Vintage Drawers - anybody recognize these?

[mark-NJ]

Hi all, Happy Thanksgiving!

I think the odds are slim, but I'm hoping someone might know who made these storage drawers. From my earliest childhood memories, (age 3 maybe? [I'm 62 now]), dad had these drawers on his work bench. They were in a pine wooden frame much like you see in the photos below.

When we closed up dad's house a few years back, my sister and I split the drawers. She wanted them for sentimental reasons, and while I share the sentiments, I was in the middle of building a boat and desperately need the storage organization.

Dad's wood shelf supports were bolted by him into his bench, and all of that went with the house. I took these drawers and made this new frame, modeled & painted after his.

The drawers are steel, folded & spot-welded. Painted an almost-military green. They measure 6" x 3" x 3".

The pull is just the folded-down steel, stamped from the label slot:

Dad had a good friend who was one of those "I know a guy" people. Whatever you needed, dad's friend had a source. I would bet my bottom dollar that these came from him. Dad's friend also had some sort of indirect connection to a scrapyard in Kearny, NJ where old Navy ships were stripped & scrapped. We got all sorts of ex-Navy "stuff" over the years, so I suspect...but cannot know for sure...that these *might* have come from a ship. ...if that helps.

Dad lived his entire life in New Jersey, as did his friend. Almost certainly the source of these was NJ...or at least the tri-state (NJ-NY-CT) area. (of course, if they DID come from a ship, the origin could be anywhere)

Any ideas? Ever seen these drawers before? I'm hoping to source more of these...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Normally when it comes to any kind of bins or drawers or containers for shops in that era that are painted that color green, I guess Lyon, and I am right probably 6 out of 10 times. But Lyon were always marked, and they don't look Lyon.

I'm really just checking in to say that they have a cool look with those ingenious, efficient pulls.

 

[mark-NJ]

Thanks!

They are completely un-marked.

 

[humber2]

If used shipboard would need to be secured from opening. A rod under those ingenious drawer pulls could do that.

 

[Roberts210]

That's a very good point humber2.
If those were mine, I'd take a few and really go over them with an angled light source, looking for faint stampings/markings.

 

[velocipede]

I'd be curious to see what's behind the labels. Those pulls look a lot like conduit clamps.

 

[steaks&anvils]

Nice drawers and great memories.

You might try posting in this thread. At the least to add your storage to the long list of cool old cabinets etc :

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=305350

 

[wrenchguy]

Aren't the pulls a result of the punchout panel, making a label window at the same time? Is that a offset flush hem around the top? Thats a expensive box! gotts 2 be goverment.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Yes, Mike. As Mark stated in post #1 just before the last photo, which is a close-up of the face. What makes it ingenious is leaving it there expressly as a pull, instead of cutting it all the way out and having to add a separate pull with fasteners or spot welds.

 

[BFBOB]

...and here I was hoping to see naughty knickers

 

[mark-NJ]

No Naughty knickers. Sorry.

Here's a closeup of the label window with my label removed. No markings at all:

Here's the bottom. It's a flat piece of sheetmetal that's spot welded into the sides. The sides are folded & welded; the bottom is a drop-in piece. This represents the color pretty well. Some of the drawer faces (in my first posting) vary a bit in their colors...that's not inconsistency in the drawers. It's my childhood lack of respect for tools and the overspray from model building.