Steel Tool Box marked "WANCO Toccoa Georgia" - Hip Roof Style. How Old?

I've acquired a mechanic's steel tool box with a decal that reads "WANCO Toccoa Georgia" 19" long x 6-3/4" wide x 7-3/4" tall. Hip roof style with gray hammertone paint.

It has a lift out tray with two racks for socket wrenches.

It's certainly no prize, due to rusty condition, and I intend to recycle it. I'm just curious as to how old it might be, as an internet search came up blank and no such firm is listed on the County Chamber of Commerce website that covers Toccoa.

Steel machinist's chests have been discussed on this forum several times, so I think this is more-or-less on-topic even if it is obviously more of a mechanic item than a machinist item. Who knows? This post may even uncover the existence of WANCO machinist chests.

John Ruth

Wright Aeronautical Corporation?

johnoder said:

Wright Aeronautical Corporation?

Click to expand...

Or maybe a company with a name like, for example, W. A. Nichols Co., which I just made up, so don't go looking on Google for it.

There is a historical museum in Toccoa, so you could ask there.

Is it really hip roof, or is it gambrel roof?

I think Sears tool boxes began to have hammertone paint in the 1960's.

Larry

L Vanice,

As I was writing "hip roof", I was thinking that in some ways it is more like a gambrel roof! I grew up in a side-hall Dutch Colonial Revival house built in the Edwardian [post-Victorian] era. It had a true gambrel roof. As far as I know, a roof needs a peaked ridge in order to be considered to be a gambrel. I will cheerfully accept other information!

The center of the lid of this box is flat, rather than peaked. Its lid has the same profile as boxes currently marketed as "hip-roofed tool boxes" BUT on this box the lid is asymmetrically split and there are full-length hinges on both sides.

I agree that it does not look like a "hip-roofed house" because the ends do not slope inward.

There's some sort of logo to the left of the word "WANCO" - I will have to look more closely !

If this box is indeed a relic of the early days of Wright Aeronautical, it may have some value to someone after all. I will give it a reprieve from recycling for the time being.

John Ruth

RG LeTourneau established heavy manufacturing plant in Toccoa, GA in 1938.

this facility was sold to Westinghouse Air Brake in 1953 -WABCO

WABCO maintained presence in Toccoa until 2002--I believe

Wabco does not match WANCO but many toolboxes likely had this identifier

I, too, recognized Toccoa as related to LeTourneau and I'd just like to say that we don't write enough about him, either here or anywhere else. His autobiography--which we have mentioned here--is a smart book, well worth reading and rereading. He was born here in my little state of Vermont (got out pretty quick, though).

I’m not sure if there had been any connection with Toccoa Ga.but maybe the tool boxes would have come with a set of tools to service some sort of equipment built by Wanco rather than the box being made by Wanco them selves
https://www.wanco.com/
I am unfamiliar with the U.S. brands of these tool boxes but in Canada at one time Beach tool boxes were made in Smiths Falls Ontario .
They were later taken over by Stanley but the tool boxes were sold badged with other names by various retailers including Canadian Tire under their brand Mastercraft.

Progress is fine, but it's gone on for too long.: We used to make things in this country. #42: Beach Industries, Smiths Falls, Ontario

Regards,
Jim

"SWANCO", not "WANCO" - Another gaffe on my part.

With considerable embarrassment, after cleaning the decal with isopropyl alcohol, I discovered that the "logo" is a drawing of a swan whose neck forms the letter "S". So, the trade name now appears to be "SWANCO" rather than "WANCO"


The plot thickens:
1) Swanson Machine Corp. in Jamestown NY in the 1950's"



(Note that this looks NOTHING like the tool box in question and it's aluminum rather than steel.

2) Toccoa Metal Products Co made sheet metal boxes and chests with the trademark "Versa Box" (tm) This trademark does NOT appear on my tool box.

Now, I want to thank John Oder for embarking me into interesting research on Wright Aeronautical. I looked at a number of websites, all of which render "aeronautical" as a single word, rather than perhaps aero-nautical or the like. That firm certainly has an interesting history!

John Ruth