Sears/Craftsman Metric Tool Set

[papadan]

Back about 79, I had some stuck lugs on a Hyster forklift. The only strong arm I had at the time was a Craftsman round bar with the sliding head. With a cheater I got the lugs loose but bent the strong arm in half. Took it to Sears and this little guy working there said he had never seen one like it. He gave me a new one. The next day I had to remove the other wheel on the same fork truck. When I walked in and laid the bent tool down on his counter, he squealed like a little girl and called me a beast. Me and a couple other people liked to die laughing when he handed me one of the heavy flex head bars and dared me to bend it. I still have that 18" craftsman bar.

[d42jeep]

I think the two foot length of pipe I used as a cheater, combined with my standing on the pipe and bouncing to loosen the bolts, could maybe have contributed to the breakage.  Just maybe.  A little bit.

Cuz Bill,
Here is one of my early (‘57) VW Buses from the ‘70s. I think the most expensive one was $75.00! The lug bolts were a breeze compared to that rear axle nut.
Cuz Don Houghton

[Bill Houghton]

Cuz Bill,
Here is one of my early (‘57) VW Buses from the ‘70s. I think the most expensive one was $75.00! The lug bolts were a breeze compared to that rear axle nut.
Cuz Don Houghton

Nice bus.  My sweetie (officially my sweetie of 50 years last October; my bride of 48 years since last June) had a '62 bus, with the far more powerful* 40 hp engine than your 1957 example, which probably has the 36 hp motor.

And yes, the rear axle nut was a challenge, but I had to remove the lug bolts far more often.
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*I can type that with a straight face, but I'm not sure I could have said it with a straight face.  She, and later we, lived on the North side of the Golden Gate Bridge, and she worked in San Francisco (on the South side of the bridge, for those not conversant with SF Bay Area geography).  It was the late 60s, so of course we picked up hitchhikers.  Normal speed going up the Waldo Grade approach to the bridge with the two of us and three to four hitchhikers plus a dog or two was 15 mph in first gear, motor whirling away like a Cuisinart accidentally plugged into a 220 volt outlet (though with slightly longer life expectancy).

[Jim C.]

Early on, Sears offered smaller, tool specific Craftsman branded metric sets, versus the entire set shown above, so I think I should at least show you an example.  Depicted below is the six piece DOE wrench set in its original black plastic tool roll.  (Just to be sure, the wrenches depicted below are not the same wrenches shown in the complete set above.)  Since I started collecting Craftsman metric tools, I've come across a few DOE wrench sets in their black plastic tool rolls.  As you may expect, after about 55 years or so, the plastic has become somewhat stiff and brittle.  It can crack if you're not careful.  Sears/Craftsman also offered a six wrench DBE set in a black plastic tool roll.  For whatever reason, and with absolutely no data other than my personal experience, it seems that the DBE wrenches individually and in sets are more difficult to find than are their DOE counterparts.  Anyway, here’s a look at the DOE set.

Jim C.