Tool Talk
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: 1930 on July 02, 2011, 05:12:51 PM
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Has anyone seen any company history for Auto Specialties, I would like to know if they ever manuf. anything other than automobile jacks.
Clearly stamped on their jacks is the company name and St. Joseph Michigan.
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They made Drednaut Shock Absorbers in the 20's. I think they are still in business today making brakes.
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Very interesting Eddie, do you have an add showing this?
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Very interesting Eddie, do you have an add showing this?
Nope, just old information clogging my brain. Rusty will probably come up with something.
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I have a pair of Auto Spec. pliers. I'll try to get a pic tomorrow.
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That would be great, is it thought to be the same company that produced jacks for so many years, I dont see anything on AA about auto specialties. Maybe I am performing the search incorrectly
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I don't know if the marking will show up well -- it's a little light and the pliers are dark with age. But the full mark reads:
Auto Spec.
Duluth
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Here's a picture. The pliers on the left are marked
Auto Spec.
Duluth USA
The second pair are one of those no name pliers we talked about recently. One arm has the number 33, and the other looks like 31.
The last pair has the Honda mark.
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Well, the pic didn't make it. It should have been the right size, but was apparently too big.
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Here's a picture. The pliers on the left are marked
Auto Spec.
Duluth USA
Correction! They say "Motor Spec." Alloy Artifacts says of Motor Spec.
"Motor Specialties Company (Mosco)
The Motor Specialties Company of Waltham, Massachusetts was a maker of automotive products operating in the early 20th century, and is currently known only by the patented nut holder tool shown in the next figure. The company sold products marked with the "Mosco" brand.
No relation is known between this company and the Snap-on distribution company with a similar name operating in Chicago during the 1920s."
Still, Chicago is a ways from Duluth...
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Branson if you could send that pict. to jhason2@yahoo.com it would be appreciated, thanks
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Couple more questions, jacks are marked ST. Joseph Mich, your pliers say Deluth, I guess i need to see if they are the same place.
Whats the deal with A.A stating ...."Motor Specialties Company (Mosco) Where might that be?
And then Waltham Mass is spoken of, sounds like there may be more than one company here?
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Wasnt there some info in the past about some other auto spec. tools shown here, maybe that was lost?
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Auto Specialties Manufacturing Co, St Joseph,MI Made a few other things.
1918: Patent for a hinge 1259144 (Vehicle bow top holder)
1921: Did publitity stunt endurance race with a Ford touring car with Drednaut Shocks
They are listed in 1922: as manufacturers of automobile jacks, shock absorbers, malleable castings, etc., ;Same article also mentions branch plant at Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Then years of almost nothing....
1945: AUSCO trademarked in canada, Class: Jacks
1945:Army Ord:Ausco Hydraulic Floor and Curb Jacks, forerunners of which served with such distinction in World War II...."
(so they were making jacks during the war...)
1952: "Ausco tractor brakes for farmers" (Ausco Lambert)
1954: Farm Bus. News:"AUSCO rotary SHREDDER and CUTTER FOR BETTER SEED-BED PREPARATION ":
(They got a little side tracked?):
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By the 60's they are selling transmission lifts...(Service jacks, hand jacks, transmission handlers, cranes, garage stands)
They are also being somewhat schitzophrenic and using "Ausco Specialties Mfg. Co"
Also listed (70's) under "original equipment jacks for cars and trucks,"
1964:" Ausco Saf-Lift bumper jack"
1970 SAE journal: "Solve your braking and steering problems with Ausco designs and combinations"
(so perhaps they are making parts by 70's)
80's: Ausco clutch&brake Division...
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Yes thanks Rusty I was able to find quite a few patents by typing in the compant name as you ahve done I guess
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Branson if you could send that pict. to jhason2@yahoo.com it would be appreciated, thanks
I'll give it a shot, but the pic may need to be re-sized.
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I got the email with the pic off to jhason2@yahoo.com without a hitch.
