Primitive Ratchet?

[harwill]

Coming Out with my first whazzit...

Looks like a primitive ratchet, sort of.  Either free wheels or ratchets in one direction.  To reverse, it looks like you need to pull out the 1/2" drive stub and reinsert from opposite side. Has a patent number, barely readable, and Chicago, USA stamped on the handle.  Any guesses?  See picture.

[superzstuff]

I have a set with ratchet just like that. It is not marked with maker but has Patent number 1798481 and Chicago USA. A few of the sockets are Blackhawk.

[rusty]

McNaught's first practical ratchet design, for Duro(indestro)

Nice :)

http://www.google.com/patents?id=e4NUAAAAEBAJ

[harwill]

Mine has the same patent Number!  They must be first cousins!
Any idea about when this was made?  Looks like I've got some history to read... Seems McNaught is the prime suspect?

[Bill Houghton]

I have a 1/2" drive Craftsman ratchet that uses the same principle.  Simple, fewer parts, and with a significantly thinner head* than any of the reversing ratchets I've ever seen.

*The reason I've held onto it even though I have a Snap-On ratchet that's my main user tool; in case I run into a situation where I need to save 1/4" or so to make the ratchet fit.  Probably never happen; we've reached the age of having cars that didn't come to us pre-clapped-out.  Time was, I didn't even bother to look at cars with fewer than 100,000 miles on them, because we couldn't afford them, which then led to a lot of repair time.

[rusty]

> Time was, I didn't even bother to look at cars with fewer than 100,000 miles on them

You know you have been working on clunkers when you are *surprised* that the brake caliper bolts still have hexagonal heads on them, not rounded heads from 40+ previous brake jobs...;P

[harwill]

Hmmm,  the fly in the ointment here is that those good 'ol tools most likely won't do much on a new car.  It's metric, and torx, and computerized...
But, I've yet to see the caliper bolts on my 2007 Dodge diesel - approaching 100,000 on the original brake pads!
So we just do this stuff for the fun of it...