supposedly had some retail display system that worked better with the labels on the bottom, backwards, and the tools on the lid.

Yes, they were very deliberately affixed to the working part of the box (NOT the lid) and the box was displayed upside-down for retail sale.

Was it only for a certain period? Certain tool-sets?

The product illustrations (photos staged for the purposes of marketing) won't show that because... they were pitching the M.P.I. (Molded Plastic Insert) which covered up and hid that spot-welded partition.

I am not sure why you're showing boxes from the MPI era, or why you think a box with an MPI would have a hidden divider. I guess perhaps in some transition period when they were using up surplus boxes? It wouldn't make much sense after they ditched dividers and moved into the MPI era full bore. But what is needed to make me a believer that Indestro was putting labels in the bottoms of divider era boxes intentionally, as a matter of policy and practice, is a number of examples showing that and/or period ads and brochures showing that.

EDIT: No rush, obviously. This idea is as fascinating as it is crazy, but not urgent!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I did a little thread searching to help you out, 4.c, to see if this has come up before. Jock has a set from the 70's in which the branding label and the inane Captain Obvious socket divider instructions are intact, both placed backwards inside the bottom of the box. And he of course wondered the same thing as the rest of us...

I'm surprised that the labels are in such good condition. Because of the design of the box, the tools rested upon them. I would have thought that they would have been attached to the lid.

Post linked here.

I'll keep looking.

 

[four.cycle]

RE: Was it only for a certain period? Certain tool-sets?

I know it doesn't make any sense - it never made any sense to me or my BIL either. ("Why are they putting this goddam sticker in the bottom of the box?"

I will have to check as I pull the sets out... I was planning on working through the Indestro LAST, as it's the largest pile.

My stress level right now is off the charts because I think I've lost a whole box of stuff - I cannot find my RTEC set or my early production Niehoff T-50 current indicator (among other things.)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I will have to check as I pull the sets out... I was planning on working through the Indestro LAST, as it's the largest pile.

I found them. I still don't understand WHY or HOW. But it was a factory practice. Something related to what they called "skin packing" to prevent pilferage. Stand by..., I need a few minutes to recuperate!

 

[four.cycle]

^ For a time, they were putting a clear plastic "protector" piece OVER the "MPI" plastic insert, which covered up the tools so that they didn't fall out and weren't quite so easy to steal.
In OUR case, it did nothing to prevent shoplifting.
Now your question is going to be a bug in my brain until I figure it out.
In the meantime, losing that RTEC set is driving me crazy, because I found the replacement spinner with the good detent ball.
(And now I can't find the damn set that it belongs in!)

 

[four.cycle]

Stand by..., I need a few minutes to recuperate!

If that has anything to do with the volume of material in that photo, I was actually kind of surprised that there wasn't more....
I must have given away a ton of stuff over the last year - not just at Christmas. It took me two days to recall that I had shipped a bunch of NOS Thorsen to a member here months ago who said his tools had all been stolen - I hope he got some use out of them.
There's only four boxes of Indestro, but all the screwdrivers (two boxes full) are in the kitchen ... so maybe more...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Okay, here, against all sane odds, is undeniable proof from Catalog No. 10 (1971) that Indestro was indeed, just as 4.c claimed, displaying these sets in special merchandisers with the tools in the freaking lid and the label on the freaking bottom of the box, and backwards, ON PURPOSE!



I plan to do some Google Books research, as it appears to be related to the prevention of shoplifting, and something they called "skin packing", which I have highlighted in yellow. I can't see or imagine anything mechanical about the racks themselves that would require this upside down approach, so it would seem to be related to this "skin packing".

But what is also not clear - and I am open to any and all ideas on this! - is what would prevent them from putting the label under the lid in its customary position, loading the tools in the bottom in their customary positions, and "skin packing" the box in that configuration. What about a hinged box with two parts that are practically identical except for the divider and the male/female clasping tabs would make "skin packing" not possible in the routine rightside up configuration?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

If that has anything to do with the volume of material in that photo,

Nope. I know you have a tons of tools, and in the pictures in my head, it's a hoarder's house with only narrow passages to walk from room to room between boxes and towering stacks of stuff. No, I needed to recuperate from Indestro Upside Down Land. It's one of the craziest things I have ever seen.

