"Vintage" Sears Tool Chest?

[yardiron]

I picked this up the other day off a trash pile, its missing one slide and the bottom of the box is bowed upwards a bit.
Its blue/green hammer tone and nearly identical in size and design to my 1957 Remline built Craftsman but this appears to be dated 1-81?
Its got Waterloo type slides, so its later, and keys and tumbler are master lock pattern keys, much like a standard Master pad lock.
The drawer pulls are nearly identical to the older box and riveted on the same way. The bottom drawer is embossed with the SEARS logo. I don't see any other part numbers on it. It had older rubber drawer liners, not felt, so I don't think its a machinists chest. Its a lot heavier than the same era Red/black boxes and built much different than the gray/red boxes. The drawers are heavier gauge than either of those styles.
I didn't realize they made a blue box like this in the early 80's?

If I can find some blue hammer tone paint, I'll stick this in the bead blaster and redo it, but I'm not sure what to do about the handles? They're riveted on and I doubt I'll be able to find matching rivets. I could just mask them off but the handles could really stand a good cleaning on the back sides which will only be possible if their removed.

 

[ryan20021982]

No help on the color I just thought it was funnt that I just got the exact same layout box but the remline version last week even the same handles on the sides but the drawer handles are different.

I would just drill them out and put some of the screw back rivet studs in there, that would be the closest match to size.

View media item 68786

 

[yardiron]

I did find a few pics online calling this a machinists chest but I don't see any signs of it ever having any padding inside as most 'machinist' chests would have had.
Its definitely made by Waterloo, the slides give that away, but its not a simple repaint of the standard box of that time period. At that point, they still had a few gray/red boxes, and the red with black drawer style was emerging but those boxes had flush handles, single wall lids, rolled lip drawer pull handles. This has drawers like my older Remline built box from the 50's and is made from at least as heavy a gauge steel as the older box. Its twice as heavy as a similar gray/red box I've got. The layout is common with many boxes, I've got Snap On, Remline, SK, Craftsman, and even a Stack On box that share a nearly identical drawer size and layout.

When I first found this I got the impression it was a lot older, judging by the construction it looked like maybe a generation after my 1958 Craftsman box but when I was surprised when I found the 1981 date code on it. I remember being in Sears back at that time and don't remember ever seeing one of these in the stores back then.

 

[thehorse13]

This paint, though it does not appear to match based on the picture, is very close to the hammered blue paint on your tool chest.

Hammered Blue Paint on Amazon

Here is a what the finished product looks like.

 

[yardiron]

This paint, though it does not appear to match based on the picture, is very close to the hammered blue paint on your tool chest.

Hammered Blue Paint on Amazon

Here is a what the finished product looks like.

I was wondering how close Rustoleum Blue hammered would be.
I just ordered a case of it, it was only $4 more for a whole case vs. buying three cans online.
I started to strip the box itself this afternoon, I found a few loose spot welds that I drilled and plug welded, so a repaint is a must now.
The question is how to deal with the riveted on handles?
I can either mask around them and deal with them not looking 100% since I really can't polish the back of the handles well, or I can drill all the rivets and bolt them back on with small carriage bolts or machine screws.
The drawer face actually has two sets of handle rivet holes, the handles are in the two farthest apart right now.

I have some Mac tool style handles that attach from the inside, but with no brand name on them. But I'm not sure they'd cover both sets of holes like the flat strap handles do.
I also favor leaving things as original as possible.

I think I've got the same vise outback in the shed, only mine is painted black, with about 20 coats of paint. It used to sit outdoors on a steel pole in front of my uncles barn. I unbolted and brought it home when they sold the place a few years ago. After seeing yours all painted up maybe I'll dig it out and give it a good cleaning and some fresh paint. The good thing is that its so heavily painted its not likely too rusty underneath.

 

[bluebolt]

I have a 1981 Craftsman catalog coming so hopefully I can answer some questions soon!

