I figured it out, finally. On my box, the guide that the bottom 'garage door' rides in MOVES a little to engage & disengage the bars. Didn't notice it before. My bars are on a spring set to ENGAGE the bar locks when the door is pulled out and dropped. What happened was, after doing the casters, I removed the door, ('cause I never use it and it was bent and rusted). I left the door out to work on it later. My first thought was that it should be a related to the door, but I couldn't see any mechanism to do that. The springs made it a default lock up, even with the door completely out. Being upside down had nothing to do with it. Feelin' a little stoopid now. PS Glad the avatar amuses ... now if only I hadn't misspelled 'grappling'.
I picked up this huot 3 drawer today for $5. The front & drawers are factory red but t he rest is rattle canned neon pink & green
Looks a bit like a Kennedy machinist's top chest. I'm guessing there's a brown wrinkle finish under the red?
I think I have photos of mine buried in here somewhere! Posted using Full box of Crayons on the Kitchen Walls App!
Looks like a pair to me & the red on the top box looks factory. No wrinkle paint under the red. But the drawers are Kennedy like
Here's my pinstriping box I got from Alan Smith from AlanSigns in Salinas, CA. He's the one that first taught me how to stripe. This was the box he used when he first started striping about 40 yrs ago, so the box is at least that old. Pretty cool. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Nice Mac box. I've got a friend with the same one and was wondering if you had any information on it? Like a part number
I picked this old Kennedy set up at Pomona this month for $65. Why do many machinist tool boxes have mirrors on the lids? Do they like to look at themselves or is it to see if they get something in their eye?
I figured it was maybe to keep an eye on machinery running behind them. Or maybe to see if a foreman was approaching. Or to keep a prankster coworker from sneaking up from behind. I'd like to find a two drawer unit like that to put under my Kennedy top chest.
I picked up 2 boxes this weekend. First one is a Snapon K60. Pretty clean and straight...but it is a repaint.
Second one is a Craftsman box from the "Mac" McTaggart estate. He was a local PNW racer with good taste in tools, striping & decals. Enjoy! -Andy
If you got both of those pieces for $65 you got a DEAL! You almost never see the bottom section.The last one I saw like that sold for over $200. As for the mirror in the lid: As the story goes the person who owned the box would always put a $20 bill behind the mirror and in the event that he passed away it would cover his burial expenses.Obviously that was a long time ago when most of the boxes were of wood and the mirror was held on with screws. A better idea was likely that in the event a machinist got something in his eye(a metal chip or the like)he had a place to observe it and possibly get it out without having to search around for one. Speaking of wooden tool boxes;here is my latest one.I don't think it is a Gerstner but the markings(numbered drawers written in pencil on the back)and a stamped model number(B-20_on the bottom are very similar. This one had replacement drawer liners that were less than good so I pulled them out and cut and fit new liners of the proper green felt.Isn't too hard once you've done a couple(I have five of them).This one cost $60 which isn't a bad price considering a new one from Gerstner(the USA made ones)cost about $400.
i have the same bottom box. got it around 1984 and it was used then. any idea what make it is? i could never find out. thanks.
sixties snap on top box I bought back in the early eighties because I couldn't afford a new one... I am glad I was broke at that time!! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Just got this great box with the embossed wings. It's gonna be my travel box and ride in the suburban Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Please forgive the not so vintage Wateloo base, but it holds up the prize. I ran across this 26" X 19" X 12" Craftsman gem from the 60's a while back, but did not have a good something to put it on. I recently found the Waterloo, while not impressive, it makes a good combo until a vintage Craftsman base finds me.
I just picked up this dirty 1940s-50s snap on box I plan on cleaning up over the next couple weeks Have a couple old leather handled kennedy boxes Also have the old dynavision analyzer. Not a toolbox, but I keep a couple tools and test equipment inside the cabinet.
Glad to see people posting on this thread again. Here is my latest tool box picked up at a yard sale for $8. Even had a few tools in it but was missing the front face. Did a quick cleanup of the drawers and decided to leave the original felt. Was going to use a piece of metal to make the front but decided to use a piece of 1/4 in plywood instead and make it look like rusted metal. Cut it to size and drilled a hole for access.Made two small holes in the top edge for the lock pins. Brushed on a coat of black 1-Shot with talcum powder mixed in to flatten the gloss and while still wet added a mixture of dirt and crushed leaves over the surface.When dry added another layer of dark brown 1-Shot by brush and fogged the edges with satin black rattle can. and more dirt..Let dry for a few days and then lettered everything with ivory and maroon 1-Shot. After drying sanded with a gray scuff pad and washer solvent.Not a perfect match for the box but close enough.
Just started working on Snap On Box and Rolla Bench. Near as I can determine early to mid fifties. I think KR 56 and KR 300D. Looks like the top box was originally painted wrinkle grey (hammered grey) and sprayed red.
I posted pictures of this box when I first acquired it but at the time it was missing the handle that the sockets hook up to. A friend of mine who lives a few doors down was at my shop the other day and I showed him the box and explained about the missing handle. When he found out I had made drawings of it with the idea of making a replacement he offered to do it for me. As he works as a prototype machinist for the German auto exhaust manufacturer Eberspacher and had made me a couple of items previously I gladly accepted his offer. He took the drawing and the tools and promised me he would get right on them. Imagine my surprise when I returned home from a job the next day and found that he had already made it and brought it back! The piece is a marvel of workmanship. Rather than turn the whole part from a single piece he elected to make it in 3 pieces and weld them together. He advised me that he didn't know if the welds would be strong enough to actually function as a wrench but it didn't matter because I wanted it mainly as a display piece. He enhanced it by deliberately putting a few small dings in it to simulate use and then gave it a quick dip in naval jelly to blacken the steel a bit to match the original forgings.He even etched the original patent date on the shank with a laser that closely mimics a stamping. All told he had about 7 hours into the construction and he did it with his boss' blessings as the shop was a bit slow coming up on the holiday. So here are the pics of the set with it's new/old handle in place. The history of the company was short;it started in 1904 and filed for bankruptcy in 1916. The sockets are unique in that instead of having fractional sizes on them,they use numbers from 1 to 8.On the inside of the box lid is a chart showing which socket to use with which bolt head or nut. It used the USS system which measured the bolt shank size rather than the head which kind of fell from favor in the early 1920's. In addition to the sockets,there is an open end wrench and a screwdriver blade that fit the handle as well. In an ad for the company they show a whole set of open end heads to fit the handle. If interested they are pictured in the manufacturer's section of the Alloy Artifacts website.They have a ton of old tools pictured there along with the company's histories.
The Jalopy Journal
