Duro Chrome deep socket box

[phantomfixer]

picked this up the other day...marked 305 sig....signal?
4 sockets 2 Wright and 2 DC...I guess another mission to fill it...not sure if WWII vintage or not...the Wrights did not have any dates on them...and they were etched locally US with an hand held etcher...
did not clean up the DC sockets yet

[d42jeep]

Luca had a NOS set like that and I think Phil beat me to a set on eBay some time back. I have the D-I sockets but have never found a box.
-Don

[Len Jones]

A nice find - Someone should recognise those markings The case appears to be finished in smooth enamel rather than a wrinkle finish.

The spark plug socket set 41- W- 2995 contains only eight sockets & nothing else.

My example contains the following sizes 1/2'' - 9/16'' - 5/8'' - 11/16'' - 3/4'' - 25/32'' - 13/16'' - 7/8''

Exert from the 1940 Duro-Chrome catalogue

Well done Don, you beat me to it

Stay safe - Len

[phantomfixer]

Thanks for posting the complete sets guys...
is the finish ok even if it is not crinkle textured

[d42jeep]

About half of my Duro boxes are smooth finish so I would say it’s no big deal.
-Don

[pjones]

I agree with Don.

Len, for reference here is my set. AS you know it is very hard to beat Don to anything on eBay. The man never sleeps!



phil

[d42jeep]

I found a picture of the wrapper of Luca’s set. It has an FSN.
-Don

[d42jeep]

I found a nice empty box in 2021 but hadn’t had much luck finding the Duro-Chrome marked sockets to go in it. After looking for so long when a partial set came up on eBay I wasted no time overpaying for it on a buy it now. It was missing the 13/16” and the 11/16” sockets. I cleaned up the sockets and added them to my nicer box. I found a 13/16” socket on eBay and bought it on a best offer. It should be arriving shortly. Now I just need to find the missing 11/16”.

[pjones]

Congrats on the set Don. I'm always looking for extras to put in my MVMTS or GMTKs....you know, useful things a general mechanic would have added to his set to work more efficiently. I've added valve fishing tools, grabbers etc.. But recently I've been wondering if this spark plug set may have found its way in to the bottom of a general mechanic's tool box.

[d42jeep]

The 13/16” socket arrived yesterday and I added it to the set. I added a D-I 11/16” socket as a placeholder until I find the correct Duro Chrome 11/16” socket.
-Don

[d42jeep]

Since my last post I found a Duro 11/16” socket but unfortunately it wasn’t knurled. Recently Wingnutt mailed me a knurled Duro 11/16” socket that will complete my set with matching sockets.
-Don

[Gordon_M]

Nice to see, well done.

I have a habit of reading too much into too little info, but my take on parts that are hand etched 'US' is that they were existing parts when the requirement came in that had to be hand done to meet spec, or at least produced before the production line could be altered to machine-stamp them?
Reasonable theory or provably wrong?

[henry501]

Gordon,

Personally I think that is a reasonable theory. FWIW I base it on John Barton’s (I believe) similar thoughts about shovel and axe markings. The gov’t grabbed up whatever existing stocks were on hand in the “market” until wartime production and military stamping could catch-up. In this case someone electro pencilled the part to denote US ownership.

Thank you,
Henry

[d42jeep]

My set is finally complete.
-Don

[Gordon_M]

That's good to see. I take it the box is a standard size, compartmented to suit, probably the smallest one with enough capacity?