All these stories about Craftsman tool boxes makes me wish I'd invested in Sears stock back then, today.........not so much.
It did jump a whole bunch less than 3 weeks ago 0,0029 USD +0,0029 (289.900,00 %) today 26. Nov., 14:00 GMT-5 Not financial advice!
I was working at Sears,Roebuck & co. in shipping & receiving in 1968/69 while in high school and vividly remember the Christmas Midnight madness sell on tool sets - sell price was 19.95 we had 100 in stock and I carried out every one of them for customers, no one had to rock me to sleep when I got home. HRP
For the folks wondering about tool history, be sure to check out "Alloy Artifacts" on the ol' interweb ...
First time going into this store in Boyle Heights Ca. was in the early 70's. They had a building across the the street (part's department) where you could check out and buy returned working power tools/machinery of all sorts. Built in 1927 Closed in 1992
My dad was a Vice President of Allstate when it was part of Sears and he died before all of the crap happened with the mismanagement destroyed the company. I remember my mom talking about him coming home and telling her he had put in his retirement papers and he was done. He was next in line to be the CEO of Allstate but the unethical behavior drove him out
My first toolbox long ago succumbed to rust. It was just a hinged top Craftsman, but it did have all of the old stickers on it. The bottom of the box was paper thin, basically just paint and habit holding it together. Its replacement, a three drawer Craftsman, held all of my tools when I made a living with them. I still have that one, on my bench in the basement.
I got my first toolbox, a grey Craftsman like so many others mentioned here, for Christmas 1974. The next year my Mom sent me to Sears at Christmas time to get the same box for my Brother. I still have mine and most all the original tools along with my Brothers that I inherited when he passed. Always was surprised that my folks got us both nice tool boxes and Dad always kept his meager tool collection in a wicker basket, which I also inherited.
Still have it and still use it 40 years later. My grandfather got it for me from a small aerospace shop in the next town over. My dad got a SK Wayne socket set, wrench set, and line wrench set, grand dad tossed in some screwdrivers , various pliers, a ball-peen hammer a BFH and some files... still have those SK tools in a smaller box in my truck. Dad told me the day I got all that stuff "Money spent on tools is money well spent" These days that box is more of a catch-all for trinkets and assorted washer, nut and bolt storage than anything else but I will never get rid of it and smile everytime I look at it. Chappy
Got this from my uncle with an assortment of Monkey Ward tools I still have in another toolbox. Got the Milwaukee drill press behind the box in the first photo at the same time. Thanks Uncle Kenny.
For those who aren't aware of it, Ryan has a whole other forum dedicated to tools and toolboxes...The Garage Journal.
Your story made me smile, beaner. I like how your dad dealt with the situation. Didn't treat you like you were a big problem. It was my birthday. I had just turned 3 or 4. Dad was drinking a bit too much back then, so Mom wasn't generally happy with him anyway. So when he came home with a small red metal tool box full of tools for me, she started in on him, asking why he got me tools that I was just going to ruin the furniture with. They left the kitchen where we were to continue their argument. I think I remember hearing my dad assuring my mom that it would be okay. In the meantime, I took the keyhole saw out of the box, opened a kitchen drawer that was just above my head and started cutting the fascia of the drawer from the top down. RRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRR... My poor dad was toast.
We used to jack up cars and use them as jack stands, put place a piece of 2" x 10" across the top. Brake jobs, transmissions... lived to tell the tale.
I had a similar style one my dad brought home from Grumman, as it was being thrown out. Longer and made of aluminum, painted a thick coat of white. I was about 13, no idea what happened to it. I kept all my bike tools and spare bike hardware in it. I still have the clecos that were in it somehow.
I have the stuff I have, organized how it's organized because I didn't have them way back. My parents worked me like a man from 3rd grade and on. As such, I learned about tools and was gifted them. Whatever I did have as a youth was commandeered and soon misplaced/lost by my step-dad who could lose a 4' pipewrench like anyone else could lose a 10mm. His tools, "workspace", and garage were a nightmare from as long back as I can remember. Some guys have a functional mess, where they seem to know where stuff is... this wasn't like that - ever. And because my parents depended on me, I'd have to deal with their uncurable disorganization. Thing was, mechanically, he was gifted. He understood how machines worked better than most. But he'd have to use an adjustable as a hammer and a flat head as a chisel because his disorganization lead to disaster that consumed tools.
