OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Collectors Corner Collectables Vintage Hercules SAE socket set

Hi Gadge, Norm, Slash, Jack, et al,

Thanks for all the comments. A few followup thoughts:

Hercules
Like Jack I was also thinking they may have been of USA manufacture or licence-made in Oz, probably didn't make that clear in my post. But I think Gadge probably has it closer. I too had found an image of that pair of pliers.

Slash's Pa's tools (I really hope those apostrophes are correct...)
Yes Slash, my Dad and I are happy for me to inherit his tools too, in fact he's already encouraged me to take some away! I must pull his plane out and see who made it, I suspect it's from Sheffield, England, probably his chisels too. I still remembering him using them.

Victa spanner
This actually has several sizes, with the main spanner hole being a stepped-double-size- see photo below. The two sizes are 13/16" stepping down to 3/4". The other apertures are 1/2" on the back side and (strangely) 9/16" grading to another 1/2" on the back side.

In between the Victa spanner, 5/8" and 13/16" Sidchrome socket set spark plug sockets, long reach impact sockets and a 21mm old spark plug wrench (with elbows) I have most bases covered.

3/8" fits the old Victa/Pace Premier.

The Victa spanner 3/8" would also fit my Rover's B&S except the head is too thick. I have carefully used an angled ring spanner until now BUT with my long impact sockets I should have the right socket too. Haven't tested Eric's Lauson motor as no spark plug was present.


Japanese/Chinese/et al made
Bit of a topic here. Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea have all been through the developmental phase from cheap, often shoddy progressing up the quality scale. Now all are accepted high-quality areas and cheaper production has moved elsewhere. China has been in the game for a while, there is a lot of dross out there however selectivity results in cheap, good quality purchases. I have bought a digital vernier (pic below), real Fluke multimeter and plenty of printer toner cartridges from China with no issues (plus a variety of other cheap items of varying success). The main investment/cost may be your time taken to be selective.

The Fluke is a real Fluke, from a Fluke factory but a Chinese model for the Chinese market. So I lose any local service agent support. Others have actually opened them up and posted they are the 'real deal'. At the price I could buy 3 for the cost of 1 comparable Oz (but made in China) model.

The printer cartridges came from a relatively new Ebay store. The owner was proud enough to post photos of his (purported) facility and list details of his experience. His communication was good and is claims had more the air of an engineer's factual statements that the standard Chinese it-will-do-everything-including-warm-fuzzy-feeling-and-good-health-etc.-now-give-me-your-money line. Again, approx 25% the cost of OEM ones. When I ordered the cartridges, they were packaged well, delivered (comparatively) quickly from China and the item packaging and quality appeared frankly to be OEM. So good they also passed M-I-L Spec: Military nothing, that's Mother-In-Law Spec! If it keeps the M-I-L happy (more than once too) they must be good.

The digital vernier is a fraction (~10-20%) the cost of a comparable Mitutoyo yet it came with a good instruction leaflet, a small calibration certificate and even a spare battery. The only flaw was a broken hinge on the plastic case. I'm happy with the performance.


Cheers,