 

[yardiron]

I looked at a 1979 catalog and didn't see anything, so maybe it was just available for a few years.
The one pictured on Pinterest has a 1980 date on it.
I do seem to remember they had a machinists chest back then but they had two, one wood, and one steel, the steel box I remember was green, with green or black felt drawer liners, and very shallow. this box is as deep as the red/green top boxes of that era.
The lack of a Sears part number is also odd, unless it had a decal of some sort at one time.

 

[taumac]

"Vintage" Sears Tool Chest?

Interesting box there. If it was for the stamp I would believe that box was a much older just from the construction. The box and slides add up to a Waterloo but drawers pull and sides handles really throwing me off. Interesting note is the stamp on the right front in the top compartment verses the left front?

 

[Mechanical Noise]

I remember being in Sears back at that time and don't remember ever seeing one of these in the stores back then.

Sears used to send their catalog customers special sales flyers. Those flyers would frequently have oddball low volume items not found in the regular catalogs or stores as a "special purchase" or on clearance.

I don't know if this relates to your box.

 

[thehorse13]

I was wondering how close Rustoleum Blue hammered would be.
I just ordered a case of it, it was only $4 more for a whole case vs. buying three cans online.
I started to strip the box itself this afternoon, I found a few loose spot welds that I drilled and plug welded, so a repaint is a must now.
The question is how to deal with the riveted on handles?
I can either mask around them and deal with them not looking 100% since I really can't polish the back of the handles well, or I can drill all the rivets and bolt them back on with small carriage bolts or machine screws.
The drawer face actually has two sets of handle rivet holes, the handles are in the two farthest apart right now.

I have some Mac tool style handles that attach from the inside, but with no brand name on them. But I'm not sure they'd cover both sets of holes like the flat strap handles do.
I also favor leaving things as original as possible.

I think I've got the same vise outback in the shed, only mine is painted black, with about 20 coats of paint. It used to sit outdoors on a steel pole in front of my uncles barn. I unbolted and brought it home when they sold the place a few years ago. After seeing yours all painted up maybe I'll dig it out and give it a good cleaning and some fresh paint. The good thing is that its so heavily painted its not likely too rusty underneath.

I have faced the drawer handle issue many times. If possible, I always leave in the original rivets. If I have to remove them, I drill them out and repop them with rivets that look as close to OEM as possible.

You can take a steel wool pad and turn it into a stretched out strap. You then run it behind the handle and run it like you're polishing a pair of shoes. For the areas that are in tight corners, I shape 200 grit sand paper into the shape needed and carefully clean/sand those spots.

When it's time to paint, taping off the handles is time consuming but if done right, you'll never know that the handles were left in place during the restoration.

Post up pics as you go along. I know that others besides me love seeing the process.

 

[bluebolt]

I do have a hand carry Sears box that is the same logo and same color.

 

[yardiron]

I do have a hand carry Sears box that is the same logo and same color.

Somewhere I've got a hand carry box with a hip roof that's got the same Sears logo stamped in the front of it, but its copper hammertone in color. It was a box my father used to carry on the truck he drove back in the 60's and 70's. Its about 20" long and only 6" wide and 7" tall. Its super heavy.

Back in the day the 'Sears' branded tools and boxes were always the cheaper line, most of it wasn't anything to write home about. I remember working with a guy who had a brown Sears machinists chest, it was smaller than this one here and very flimsy. I remember making him an iron cart for the bottom of the box after the wheels caved in on it.

Here's the only other one I was able to find online: https://picclick.com/Vintage-Crafts...-rollaway-tool-cabinet-Tool-142048163542.html

I wish I had the bottom box to match mine but I guess for the $10 spent on the lot I bought I didn't do too bad, especially since it was full of tools.

I lucked out today and found three cans of light blue hammertone paint at a fleamarket this morning, its not Rustoleum but it looks like a good match.
A test shot on the corner of the box looks like a dead on perfect match.

The guy said he ordered it from a body shop supply to paint something and never used it.

 

[yardiron]

I have faced the drawer handle issue many times. If possible, I always leave in the original rivets. If I have to remove them, I drill them out and repop them with rivets that look as close to OEM as possible.

