Off topic Machinist Wooden Tool Box.

Hello,

Nice tool box. The old tool boxes were lined with some type of felt. Be careful in how your clean it as it is very touchy and old. But, the felt makes all of the little parts and tools not make much sound when placing them in the drawers or the large top area.

As teens, we bought new versions, based on these old finds. At the time, we were not the antique shop visitors or shoppers. The local hardware store or hobby store had them in stock.

Here is an old story about slot cars from the mid 60s popularity,

Back in 1963-64, we had our real cars all fixed up, cruised many local hot spots and we all started college, so money was tight for more hop up stuff for our cars. The drag racing scene was fading from our memories as the costs kept rising for repairs and more go fast goodies. So, we turned to slot cars after my friend got a kit for Christmas. We spent hours of racing these little cars on the winding tracks. We finally decided to make a straight track all the way across the room from several kits, thus creating a drag strip. Using the up down push controllers and stock sports cars, we started our own Long Beach Dragstrip.

It was fun while that lasted, but after visiting a hobby shop called J&J Raceway (or raceshop) in North Long Beach, we got hooked. It did not cost very much to buy parts and make our own cars for the sports car circuit or heavily modified rails/sports cars for the high power dragstrip at this fabulous hobby shop.

We met the heroes of the time, Bob Braverman and Gene Husting. They were about 15+ years older than us, but so much wiser on these builds. They were a wealth of knowledge and were very friendly to us novices asking for advice on speed secrets, epoxy, wire windings, German bearings, thin solder attachments, etc. Their cars were out of reach of 95% of the rest of the racers as they were the quickest around. We had fun building these cars and the creativity was in full bloom. We did the epoxy thing, got super small bearings for a smoother motor, and made our own frames.

We used long brass tubing with rolled thin aluminum bodies, shorter full tube frames for the sports and gasser classes. There was the WOODEN TACKLE BOX WITH MULTIPLE COMPARTMENTS, tons of extra parts, rewound motors, epoxy tubes, soldering guns, smelly solder and flux, oily rags and that wonderful wintergreen/alcohol smell that permeated the whole box. If you had several cars, there was usually a pull out compartment just the right size for 1/24 models. Brass frames, motors, they all fit inside these wonderful wooden boxes. The cost was still less than full size car hop up goodies.

Jnaki

The scene at the big name tracks like J&J had their regulars that looked at you funny when you walked in with a wooden box. It was their turf and you are being watched. When the cars we made came out of the boxes, then people would come up and look at the interesting take on racing. It was like the old, wild western movies, the new guy in town is here to make some noise… actually, these racers made a slight whizzing noise for about a second.

We took all of that advice from the top two guys and made our own versions for both types of racing. Our weekly racing took place nearby in a smaller road racing tuning shop, but once a month, we ventured up to J&J to see how well we would do against the hard core racers, We would always come back smiling and would have tales to tell, sometimes with blown up motors and cracked bodies. Pit row was like a row of wooden tool boxes with tons of parts, completed race cars and bodies to change classes for more racing with the same custom built tubing chassis construction. Those were the times…what happened to all of my stuff?

Since it had been years ago for any use, I decided that I would give it all to this neighborhood kid that did not have much. I gave him a 12v transformer, a few long straight tracks and all of my old cars in the wonderful wooden box. His eyes lit up like Christmas in July…did he turn into a drag racer/car nut? Who knows, he might be fishing off a local pier using that box for a seat.

Note:
Here is an excerpt from one of the pages that brought more information from the memory banks from those days.

In the article on “prepping the motor,” a name popped out that sounded familiar. It was a small shop that was on the main drag in our old high school cruising area. We must have driven by that place a zillion times over the years. When we visited the shop, we looked around while asking questions. We never left our armatures to get epoxied and balanced, but picked up some pointers by looking at finished products. Today, that old Toyota dealer has expanded and taken over the whole couple of blocks of cars and trucks. The old Electronic Balancing building is also gone from the area in Long Beach.

But, in 63-65, Electronic Balancing at that Long Beach Blvd address was well known. But, we picked up our speed secrets from the racers we talked to at the local, J&J Hobby Shop. We were told how to "true" the armature on a small lathe for symmetry. Those top racers told us that shaping the epoxy was the key. But, for us, a small woodworking lathe was used to true the epoxy coating layers to fit inside of the DC 85 motors.

The skills we learned in the HS metal and auto shops helped us with the truing of the epoxy shaping. We kept the epoxy coating even all around the original armature windings. We had quite a collection of armatures and could rebuild broken ones with all new stuff if needed.

Once those armatures were trued, finished, and installed, then the next thing was the outer bearings on the DC 85 motors. The original brass press fit bearings came stock from the factory. But as hot rodders, we knew that ball bearings would make the motor spin so much faster than stock. The hobby shops started selling small bearings for the DC 85 motors, but people had to drill a larger hole to fit the small bearings. An exact true drilling hole was necessary for the motor to run smoothly.

People started to buy small German bearings to replace the stock molded brass bearing housing. That improved the speeds. I was able to get some super high speed bearings that fit inside a dentist’s drill that spun at 250k per second. This made a world of difference in speed. Plus, the true 250k per second, bearings actually fit in the stock Pittman DC85 holes once the stock brass fittings were popped out. No need to do a precision re-drill fitting.

These super-fast, dental bearings made little to no sound. It made our motors much faster…The bearings were expensive, but dentists always threw away used bearings and replaced them with new, better ones as their technology expanded. So, free is better than high costs. When I was asked about the bearings, I just replied, “Go see your dentist two times a year as prescribed”…ha!

But, on those rainy days in So Cal, we got out the old circle track of little slot cars and had a blast running them until the wee hours of the morning. Homemade snacks kept us going, along with tons of soft drinks. This was our X-Box and Playstations of the time period.

 

I definitely would not do much to it. Blow out the crumbs with compressed air .. gently and some Murphys Oil soap to clean it up.

 

Here's mine, I don't think it's a Gerstner but is a well made black walnut box none the less. It belonged to one of my mentors, a WWII navy vet.

 

Pull out the bottom drawers and see if there is a Gerstener & Sons logo stenciled in black on the bottom wood floor or inside on the back behind the drawers after taking all the drawers out, some time's Gerstener stenciled the drawer bottom as well.
Hope your able to find out who made your Wooden Walnut Chest Machinist Tool Box, keep us posted.
The locks & hatches may also have name's on them that may help.
It's a nice built Machinist Tool Chest, hope your able to pass the Walnut Tool Chest onto another family member some day.

Dustin
(1Nimrod)

 

I enjoyed the history of your Slot Car day's, Slot Car Racing was very popular here in South West Michigan up into the 1990's.
My youngest Brother-in-law was heavily into Slot Car's $$ the Little Town of Hartford MI had Slot Car Racing in a old store the owner made a huge track for all the young kids to race on, plus he sold replacement part's & Slot Cars $$, my Mother-in-law invested way more money into Slot Cars for her Son than she wanted to.
Great story & Wooden Machinist Tool Chest.

Dustin
(1Nimrod)