What Was YOUR First Tool Set?

I like VISE GRIPS, only if they are the Vise Grip made in DeWitt Nebraska. I have about 150 pair in maybe 20 different styles. Every so often another pair that I have never seen of thought might exist happenes along. Lloyd bought these at an auction and I bought them off Lloyd.

Advertised on Ebay as "carpenter's tools", I inexpensively purchased this cool old bodyman's set. Lead and beeswax included. I'm thrilled.

Frank Mossberg (the gunmaker) was poised to be one of this country's largest toolmakers. He WAS the Craftsman Tools of his day, evidently. Except he made his own tools... A slow response to changing times (pressed steel sockets were OUT, billet thickwall sockets were IN) allowed them to lose market share. And then the Depression hit! After the Depression Mossberg specialized in torque wrenches! APCO-Mossberg.

Ebay nearly always seems to have a Frank Mossberg tool set for sale. NOT expensive when you consider they are around 100 years old. This set I bought is a deluxe set with open-end wrenches. Very cool!
They WILL get put to work but not on any high-torque applications. They are mostly for display, now.

In the earliest part of the last century Mossberg bought something called "Auto-Cle" (French for Auto KEY). Just the very first mass-produced interchangeable socket sets for automotive work! Half-inch drive right off the bat! Today's sockets and ratchets will work with it. Mossberg produced these and the automotive tool industry as we know it was born.

Read all about it on Alloy Artifacts. http://alloy-artifacts.org

The components of this welding positioner were the drives and control from my wife's tread mill. I did ask her permission to use the treadmill just as she was leaving for Atlanta. The 90 volt DC Pacific Scientific motor drives the variable speed of the chuck. The angle drive is repurposed from an ancient Miller wire feeder.
The screw-motor that raises and lowers the running surface of the treadmill now drives the tilt of the chuck through a bell-crank and chain over half sprocket system. The lowest speed is about 100 seconds per revolution.
The running surface belt has been repurposed for chip control on a milling machine.

This is an 1897 HOEFER drillpress made in Illinois. I bought it from MAGIHC Mike. The drill was taken apart, assessed, cleaned and repaired as required. Each piece was painted then assembled the next day. The babbit bearing lubrication points were converted to grease zerks from oil ports. The gears are in very good condition.
BTW, all of the black parts are treated with a liquid I bought at a gun shop then hand polished with an automotive carnauba wax from Beauty Shine.

Really nice, Nikki!

Check out this pair of scissors. The both of them are rated for 16 gauge sheetmetal. They came from my Dad's shop, I do not remember ever using either hand sheer for serious work. Dad used to refer to them as "circun-scissors". They are about a metre long. The compound action sheer has removable cutters. I have been told these are from the late 1800's. Maybe of maybe not, but they are old.
I have the "castiron stake plate that these scissors' tangs fit into for stability.

"Circum-scissors" is pretty good, nikki!

My latest cheap tool find on ebay is this JH Williams socket set. It's like new. It's now in my WORK toolbox, it's just that nice and useful.

The USA made such nice things once upon a time....

When ever I am in a pawn shop or secondhand store I will dig through the buckets of miscellaneous wrenches and sockets. I look for Double Hex, Dreadnought SK, Grey, Hazet and old Craftsman. Anything BSW and British like Gordon in BSW and AF.
I like old sheet metal tools, in particular, different hand sheer shapes. I buy old Rockwell Delta and Canadian Beaver machines. I like them Beavers. The old Beaver table saws are anything from free to whatever. I have a Beaver table saw from the 1970s and a first generation tilting arbour. Both take 8 inch blades, maximum.

Nikki, I think I've heard of everything you mention except Deadnought Beavers. What are THOSE?