9/32 Plomb WF socket set

[pj128]

I recently bought a Plomb socket set for my GMTK. The 6" extension is marked WF5, breaker bar WF7,ratchet WF8,sliding T handle WF9. Does any one know what tool WF6 is Should the sockets have WF markings as well mine don't
Thanks Phil

[Wingnutt]

WF-6 is the nutdriver. The sockets were WF-10 through -15. I posted a link to a WF list in the Plomb $100 Master Tool Set thread...

[pj128]

Thanks Wingnut I did try the link to the WF series and I got the message this website no longer available
Phil

[Wingnutt]

That's weird. I got that link from the 'War Finish' thread that lt. luke started, where nordstar originally posted it. Fortunately, there's a table of WF tools on the other link, too... Here it is again...
http://www.vannattabros.com/plomb/plombtool.html

Are you using the 9/32 midget set in place of the 1/4 midget set? Or is there a GMTK with a 9/32 set in it that I don't about?

[pj128]

I want my GMTk to be period correct but it's going to be what I call a scroungers one. If you have ever seen John Wayne's Flying Leathernecks I want it to be something like Clancy would have. The tools must be military but I'm going to have the brands I like hence the WF 9/32 plomb socket set

[Wingnutt]

Clancy! I like it. Looking forward to seeing it as you make progress...

[AZ Jeff]

Never could figure out the 9/32nds PLOMB stuff. Hundreds -- probably thousands -- of the "WF" marked 9/32nds drive sockets along with extensions and sliding T handles came out of a storage unit sale in Tucson in the late 1990s. The tool sellers that had the stuff had resorted to grinding down the drives to 1/4" just to make them more "sellable" They gave up after a while. I filled my (then) Honda wagon with a mountain of the stuff they were quick to blow out for about $60. I didn't realize the "drive" issue until I got home... I still have a few of the neat little boxed socket six-packs of 1/4" sockets (9/32nds drive)with the "AC" (Air Corps) contract number that I kept to remember that purchase. The same sale yeilded a few HINSDALE and SNAP-ON tools in the same 9/32nds drive. The boxes had 1942 dated newspaper in them

Jeff Q.
AZ

[Wingnutt]

You're making me drool on my keyboard, Jeff...

I've heard the filing-down stories before and never could understand that. There's no way to be consistent and have it mic out in a way that you could use it for anything precise.

There is a theory floating around that the military used 9/32 drive to prevent theft (odd size, no use in civilian marketplace), but 9/32 drive preceded 1/4 drive in the evolution of socket sizes.

[lucakiki]

.

There is a theory floating around that the military used 9/32 drive to prevent theft (odd size, no use in civilian marketplace), but 9/32 drive preceded 1/4 drive in the evolution of socket sizes.

I have also often read of this theory, but never really believed to it.
I just believe, as you mentioned, that 9/32" drive preceded the 1/4" drive.
Snap-on for instance just stopped marketing the 9/32" drive in 1945, barring postwar industrial lock button tools.

I do own a couple of Snap-on war time sets,but personally I would not use one for a GMTK even if I do have evidence of Snap-on 9/32" drive sockets having been supplied to the military.