You can take a steel wool pad and turn it into a stretched out strap. You then run it behind the handle and run it like you're polishing a pair of shoes. For the areas that are in tight corners, I shape 200 grit sand paper into the shape needed and carefully clean/sand those spots.

When it's time to paint, taping off the handles is time consuming but if done right, you'll never know that the handles were left in place during the restoration.

Post up pics as you go along. I know that others besides me love seeing the process.

I was thinking about maybe using 'fender bolts' like they used to use on old bicycle fenders? Its a #10 bolt with a small round head, their short, only long enough to attach a fender bracket on a bicycle, and the heads are either nickle or chrome. They used to come with chrome replacement fenders from Schwinn. The heads may be a tad bit larger though.

 

[Provincial]

I remember a discussion about replacing rivets on replated Model A Ford headlight shells. Some people used stainless steel carriage bolts and ground off the square part of the shank. That gave a low profile head with no slots, so I suppose they used an impact wrench to tighten the nut.

I believe that I have seen a "carriage bolt" with a ribbed shank instead of the square.

 

[bluebolt]

I have a 1981 Craftsman catalog coming so hopefully I can answer some questions soon!

Woohoo got my 1981 Craftsman catalog today and your box is in there!

Yours is a 6 drawer chest catalog number 9 GT 65195N $89.99 weight 52 pounds and there is a matching 3 drawer cabinet with the storage area 9 GT 65194N $109.99 weight 91 pounds.

I will post a catalog picture later.

 

[bluebolt]

And more good news Sears still carries your drawer slide and retaining clip! Your model number is 706651950.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/model-number/706651950/0247/0709100.html

 

[yardiron]

Woohoo got my 1981 Craftsman catalog today and your box is in there!

Yours is a 6 drawer chest catalog number 9 GT 65195N $89.99 weight 52 pounds and there is a matching 3 drawer cabinet with the storage area 9 GT 65194N $109.99 weight 91 pounds.

I will post a catalog picture later.

Good info, Thanks!
$89.99, Things sure have changed. All that gets you these days is Chinese junk. Do they call it a tool chest or machinists chest? I have a similar sized Craftsman roller box that I bought at an auction for cheap, its the one with the huge 75th aniversary decal on the lid, and its so light that one drawer filled with drill bits and punches sagged enough to pull the roller slides apart.
Its less than a 1/2 the thickness of the older box.

 

[bluebolt]

They call it a mechanic's chest. Here's the pic from the catalog.

 

[taumac]

They call it a mechanic's chest. Here's the pic from the catalog.

Nice job on the catalog.

 

[yardiron]

Thanks for the scan!
Its amazing that after all these years its probably the cheapest of all their boxes that's the most impressive. Its heavier duty than any of the red/black boxes that year by far.
Its that little phrase, 'Not Craftsman' that probably kept a lot of people away. That and the odd color. I suppose since it didn't have to carry the Craftsman lifetime warranty they may have been able to sell it a lot cheaper. I wonder if there were others like this over the years?
Back in the day, with it not being a store item that I could go check out, I most likely just overlooked it as a lower quality option.
Around that time I was buying a lot of tools as I was still just getting started at a mechanic, my first basic tool set was Craftsman, but I opted for an older used gray/red box I bought from an ad in the paper because I didn't like the quality of the newer red/gray boxes. Although I soon moved up to Snap On, it was Craftsman that got me started for those first few years. Seeing what they sell now I doubt that would have been much of an option.The brand new full roller 6 drawer Craftsman top box that i have here weighs about the same as the bare shell of this blue box does with the drawers and slides removed.

 

[bluebolt]

Comparing the Craftsman boxes with same drawers from the same 1981 catalog shows these Sears are heavy duty boxes.

Craftsman 6 drawer top 9 GT 65256 : 53 pounds
Sears top : 52 pounds

Craftsman 3 drawer bottom 9 GT 65053N : 87 pounds
Sears bottom : 91 pounds

The Sears boxes probably also have a shorter warranty hence the lower price.

