Machinists? What have I got here?

so today I happen to be on the scale when this guy brings in a tool box weighs 48 lbs. Dudes and Dudettes, I don't even care whats in it I just love tool boxes and tools so I push it aside so it doesn't get taken to the scrap pile. Catch a break and run into the office and ask the boss how much if I want to buy this toolbox its on the ticket you just got 2 people ago? he says its steel right? yes. You can have it he says. My jaw dropped, I was like uhhhhh....are you sure because I just don't feel right about that! he says its my pleasure. Well alrighty then! I think he might have thought I was asking about an empty toolbox but technically it WAS all steel (box and contents lol) so who am I to argue? Anyways, I kept all the wrenches and sockets but this is whats left and there is what looks like a passport that says something about machinists and aerospace union? Also lots of paperwork for the tools and how to use them. I'm assuming this is ''old school'' stuff? correct me if I'm wrong please!
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...psf24d2e0c.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...psf24d2e0c.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...ps9acfc37c.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...psec790e40.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...ps6856971b.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...psa8b6eef6.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...psfbdcd4c9.jpg

Whoopsie on the first double pic post, here is the correct one that goes with the top thingamajiggy thingy.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...ps986e606e.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...psc8d9c383.jpg

Pic 3 is micrometers, pic 4 and right side 5 are calipers left side are bits and taps (for making threads in metal).
Second post, is another micrometer in your hand, it should mount on the base, so you can check for runout, basically to see if something that spins is perfectly flat.

Way to go on saving it!!

Ohh wow ... nice find NA.

Judging by the typeface it was done on a typewriter. The feed rates and tools suggest he ran a lathe and possibly a milling machine.

There might be some value there.

As if someone just scrapped all that.... theres alot of value there (to me anyways, cause i use almost all those tools every day) if you where able to acquire those from the yard looks like you found yourself a nice set of basic tools to keep in the truck! Cant tell you how many times iv needed tools while out in the truck...

So this is good stuff then?

I am not familiar with brand names of these tools. I use them but do not collect them. However, I would do a bit of research because old brand name stuff is very collectable. I hade a set of drafting tools from the 50's that sold on eBay for about $75.00.

Micrometers are for precise measurements. The calipers(looks like the compass you used in school to draw a circle) are used to assist in measuring the inside or outside dimensions. These are things I would not sell because I don't currently have them. It looks like lots of other things hiding in the tool box. If you don't need them then I would do a good search on ebay for values. Mike

NA,

You have some decent stuff...The wrenches and sockets maybe don't look all that high grade but the rest looks good.

A slight correction to the last picture in your second post...the thing with the dial face is called a "dial indicator". Its a Federal brand which I am pretty sure is a high line US built brand. It's only +/- .015" reading, and reads to 0.0005" (half a thousandth of an inch) so its for very fine work, usually on a lathe or milling machine. Or as Jord suggested, in some of the finer points of mechanical work.

The thing beside the dial indicator is actually a surface gauge. It can be used with the dial indicator but there are better devices that have magnetic bases to hold the dial indicator in place. The surface gauge is a specialized tool that is used with another specialized item called a "surface plate" for marking very accurate lines on your work. You will see that it has a rod on it with two pointy ends--they are used to scratch a line on the metal workpiece. Kinda hard to describe how it works without a picture....

You should be able to get a few bucks on Craigs or Kijiji for the tools and the machinists toolbox is a great score for you!

Congrats on your first score from the yard!!

How's the yard work been going? It sounds like they have been testing you on all the crappy jobs, judging from your last post about having to climb in the baler to pull out aluminum foil!!

Jon.

Jord, I couldn't believe he scrapped it either! He put it on the scale and I opened it to make sure there weren't any bricks or anything in it to make it so heavy and saw all the tools and said to myself ''Holy %%%!!'' this has got to be something good!!

Sawmill, the job has certainly put me through the paces! I've earned my stripes in every area thats for sure! The boss let me have control of the front end today for about an hour and it was while we were getting slammed! People and vehicles were all over the place looking at me like, ''where am I supposed to go?'' lol and I was just like, '' hang on folks, things are a bit crazy right now'' while the guy in the CAT was like, ''these folks need to get out of my way'' and I'm just ''cool down it is what it is'' and the boss is like ''can you figure out what those other two guys want?'' and some lady comes back out after getting paid saying ''that van came out of nowhere like Cousin It'' (when she was trying to go back for her empty weight and got cut off) and cracked up which cracked me up! Lol, it was awesome.

I go home dirty and exhausted every day but, I'm learning new things each day and many of the return customers light up and wave and smile when they see me now and one lady gave me candy! One guy walks around saying ''Wheres Cindy in the box?'' (in reference to his first sight of me separating a gaylord of AL plate.

Yep, some of the .... area jobs are scut work for sure but I take the bad with the good because I am rewarded in the end with responsibilities no other newbies have been afforded! :)

you've got a couple of hundred bucks worth of tools easy! At least that's what I could sell it for around here

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Originally Posted by newattitude

So this is good stuff then?

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Yeah ... it looks interesting. My dad was a machinist and they could barely pry me out of the metals shop back in High School. In a way, they're tools from an earlier era because everything is computerized these days but you never know. I have tools passed down from my father and grandfather that i still use on a regular basis.

Do you have any shops in your area that specialize in selling used tools ? Someone that deals in them everyday would know the market value.

Maybe a pawn shop ? They're more general but they buy /sell used tools on a regular basis too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by newattitude

So this is good stuff then?

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Id say its great. To me anyways cause i see it as more useful than valuable $ wise. Id use the stuff rather than sell it if i came across it all. Other than the compasses. Dont really have a use for those.

The top photo, the block with a V in it is a 'Vee block'...... Its got another part that's shaped like horse shoe with a bolt stuck in it
If you put a peice if round bar in the Vee block and use the thing to its right, the scriber block to scribe a line across the end of the round bar, then turn the round bar and scribe again, do it a third time and you will have marked the exact center of the bar.
The horse shoe thing, its ends slide down the grooves in the sides of the Vee block, the bolt is done up and it locks the round bar into the Vee block.

The DTI, dial test indicator, its got a stand for it that looks like the scribing block, with a magnetic base though.
Its used to test how far out off center a peice of round bar in a lathe chuck is.
Or to make sure a workpeice is sitting flat in a milling machine, keyways and cutting splines on a shaft.

The things with a 'thimble' on them, marked with numbers, that go 'click click' when you turn them sometimes, are inside and outside micrometers, to accuratly measure indside and outside diameters.
They are sometimes used in conjuntion with the calipers, compass looking things.

The tapered metal thing with a slot in it and a flat bit on the end, is a 'morse taper' there may be a number stamped on the end.
It holds tapered drill bits in a lathe.

You should have no problem selling them to a home machinist on ebay or such.
There's some 'high speed steel turning tools' and a ' taper pin,' some square rod for keyway keys or such too.

Lay it all out flat and photo it. One item can be worth alot.

NA....great score. You might need to check the other items the same customer brought in (or brings in next time). He may be cleaning out a storage locker or a garage for a relative that was a machinist and might bring in lots of other goodies for you.

Sweet!!!

Check out the micrometers...Starrett, Browne & sharpe...I see a bunch of tap outs.

My dad was a maintenance mechanic on a flood control dam...still a lot of that stuff hanging around here, every time I spot a tool box at the curb out for trash I stop, or spy one at a yard sale...even though 97% of the time they're empty.

Gotta check...love tools.