1/4 Drive Sets

[Cruiser808]

Proto from 1970 to the 90’s.

[four.cycle]

pretty fabulous collection of Plomb/Proto there, Cruiser808!

[Cruiser808]

Thanks four.cycle, you’ve got an awesome collection of 1/4 sets. Keep um coming. 

[muddy]

That's a heck of a collection!

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[CRTDI]

Cruiser,

Thank you for posting these. Simply awe inspiring!

From your first group photo. For date progression, 1st row, l/h - r/h is earliest, 2nd row l/h - r/h is later and so on?

[Cruiser808]

Hi CRTDI, thanks for the kind words. Yup, left to right and top to bottom.

[Cruiser808]

Here are some more modern 1/4 Proto ratchets that don’t come in sets.

[Cruiser808]

Thanks muddy, a labor of love and years in the making.

[Cruiser808]

The Proto Spinflex is actually a MAC ratchet with the Proto name. It’s MAC’s answer to a question nobody asked. As such, it doesn’t get used much.

[CRTDI]

Hi CRTDI, thanks for the kind words. Yup, left to right and top to bottom.

This really helps me and my tiny brain. I now know that I got to dig a little deeper, and can't rely on paint type/color or the shape of the box to assume approximate age for these sets.

Probably time for me to learn date codes on the actual pieces...LOL

[J.A.F.E.]

That is dazzling. What is even more impressive than what you have is how nice it all is.

[Cruiser808]

Thanks Steve, let me know which one you like and I’ll take individual pics.

[J.A.F.E.]

The earlier stuff is of most interest to me so anything you'd like to showcase would be most interesting to these eyeballs. Thanks for the offer!

How do you distinguish the years on the boxes?

[Cruiser808]

Hi Steve, you got it. It's easy for the early Plombs. Like Snap-on, Plomb put year dates up to 1941. Actually,  I found some early 1942 sockets with a number stamp. But, most of the war years had letters stamped on them. TWERSTY did the research and found that the letters coincided with the years,  B=1942, C=1943, and so on. For the 1/4 sets, 1944 and 1945 rarely had markings, but the designs are giveaways. Also, the square edge Plomb boxes during the war had some nasty, ugly, sticky paint that will probably never die. Then came the round edge boxes. After the end of the war, the tools were chrome again and the tool boxes were coated with red paint and new logos. During the transition to Proto, the tool design remained consistent with the last Plomb sets. Moving on to early Proto, the Flying Lady was painted on all the Proto boxes. They also remained the same design from the Plomb years.

[J.A.F.E.]

Thanks. A short paragraph but really packed with great information. I need to write that all down in list form I'll need a lot of memory refreshing before all that sticks.