 

[four.cycle]

^ Packaging went through some radical changes during the 1960s and 1970s.
When we were little kids, my younger sister and I would play with the Hawaiian kissing dolls and the Cal Custom chrome air cleaner scoops (intended for the tops of Stromberg 97's.)
Those items - as well as pretty much everything else my old man sold - came in cardboard boxes. Cal Custom used a yellow box, like Indestro.
Later stuff started coming in "Poly bag with header" - the item was contained in a plastic bag onto which was stapled a folded piece of cardboard with graphics on it, with a hole punched in it, all ready to display on a pegboard wall.
After that we got "blister pack" or "bubble pack" and the aforementioned "shrink wrap", all of which had advantages and disadvantages.
Car Freshner Corporation (Watertown, NY) was an industry leader on "bubble pack" - their little "skunk" air freshener was a top seller, and it sold even better inside a clear plastic ball.
"Shrink wrap" was a favorite for manufacturers who put stuff in "display boxes", like "Sparkomatic" shift kits.

Workers at the assembly plants used the shrink-wrap machines to heat up their lunches. When we toured the Fenton plant in Gardena, California (1969) we were walking down the assembly line just as the lunch bell rang.
Almost every worker in the plant stopped what they were doing, and lined up with an aluminum-foil wrapped package at the shrink-wrap part of the line. They'd lay their aluminum-foil wrapped lunch on the conveyor belt and run it through the machine to heat up their lunch.
(There were no "break rooms" or "microwaves" in the Fenton plant that year.)

(I only told you that story because a couple years later my older brother was unwrapping a Fenton shift kit for a customer on the front counter down at 38th Street and somebody's very old and very nasty burrito had been put inside the package at the plant. )

Only much later did they come up with "clamshell" packaging, which is ubiquitous today (particularly at Costco.)

Those Indestro socket sets you're looking at weren't "shrink wrapped" - at least not the ones we were getting. All they did was put a clear, vacuum-molded piece on top of the tools, which was not attached to anything - that served only to slow the thieves down a couple seconds.

I think I have a Japanese set that still has the plastic thingie on top ... I'll see if I can dig it out.

And I hope you're done asking me to make sense of something which never made a bit of sense to me (or anyone else.)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Yes, after 5 minutes of reading, that was and still is in some circles the early term for blister and shrink wrapping merchandise, usually on a cardboard backing, with a hole for a peg on a pegboard rack.

And I hope you're done asking me to make sense of something which never made a bit of sense to me (or anyone else.)

Now that I have proved YOUR case for you, you're going to give up?!

I'm guessing they thought the tools were more attractive if they were assembled in a more open way on the lid, not how they were stowed in the compartment and the socket tray. But that necessitated the label being put on the bottom. And they skin wrapped the whole thing because it would also be more attractive to five finger discount.

 

[four.cycle]

^ The term "skin pack" as used above in their advertising and catalog is actually a misnomer - at least from what I understand about plastic packaging. "Skin pack" would indicate (to ME, as a BUYER) that the items were sealed in a clear plastic which had been heated to cause the plastic to mold around the object being contained.

That's not how those Indestro sets were packaged. They were packaged just like this Japan-made set, which (for the record) does NOT have a spot-welded divider in the bottom part of the box.
That vacuum-molded clear plastic cover was not attached to anything. Had it been attached - by means of a staple, for example - the customer would likely have destroyed the "M.P.I." molded plastic insert trying to get it apart. The clear plastic piece just sat on top, exactly as is shown here on this "Mark I" set:

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I'm less interested in what it was than in how its use ostensibly made them take such weird steps with the display and labeling.

 

[four.cycle]

it's a hoarder's house with only narrow passages to walk from room to room between boxes and towering stacks of stuff.

It was that way when I first moved in here in 1998 - boxes stacked to the ceiling. I had an 18-inch wide path through the garage, and about the same from the front door to the kitchen. Middle bedroom was inaccessible. Four years later (after the skin grew back on my hands) I got it all sorted out and dumped three fourths of it doing "garage sale" three weekends in a row. The stuff that didn't sell got donated.

I did it again last summer and unloaded probably two-thirds to three-quarters of the stuff that was here in the house. The tools were the last thing to weed through, although there's still some furniture I'll most likely unload.

No more hoarding. My last "room mate" was a hoarder - textbook mental illness stuff - and it's contagious. Very scary. I am really something of a minimalist and am genuinely puzzled that I allowed "stuff" to take over my universe - it's been a very long learning curve.

 

[four.cycle]

"... such weird steps with the display and labeling ..."

Not a clue. As I said, I remember my BIL and I joking about it 50 years ago - like... "WTH?" Never made any sense.
I've never seen anything even close from any other manufacturer. It's just plain weird.

 

[d42jeep]

^ The term "skin pack" as used above in their advertising and catalog is actually a misnomer - at least from what I understand about plastic packaging. "Skin pack" would indicate (to ME, as a BUYER) that the items were sealed in a clear plastic which had been heated to cause the plastic to mold around the object being contained.

