Old Snap On WorkBench?

My Grandfather passed away recently. After my family finished sorting out all of his stuff we came across an old Snap On wall mounted workbench & Snap On rolling tool chest.

Not sure how old they are, searched the web but did not find a lot of info about it. I do know that he owned a full service Shell station for 30+ years. Since I am in the process of building a workbench in my garage, I figured I would try to repurpose or incorporate these into the garage somehow to honor him.

Does anyone have an idea how old these are or what they might be worth? My family was trying to sell them both at a yard sale for $25 bucks.

Give them the 25 bucks and make them part of your present and future.

Turkey_Lurker03 said:

My Grandfather passed away recently. After my family finished sorting out all of his stuff we came across an old Snap On wall mounted workbench & Snap On rolling tool chest.

Not sure how old they are, searched the web but did not find a lot of info about it. I do know that he owned a full service Shell station for 30+ years. Since I am in the process of building a workbench in my garage, I figured I would try to repurpose or incorporate these into the garage somehow to honor him.

Does anyone have an idea how old these are or what they might be worth? My family was trying to sell them both at a yard sale for $25 bucks.

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Put some elbow grease into fixing the rough spouts and polish the good spots and you have a classic garage addition.

No idea on real value, but thats a SOLID piece of Americana if Ive ever seen one.

Dude, don't listen to anyone!

If you want it done right and want a hand me done to future generations, it needs to be blasted and a primer/repaint. Sorry bro

You should ask on www.garagejournal.com which Snap-On model that is. That website will really help motivate you to restore it and keep it

ViciousJay said:

Dude, don't listen to anyone!

If you want it done right and want a hand me done to future generations, it needs to be blasted and a primer/repaint. Sorry bro

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This would be ideal, old/refinished. Sandblasting is cheap, paint is however far you want to get carried away with it. But it will go from oh it’s a free old cabinet, to a badass forever tool cabinet.

I wouldn't sand blast it, use an aircraft paint remover. From that point you could either paint or powder coat it. Personally, I would powdercoat it. You don't want to sandblast it because the media gets into the joints and between panels. Garagejournal has a vintage tool forum as do a lot of other sites where people restore them and have some good insight. If I remember right there's a subreddit that restores old tool too. Do some reading on vintage toolbox restorations and you'll find a ton of information.

Personally, I would give it a thorough cleaning/lubing of hinges and rock it as is.

A lot of character in that.

ViciousJay said:

Dude, don't listen to anyone!
If you want it done right and want a hand me done to future generations, it needs to be blasted and a primer/repaint. Sorry bro

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THIS. It needs to be soda-blasted and recoated/baked with Kenosha Red for a true restoration. Or, keep it as it is and enjoy the "history in patina." It will likely cost $200-$300 to properly soda-blast it, and figure another $300-$400 to paint and bake it with the appropriate paint.

The vintage stuff isn't worth as much as I think it ought to be. Lots of them are on Craiglist in the $350-$800 range depending on condition where the newer KRA/KRLs are several thousand dollars. The older boxes and benches are sliders, not ball bearing. It can be very time consuming straightening them all out. I used a dry film lubricant on all of the sliders on my vintage boxes.

The catalog scans on this page are excellent for IDing Snap On stuff:
https://www.collectingsnapon.com/index.php?page=pages/FAQ

Turkey_Lurker03 said:

My family was trying to sell them both at a yard sale for $25 bucks.

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GAH if I saw someone trying to sell those for $25, my conscience would get the best of me, and I'd tear the for-sale sign off for them. If I had to guess, in current condition likely $250-$350 tops. If fully restored, maybe $800-$1000 depending on quality. Honestly, the sentimental value is likely worth restoring and keeping, don't sell those things!

Really cool pieces, I agree with above in that they probably don't pull the $ that you would want to let them go and they'd be much better served to be restored in your Grandpa's honor.

fwiw I inherited a small snap on box 6 drawer from around the same era, same logo style, had a pawn shop owner offer me $150 for it when he came by to purchase some other old tools I had posted. I said nah, it wasn't for sale.. he made a call to someone and came back and offered me $250 lol still said no. It's in much worse shape than yours though.

Those must be from back when Snap-On was still reasonably priced.

I'd just clean them up and use them as is. I find distressed items much more appealing, usually.

Thanks for all the responses and advice everyone! I totally forgot about garagejournal.com that's a great site. I'll look at the collectingsnapon site to just for kicks.

Both pieces are mine now, and also was just surprised with his old Wilton vise that has the anvil for metal working. (looks equally as old)

Gave everything a WD40 bath but could still use some TLC. The casters roll really nice and drawers/doors slide and open smoothly. Paint is a little rough in spots but overall really solid.

Still a little torn whether to blast them/restore or just to stick with the rustic look but having a blank canvas is part of the fun. Definitely going to keep them! Hard to describe the feeling, but there was something always mysterious and comforting exploring my GPops old garage when I was a kid over 30 years ago.

apex svt said:

This would be ideal, old/refinished. Sandblasting is cheap, paint is however far you want to get carried away with it. But it will go from oh it’s a free old cabinet, to a badass forever tool cabinet.

Click to expand...

I personally would sand and re-sand, after looking at the wood I consider polyurethane or a stain before and get a hardener ( no pun intended with a harder ) ha

I’d leave it alone and rock it as is! If the sliders need a little TLC to work properly do that. But personally I’d leave it alone and just enjoy it.


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