I still have the first tool set I bought for myself, in '73- kinda. The 3/8 S-K set, just like the one my gramps carried in his pickup for years. There's probably only 6 or so original pieces in there, but the box and even the plastic tray are still in decent shape. It lives in the old Craftsman carry box, Christmas present in '74, just like the other guys, the basic grey tool set box. It has lived in every work truck I had over a long career, has been used on pavers, D9 CATs, everything, now it lives in my duallie. Amazing the plastic handle has never broken, as it's stuffed full and pretty heavy, and has been hauled out of pickup cross-boxes hundreds of times. Decals are getting a little fuzzy lol...
I have picked up a lot of classic boxes over the years, several nice hip-roofs like this old S-K, which came full of old high-quality sockets and wrenches. The Plumb (or Plomb if you will) rollaway is also built pretty well. Have a few nice Kennedy boxes, including a triple rollaway set from the estate of an old Mare Island machinist with decals on it from the nuke subs he worked on building at the Yard, that now lives next to the Bridgeport
I know I'm computer illiterate and a troglodyte, but I have to ask, are we already able to log on to the garage journal with our hamb login? Or do we need to register? If the latter, I tried to, but was denied because my email was already in use... cause I used it to log in here. HELP MR. WIZARD!
When I was working in then oil patch in the '70s I was working with a roustabout who bought a brand new Craftsman box at Sears in Witchita. It came with a life time guarantee. Well he rolled it over when we were settin the rig (I told him to leave it in the dawh house until he needed it LOL). We pulled it out of the mud washed it good and did our best to straighten it around so it resembled a tool box again. I was with him when he took it back and told the guy that it fell off the bench. It took some talkin but they replaced it.
I used to take Craftsman tools back for warranty, even the broken ones I bought at pawn shops for pennies! If I really needed to beat on a wrench I used the Craftmans! I had a clerk tell me it looks like you beat on that wrench with a hammer! I said “ yes, it was a real big hammer”. Several times I had to take the clerk over to the sign that said said “ unconditional guarantee ” …..then I would ask if I needed a Webster’s dictionary……or do you understand the words? I always got my tool! Lol Bones
I have a 9/16 x 1/2 Thorson box end wrench that my little brother gave me in '77 when I lost my tools (story not important). It has been all over the world with me believe it or not. its my lucky wrench, lucky I guess because I have managed to loose everything I own at least 3 times since then and I still have that wrench.
Alot of the members are not on the journal and this for me was more of a hot rod history thing. A where did you start out thing not a hey looky me I got a cool tool, uh box.
My dad built me a wooden one when I was a little kid I toted around for years. When I got in my teens I used to look in the S&H Green Stamp catalog and there was also a store beside where she went and got groceries. She allowed me to use some of her stamps to get my first "real" tool box.
My first toolbox/toolset was a harbor freight toolset I got as a Christmasgift when I was a kid. It came in a plastic box and alot of the tools got bent or broke very quickly. I still have it in the back of my honda but half of its missing. Maybe I should make a new set from the $1 sections of pawn shops and thrift stores
Not my first tool box, but my dad's. My uncle gave it to him before he went off to Vietnam in '68. Dad was 13 yrs. old at the time. This was "the" go-to toolbox growing up... so it was kinda my 1st toolbox too. Man it had some great old tools in it. I mean if someone was in a jam, all you had to do was grab this toolbox and maybe a socket set and you could put a locomotive back together. LOL... seemed that way anyway. I think I still have all the tools... When dad retired, he downsized to a condo in Florida and had my brother to the house to divvy up all of his garage stuff. When the dust settled and the dickering ended, my brother's pile was bigger...but my pile was much better! I'm a sucker for sentimental stuff...
I have that same wrench that gramps gave me in 65, when I built my first complete engine, a Wisconsin V4
It was my grandfathers Kennedy tool box I was given after he passed away (I was still in high school). I worked out of it for years until I ran out of room and bought a used Snap on Taco wagon. I still have it and will die with it.
The Jalopy Journal