That's not how those Indestro sets were packaged. They were packaged just like this Japan-made set, which (for the record) does NOT have a spot-welded divider in the bottom part of the box.
That vacuum-molded clear plastic cover was not attached to anything. Had it been attached - by means of a staple, for example - the customer would likely have destroyed the "M.P.I." molded plastic insert trying to get it apart. The clear plastic piece just sat on top, exactly as is shown here on this "Mark I" set:

Here is a Kraeuter set that came with a molded plastic cover.
—Don

 

[Cruzan80]

I can do one better. I have a black plastic mouldedcase set of Indestro 3/8 metric, WITH STAPLES to hold down the skin wrap. The plastic skin wrap is intact, with two small pieces ripped out around the staples.

But they are in the "bottom" of the case, so not sure it is directly relevant to the upside down part.

 

[S-K Tool Fanatic!]

^ Packaging went through some radical changes during the 1960s and 1970s.
When we were little kids, my younger sister and I would play with the Hawaiian kissing dolls and the Cal Custom chrome air cleaner scoops (intended for the tops of Stromberg 97's.)
Those items - as well as pretty much everything else my old man sold - came in cardboard boxes. Cal Custom used a yellow box, like Indestro.
Later stuff started coming in "Poly bag with header" - the item was contained in a plastic bag onto which was stapled a folded piece of cardboard with graphics on it, with a hole punched in it, all ready to display on a pegboard wall.
After that we got "blister pack" or "bubble pack" and the aforementioned "shrink wrap", all of which had advantages and disadvantages.
Car Freshner Corporation (Watertown, NY) was an industry leader on "bubble pack" - their little "skunk" air freshener was a top seller, and it sold even better inside a clear plastic ball.
"Shrink wrap" was a favorite for manufacturers who put stuff in "display boxes", like "Sparkomatic" shift kits.

Workers at the assembly plants used the shrink-wrap machines to heat up their lunches. When we toured the Fenton plant in Gardena, California (1969) we were walking down the assembly line just as the lunch bell rang.
Almost every working in the plant stopped what they were doing, and lined up with an aluminum-foil wrapped package at the shrink-wrap part of the line. They'd lay their aluminum-foil wrapped lunch on the conveyor belt and run it through the machine to heat up their lunch.
(There were no "break rooms" or "microwaves" in the Fenton plant that year.)

(I only told you that story because a couple years later my older brother was unwrapping a Fenton shift kit for a customer on the front counter down at 38th Street and somebody's very old and very nasty burrito had been put inside the package at the plant. )

Only much later did they come up with "clamshell" packaging, which is ubiquitous today (particularly at Costco.)

Those Indestro socket sets you're looking at weren't "shrink wrapped" - at least not the ones we were getting. All they did was put a clear, vacuum-molded piece on top of the tools, which was not attached to anything - that served only to slow the thieves down a couple seconds.

I think I have a Japanese set that still has the plastic thingie on top ... I'll see if I can dig it out.

And I hope you're done asking me to make sense of something which never made a bit of sense to me (or anyone else.)

That burrito thing is hilarious !

 

[matthew]

That burrito thing is hilarious !

Yep. And not the first story I’ve heard like that…

 

[cowades206]

Now I really really wish I had that blue box I mentioned back on 14 Feb. Gotta wonder!
This thread about the labels in the bottom has has been a hoot.

 

[four.cycle]

Here is a Kraeuter set that came with a molded plastic cover.

interesting spin on it....

"... with staples ... {/quote]

now that's curious... maybe my memory is failing me or the retailer put those staples in there... I do not believe I own an M.P.I. set in which the insert is intact. I was looking at one recently but the insert was cut in half by a previous owner.

 

[d42jeep]

Here is a little DBE Select Steel wrench I bought to put in my new Philadelphia Manufacturing Co. set. According to the label it is missing one this size and one 9/32” x 11/32”. I don’t have any idea who made one of those!
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

All they did was put a clear, vacuum-molded piece on top of the tools, which was not attached to anything -

That vacuum-molded clear plastic cover was not attached to anything. Had it been attached - by means of a staple, for example -

I have a black plastic mouldedcase set of Indestro 3/8 metric, WITH STAPLES to hold down the skin wrap. The plastic skin wrap is intact, with two small pieces ripped out around the staples.

But they are in the "bottom" of the case, so not sure it is directly relevant to the upside down part.

...maybe my memory is failing me...

