Walden Worcester socket spanners.

[Allan]

I called in to a favourite junk shop on my way home from a weekend celebration of a mate's 80th birthday and our own 52nd wedding anniversary, and happened upon some interesting tools. I'd love to post photos but my new phone does not let this techniphobe do this. Anyway, I came home with a Walden Worcester tool number 111, which is a 1/2" drive socket with a captive attachment within that allows a standard 1/2" socket to be fitted to the other end. That captive piece slides in and out of the driven piece, allowing the driver to be lifted and cranked back just a a ratchet works in a modern ratchet handle. This means the tool can be driven with a standard L handle, but used like a ratchet handle. I had to have it!

The socket I bought with it is WW no 225, which is a 6 point 25/32" unit. There were a couple of more common use wrenches/sockets with ?/32" sizes in older tool kits so I didn't give it much thought at the time. But in the box there were 4 or 5 other WW 6 point sockets, perhaps from the same set initially, and ALL were in /32" sizes. I got to thinking on the way home that perhaps this was done deliberately, because a 6 point socket does not need to be as close a fit as a 12 piont one. Do I have to get my mate to go back nd buy the rest of them?

AllAn from down under.

[J and M Machine]

Wow Walden tools in Australia? Who would of thought?
Allan: here's a link if you haven't already seen it.
http://alloy-artifacts.org/walden-worcester.html

We drive by the factory often as it was on the main road leading into city of Worcester.
http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/20 ... ester.html

[Terry_007]

Here is the Ford set I found in an antique shop not long ago. Gladly paid the $35 for them.
Terry

[Allan]

John, thanks for the two references. From the first one, I checked the socket listings, and the tool I bought is shown as p/n 1113, 1/2' drive ratchet adaptor. I could find no listing for a set of sockets in /32" increments, so my question about them remains unanswered. There are the odd /32 size sockets included in some sets, just as they were in older sets of box and open end wrenches, but they cover a couple of specific applications long since deleted.
We find many Walden Worcester tools in Australia. They are usually quite early tools, probably imported before the Australian brands, Austalloy, Dufor and Sidchrome came onto the market. Blue Point, Mossberg and Herbrand also turn up, in lesser numbers.

AllAn from down under.