In My Tool Box

[dmort]

My master Snap On tool wagon was the master? and is 55" long. I also have the large top box and a cabinet that hangs off the side. The 9/32 drives were made for the military, why? I don't know.
I do have some MoMax in my Kennedy roll around. Is it the same Cleveland that made the twist drills? Back in the 60s the Cleveland Twist Drills were the cat's meow.

Yes....I think they dropped the MoMax tool bits. Read where T-15 is just as good but I wouldn't know. I also looked for Chicago Latrobe and ended up on a site that sells used or new in the box. That was it. Sounds like Greenfield Tap and Die was purchased and has moved offshore. Seems to be the way of things.

Mort

 

[Butch Lambert]

I just gave my Son that runs my car shop my Father in Law's Model A tools. The old metal linear compression gauge, king pin reaming tools, a ton of old Sun test equip, my old VW transmission jigs to set the shift forks, and oh jeez, what a bunch of old stuff. I gave away my factory Porsche shop manuals that were from 1959 through 1978. I also had the 4 cam Carrera manuals. No telling how many shop manuals I have thrown above the shop office. Some are from the 40s.
Maybe I need to dig this stuff out and put it on EBay.

 

[Butch Lambert]

Yes....I think they dropped the MoMax tool bits. Read where T-15 is just as good but I wouldn't know. I also looked for Chicago Latrobe and ended up on a site that sells used or new in the box. That was it. Sounds like Greenfield Tap and Dye was purchased and has moved offshore. Seems to be the way of things.

Mort

When it warms up I will look for more tools. I have my FIL's Western Auto 1./4' drill motor that has a metal toggle switch to turn it off and on. He never had money to buy nice stuff, but Western Auto loved him. I have his old circular saw and jig saw. I had an old boring bar for auto engines that also found another home.
Mort, I have all kinds of old machine tool tooling. I originally bought an old friends shop and tooling many years. Roy had a manual machine shop that he worked in since the late 40s.
Mort, you're going to have me digging through a bunch of old stuff.

 

[brickeyee]

When it warms up I will look for more tools. I have my FIL's Western Auto 1./4' drill motor that has a metal toggle switch to turn it off and on. He never had money to buy nice stuff, but Western Auto loved him. I have his old circular saw and jig saw. I had an old boring bar for auto engines that also found another home.
Mort, I have all kinds of old machine tool tooling. I originally bought an old friends shop and tooling many years. Roy had a manual machine shop that he worked in since the late 40s.
Mort, you're going to have me digging through a bunch of old stuff.

I have my grandfathers drill marked B&D that is probably their version.
Single speed, all metal gear reduction, metal (cast steel) case, hand chuck, toggle for direction and another for on/off.

 

[MilGunsmith]

The odd sized drive sockets, like 9/32" and 5/8", were made in an effort to stop pilfering from big companies and the military. They didn't fit your ratchets at home. There were light strings for construction sights that used a left hand thread bulb for the same reason.

 

[dmort]

One of the things I found recently was this old timing card and I decided to post it.

The book by Don Francisco was my bible when it came to small block Chevy performance. Listed in there are several speed part manufacturers who have long since faded away. When it came to cams he highly recommended Ed Winfield, who had a wider selection of grinds for the 283 than anybody.

I was in the process of putting on some new but used 327 high-performance heads. Back when gas stations did more than sell drinks and food they would work on cars.....some more than others. A friend of mine worked in a gas station that did valve jobs. While he was doing the heads I took the early Duntov
8-18 (30-30 came out later) into Ed for a regrind.

Turns out Ed was working out of a small shop on Laskie St. in San Fransicko. It was really more like an ally. When I entered it was obvious Ed ran the shop by himself. He asked me questions about the shift point, tire height, and rear-end gear ratio. That's all I remember but there may have been more. After using a slide rule (remember those?) he came up with the specs you see on this card. .440 lift isn't much but I was using stock Chevy springs at the time.

This card was hand-written by Ed Winfield. The only thing missing is his business stamp at the top of the card. It has just slowly faded away. The fact that I still have it is totally by chance.