Whether it was stapled or secured by some other means, I am more convinced than ever that the "skin wrap" is the culprit for the labeling and for the socket tray notice. The socket tray notice seems a little less captain obvious if you think about the set being sold with the tools "skin packed" inside the lid instead of where they normally belong. I have requests in with Google Books to open up several 'snippet only' views in trade mags. Hopefully in a matter of days to a week I will have more info for us on this whacky issue.

 

[Cruzan80]

So to be clear, the one I have with stapes is in a plastic case, and tools are in what would normally be called the "bottom" of the tray. So less help for the labelling debacle, and more just proof that eventually they added a means of securing them.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, Cruzer. I got that from your initial post, but we're not exactly sure if they were more secured than 4.c remembers or not. Either way, nothing is hinging on your set. I have a hard time understanding the heavy emphasis on pilferage prevention - again, the skin packing seems to be the sole reason for the drastically bizarre labeling measures - if the pieces were easily accessible.

 

[Cruzan80]

All good. Just wanted to make sure that part was clear. I can look in the (metal) Indestro box I have for a remnant label, if it would help (no "skin coat" on that one though).

 

[Provincial]

I'm glad you guys finally got around to addressing the question I raised about the "upside down" labels.

 

[ararat]

NOS Duro Indestro stubby offset metric set from the twilight days of the company I assume. Early 1990's maybe. Might not fit this thread but I liked that I got a USA set. Not many metric tools in the eras that I usually buy. Anyway I got one set for me and one for my son.

 

[four.cycle]

more Indestro Screwdrivers:

Indestro Screwdrivers 11/08/23

Indestro 135TK "Treasure Kit" 3-piece screwdriver set

* I'm taking the liberty of re-posting the previous photo of the rest of the Indestro Screwdriver line-up.

 

[Old Radar]

Excellent job of stating the obvious. I wonder what marketing genius thought of that?
-Don

This guy:

That's tautological.

Got a new wrinkle in my brain!

I'm way late to the discussion, but it occurs to me that if these inverted sets appeared for merchandiser displays, the KISS principle would suggest they were designed simply to display each tool in the set to best advantage without being obscured by the interior divisions or structure of the "traditional" bottom of the case.
Think of all the photos in this and other threads proudly displaying members' tool sets in their cases or drawers where you can only see the tops of the sockets and a single facet of the drive tools.
In response, other members often reply: "Hey, nice set!! Can you post more pictures of X or Y??" "Is that a Z in the left corner of the box?"
It may have been nothing more nefarious than a response to retailers reducing staff and having fewer sales people to constantly show interested customers the set contents.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Got a new wrinkle in my brain!

Latent HS debate club experience and mid-life literary forums heavy with exegesis!

they were designed simply to display each tool in the set to best advantage without being obscured by the interior divisions or structure of the "traditional" bottom of the case.

Thanks for chiming in, OR. I concur. That's what I was getting at here...

I'm guessing they thought the tools were more attractive if they were assembled in a more open way on the lid, not how they were stowed in the compartment and the socket tray.

Which would necessitate the label placement. And since they were skin packed on the lid, which sounds permanent to begin with, and implies even more permanence with the stated anti-pilfering purpose, it would help explain the socket tray notice. In other words, in case you're confused by our crazy upside down and backwards merchandising set-up, this part with the socket divider is not actually the lid!

 

[Old Radar]

literary forums heavy with exegesis

Two wrinkles in one day.


Private Lugnutz, please stop! My brain is full!

 

[d42jeep]

I found a decent selection of Indestro Select sockets at this morning’s garage sale. I’ll leave it to their next owner to clean up.
-Don

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I have requests in with Google Books to open up several 'snippet only' views in trade mags. Hopefully in a matter of days to a week I will have more info for us on this whacky issue.

Out of four (4) requests, Google Books could legally only make one (1) available for full viewing, a 1967 Hardware Age.

On page 149, Indestro ran this full-page ad...



Here is an excerpted zoom view of just the socket sets and the marketing text...



As you can see, all the socket sets are stowed on the merchandiser upside down, all the tools are displayed on the lid, all the branding labels inside the socket sets boxes are applied to the bottom, backwards, for reading when the box is stowed on the merchandiser, all the socket divider compartments have a label that is undoubtedly some variation of the 'this is the bottom and the socket tray' notice, also applied backwards, for reading when the box is stowed on the merchandiser, and all the sets are "skin-packed for cleanliness and pilfer-proof protection". While it doesn't add, "and for better, unobstructed viewing of individual pieces and markings," note that several of the bullet phrases on the left DO allude to that as a feature.

The skin-packing is transparent, and therefore impossible to see, but the pictures and the text are clearly meant to indicate that there is some kind of see-through but impenetrable layer covering the open boxes.