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I visited their manufacturing plant in St Joseph, MI. in the early 60's.
Flew in on a military C 47. They wanted to help build the first "fixed" machine guns for our slick Huey Helicopters.
I took back several prototypes to my MACV-SOG Hamlet protection base in Laos. They seized up under constant spray fire. Their hydraulic jacks were world class though.
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Thanks chuck, maybe you can answer my question of did they have a sideline for hand tools at this plant. Thanks
seized up under constant spray must have been a pisser for them
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>seized up under constant spray
That was probably the least evil thing it could do. There was a reason the early machine guns were water cooled. The early designs had awfull problems with heat, if the bolt didn't expand so much as to jam in the barrel, the barrel might expand so much as to allow the shell casing to travel doiwn the barrel and get stuck (bad) , the ejectors would jam (bad), the recoil machinery would get sloppy and do weird things(bad), one prototype wouldn't stop firing after it got hot (really really bad). And if you were really unlucky, the bullets would self fire from the heat before being fully chambered....(pure evil)
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I visited their manufacturing plant in St Joseph, MI. in the early 60's.
Auto Spec had a plant in St Joe?
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That is what is cast into the early jacks Branson
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Auto Spec made no hand tools that I saw. Maybe they shipped a tool with their big auto floor jacks, or auto tool kits.
All the time I was in St. Joseph, MI, the big thing going on was that Martin Luther King was visiting a huge plant, next door,, that made washing machines.
He had toured the plant and complained to the manufacturer that all the machines were white. The plant manager said yes, that was true, but if you opened the top door and looked inside, you would see that all the agitators were black.
A true happening there, and Auto Specialties Mfg., next door, was laughing it up.
Yes, times have changed.
St Joseph, MI. is directly East, across Lake Michigan, from Chicago, IL.
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Thanks Chuck, what do you mean though by auto toolkits, can you clarify.
I found this story ( All the time I was in St. Joseph, MI, the big thing going on was that Martin Luther King was visiting a huge plant, next door,, that made washing machines.
He had toured the plant and complained to the manufacturer that all the machines were white. The plant manager said yes, that was true, but if you opened the top door and looked inside, you would see that all the agitators were black. )
very amusing and will use it often. To be honest I am still laughing only because ....well never mind, but thanks for that!
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A little political, but if it goes no further, OK.
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Ausco is still in business in Benton Harbor Mi (across the river from St Joseph). They make brakes for off-highway vehicles and industry. They sold off the jack business in 1988 to US Jack, also still in Benton Harbor.
I can't confirm the story about the washing machine company but that company would be Whirlpool which is still headquarted here.
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Ausco was a competitor of mine in the eighties and nineties. A friend of mine, who was an engineer at Hayes Brake went to work for them when our parent company bought them out. They were really big in OEM jacks for auto tool kits. Back in the teens and 20's, they made a rim spreader for jacking apart split rims. It is a kind of a three legged tool with a threaded screw in one leg that is operated by a hand crank. Where I ran into them was a multi disc brake and ball ramp actuator that they sold for ag tractors, mining and construction equipment.
I sent him an email asking for a brief history of the company. I'll post it when I get it.
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Just a new refreshing of the St. Joseph, mich. thread as I found this DOE wrench @ local swap meet. The openings are different sizes if you flip the wrench as in a tapered wrench opening. Could this have been used for shock absorbers or was this a specialized wrench for some of their other tool kit/mfg. items??? No identifyable numbers stamped or cast anywhere and the old black paint still clinging to the beam-maybe dates this wrench??? m m Cranky
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gang,
I've got a large (8-9") Auto Spec. slip joint plier, and have seen many of these same pliers for sale at the local dirt market.
That said, I never seen any other type of tool with the Auto Spec. stamping on it.
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Auto Specialty made jacks as I had one back in the 1960's.
They were right next to the Whirlpool assembly plant.