 

[yardiron]

I've pretty much got the box all apart and sanded well enough to repaint.
Just waiting for a clear warm day to paint.
I'll be masking off the handles if for no other reason to just simplify the whole deal. I was able to mask off the front of the handles with electrical tape and I used my bead blaster on low pressure to remove the rust from the back of the handles, I then used a Dremel to polish them a bit. The fronts are acceptable the way they are, they don't appear to have been super shiny chrome, they look more like nickle or zinc plated steel.

Either way, I'm not looking for a show piece, its going to be used. It just needs to be presentable. While I'm waiting for better weather I'll start cutting some drawer liners. I've gota roll of 1/8" thick rubber that should work well.

 

[yardiron]

The weather finally let me spray the tool box yesterday, it sat in the car trailer overnight drying. I just got done putting the drawers back in it.
Here's a few pics, the paint used was Rustoleum Hammered Blue, I tried Hammerite and two others but their blue was even more gray than the Rustoleum. The original paint was more of an aqua blue but I suppose this is as close as it gets with what's available.
It took just over 4 spray cans and I masked off the handles vs. removing them.
I'll give the paint a week or two to really cure before I set the liners in place. For some reason my camera makes the box look even lighter blue than it is in person, between the florescent lights and flash it doesn't show the color very accurately. There's a certain amount of metallic in the paint as well that reflects back on the flash. All in all it came up better than I expected it too. I painted it inside and out so there's no sign of the old paint anywhere on it. The hardest part was getting all the inside seams and edges clean and painted well.
Two pics show the color better than the others, the close up shot of the inside of one drawer shows the color and hammered effect the best.

I still have to either find or make the proper lock arm and fabricate a center lock rod which locks the center drawer. (Both were missing when I got it).
Its not leaving my basement and will likely never get locked so its not a big deal here but when I find the parts I'll paint and install them then. I think I may have a junk box at work that can donate the bits I need, I just have to do some digging in the warehouse to find it.

The new paint makes the handles look bad. I tried polishing them up with Mother's polish before painting but it did very little. The polish had almost no affect on the color of the plating which has sort of a white brass look to it.

 

[CNGsaves]

Stunning work OP . . . . turned out TERRIFIC !! . . . . . . . .

 

[Zeeman]

Right ON! That looks great. Taping off all that stuff is time consuming for sure.

 

[Garage&Beer]

Turned out really nice...good job!

 

[bluebolt]

You need more practice. I will off drop of some of my boxes for you to work on.

Just kidding, nice job!

 

[yardiron]

It turned out better than I had planned it too, when I bought the box, it was for the tools in it, the box turned out to be a bonus.
I've painted few boxes over the years, but most were new boxes that were mismatched or damaged. Looking at the before and after pics of something like this is far more impressive than just changing the color of a new box or side cabinet.

 

[yardiron]

Something that I find odd is that the when I photographed the Sears box before paint, it turned out darker than it really was on screen, with the new paint, it shows up lighter. The color in person isn't nearly as far off as it shows in the pics.

 

[lrhredjb]

Real nice job on that box. I seem to remember that the Sears stuff also Companion marked stuff was painted blue. I suppose to distinguish it from the top line Craftsman stuff.

 

[vettex2]

Nice!

 

[yardiron]

Here's a few pics of the box fully lined with rubber mat.

 

[ALLFAST]

Yardiron,

That is a great looking tool chest! Good job....it should last another 50 years or so now, and it's not PLASTIC !!!

 

[Zeeman]

Right on! Very nice paint work. Have you tried Brasso on those handles?

 

[ALLFAST]

For future turquoise seekers, I'm pretty sure 1969 Chrysler Seafoam Turquoise would be a close match to this original color. Many online (and auto paint stores) paint suppliers can mix it into an aerosol can for a very reasonable price .

 

[ALLFAST]

Naturally all colors are off on the computer but it could be close

 

[Impala64]

Sears I have of that color

 

[ALLFAST]

A cool color for sure

 

[z1kzonly]

Do 1976 Red Boxes count? I've had a set since. Keep for sentimental reasons and decal collection. Have pics if it counts for vintage.

 

[Zeeman]

Sure. I think 76 is fine, but I don't know what the age cutoff year is for sure. I'd like to see the pics.