Mort

 

[dmort]

This mike was handed down to me when I was working at the shipyard. At the time I wasn't aware of Miller Falls making precision instruments. The Navy had a calibration program where they would check anything used in the machine shop so I turned it in. On a 1-2-3 block it was really close. When I got it back it was on the money. I haven't used it since 1970 but it still has a place in my machinist's chest.

Mort

 

[dmort]

This is a simple bearing scraper that came to me in an unusual way. It belonged to an elderly German mechanic who had a garage/gas station in a remote mining town that was still hanging on during the depression

It just so happened a friend of mine was living with his wife on the mining claim that had belonged to the mechanic. The house got water from an old mining ditch and electricity from a generator. It was pretty simple, wood heat and a wood cooking stove. We were there to visit and help with problems they had been dealing with in the old house. The old German mechanic had loaded the attic area with leftovers from his business.

The heaviest item in the attic was a hand pump gas pump. The top was a glass globe or cylinder with increments marked in gallons. You would fill the globe by hand and then fill the car by gravity. My buddy offered it to me before we took it to the dump. The dump consisted of 150 of slope below the road edge that spilled onto mounds of gravel left over from hydraulic mining. I passed in the offer and down the hill it went. Of course the glass broke and I had second thoughts about having saved that piece. It would have been pretty cool. Too late now.

Back at the house and in the attic we continued to remove a lot of old stuff....but didn't make another dump run. In the attic I spotted a homemade wooded tool chest with drawers. I looked through it hoping I would find some old measuring tools even a simple 6 inch scale, but it was not to be. I did find this scraper for Babbit bearings and took it home.

I already had two scrapers I made at the ship yard from three sided hand files, but when a friend asked to work on an old 4 cylinder compressor that it was knocking, I grabbed a hand file and the scraper from the mining claim and went at it. It was great working on a project with a simple tool used by someone from another day.

The stone dressing was something I did. Don't remember if that was even necessary.

I don't think this tool was made from a file as there are voids on the three scraping edges.

Mort

 

[Louis.J]

Jackie my Dad was the same way and only had an 8th grade education. Back in the day that was not unusual here but it seems folks back then had allot more common sense.

I have found allot of use for the below tool in my tool box. A Starrett 670B / 645F Hole Attachment.

 

[Jim Kobe]

I've got one of those but haven't used it in years, it came with my Starret indiicator. Interesting but looking through my tool box, I found the oruiginal sales receipt for all of the tools I bought at the local Ace Hardware store dated 6/6/62, just when I started my apprenticeship. Still have all of those tools and use most daily.

 

[dmort]

I haven't seen that attachment until now...pretty trick. I have a Starret196B with a wiggler I think those are pretty common.

Mort

I bet Jackie has stuff you would only find in an antique store.

 

[dmort]

When I was buying tools and getting started, the salesman said I would need the Machinery Handbook as it was the Bible. I was hesitant because of the price but went ahead with the purchase.

Sometime later when I was thumbing thru it, someone in the shop suggested I could save time and find every thing I needed to know in this other publication. How true that was. The dirty finger prints say it all......and it was cheap.

Mort

 

[Butch Lambert]

Mort, Mine is the 17th edition also, but mine is in rough used condition. I'm not familiar with the other book.

 

[dmort]

Butch, the other publication is from Prentice-Hall, first published in 1945 until 1980 something. They are still available online pretty cheap. Ignore the bidding sites if you decide to look for one. There is more info for the Machinist than you will ever use.

Mort

 

[GeneT]

My favorite guide is "Audel's Machinists and Tool Makers Handy Book'. My copy is the 1941 edition, printed in 1950. Better suited to the home shop than Machinery's, imo.

GsT

 

[dmort]

i Know Jackie used calipers enough to be comfortable with them on close measurements. I never was unless there was plenty of material to remove and I would check against a ruler. On a bore a 1 to 12 inch inside mic would be used. That measurement would be checked against an outside mic GENTLY held in a soft jaw.

The calipers pictured here are two Starett and one B & S. The 12 inch Pixtor dividers are for layout.



Mort