Vintage NOS Plomb, SO, etc

[stricht8]

I picked these up at a hardware store yesterday. They are all NOS and were sitting in bins at the bottom of some shelves and long forgotten.

Included:
3 Plomb 3/8" t handles
2 Snap On 3/8" T handles
1 Armstrong 3/8" T handle
1 Wright 3/8" T handle
2 Plomb 3/8" drive universal 11/16" sockets
1 Phillips brand speeder screwdriver
1 Herbrand special tool

 

[stricht8]

Here are a couple more:

 

[lbgradwell]

I'd say you're pretty much set for 3/8" T-handles!

Yeah, if you're buying NOS Plomb, it was definitely "long-forgotten"...

 

[Mickey O]

Nice finds, it's cool to find old nos stuff,

must have made millions of those T-handles, I have two or three NOS ones. I think they made the old Craftsman ones as well because they are identical.

 

[stricht8]

Nice finds, it's cool to find old nos stuff,

must have made millions of those T-handles, I have two or three NOS ones. I think they made the old Craftsman ones as well because they are identical.

Yes the bin contained a lot more of the Plomb T handles. I picked out the nicest ones but there were a hell of a lot to choose from!

 

[selohssa]

Yes the bin contained a lot more of the Plomb T handles. I picked out the nicest ones but there were a hell of a lot to choose from!

Buy em all! It is not like they are making them any more. Would they give you a deal if you took everything?

 

[stricht8]

Buy em all! It is not like they are making them any more. Would they give you a deal if you took everything?

Yes I thought about it but there are literally hundreds of the Plomb T handles. What would I do with them all? I'm now 300 miles away from that location anyway. I could always go back at another time. They'll probably still be sitting there for another 20 years!

 

[selohssa]

Yes I thought about it but there are literally hundreds of the Plomb T handles. I could always go back.

It would have been cool to take a cellphone pic of that pile. I have found some amazing things that have been sitting arund for a long time and just when I decide to go and get it, they are gone. If you are going to pass on them, mabey someone else here could scoop them up.

 

[arkangel06]

Whats the mfg date on that armstrong?

 

[Packard V8]

Did you get any idea if these were military surplus (Plomb WF usually are), industrial surplus or just regular stock? When I find a great many of one unusual item, it was usually a surplus auction buy. One local surplus store has hundreds of NOS Plomb WF 3/8"dr - 5/8" sockets and nothing else. These came out of an auction when a WWII Naval Supply Depot was closed.

thnx, jack vines

 

[stricht8]

You could be right about surplus as the manager who was trying to price the sockets mumbled surplus under his breath.

 

[stricht8]

Whats the mfg date on that armstrong?

I don't know. Is there a way to tell? The only numbers on the tool are F-20-A

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

This sort of connects with post WWII surplus tool ads in magazines like Popular Mechanics...
I have a lot of those, and for maybe 10 years after WWII there are big war surplus ads with socket sets featured. They typically offered the sets as mixtures, something like "from major manufacturers like S-o, Plomb, and Williams" arranged into complete but mongrel sets.
The mixture of brands you saw, the existence of Snap-on in a retail store, the clearly wartime WF's, seem to suggest that these tools were from some big surplus outlet like that. The dealers in the ads were clearly assembling sets from mixed bulk, which seems typical of the way the military oft handles things...separate into components. Dump out the sets, put all the 9/16 12 point here, all the 5/8 over there, etc.

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

And surplus is still popping up...I recently looked over a surplus dealer who mostly deals in webgear and equipment from WWII...to my amazement, he had boxed, WWII dated 1/4" Snap On sets consisting of a breaker bar and "10 1/4" sockets" at a nice price...I bought most of them. Alas, the 10 1/4" sockets meant just that, 10 to fit a 1/4" fastener head, not 10 different with 1/4" drive!
Anyhow...I know probably own more NOS Snap on 1/4" sockets than anyone else here!
Now, this stuff consisted of new, in original cardboard box and wrappings, properly labeled sets, intact from mid-WWII. Whyinhell did the government order sets consisting of one handle and 10 identical sockets??
Just ran into this stuff a couple of months ago! Someday I'll run into a complete NOS tool kit from a B-17 line mechanic...

 

[woody 73]

many years ago I had a job at a Govt. Depot site, well one day I just looked out my little window and I started counting boxes of tire irons,it must have been over 10,000 because I lost count very fast.

 

[stricht8]

Bruce, this is very interesting information! I'm gonna hit that store again next time I'm there.

 

[Bruce Lancaster]

Look for any Pop Mechanics or Science from about 1944 on well into the '50's...the big surplus ads with tools as somee of the offerings were always in there.

Here's an address for the last three 1/4" sets: http://wardogmilitaria.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3156

I have however many more there were. Cool that there still is brand new WWII stuff around!
I think the Air Corps probably had the biggest share of tools; the army probably had far more trucks than mechanics, but each four engined bomber had a whole swarm of mechanics!

 

[stricht8]

Thanks for the link Bruce. That is pretty cool.