PLOMB Tool Display Board

michael murder · Dec 26, 2011

Don't think I've seen one of these before, but found two of them under a pile of broken drywall while cleaning out my Uncle's shed. Once I got the inch or so of dirt off them they looked pretty good!

Wrench Board

Screwdriver Board

SMKS · Dec 26, 2011

Wow, that's a rare find.

lbgradwell · Dec 26, 2011

Awesome!

jwitt · Dec 26, 2011

Very cool find!

michael murder · Dec 26, 2011

. . . and one more

I think this one's for a 3/4" set

davesnothere · Dec 26, 2011

Well hot damn if you dont f'ing **** a whole lot!

Brad54 · Dec 26, 2011

That's awesome! I don't know what you would use the socket board for (as far as function, not just style), but you could put those two other boards up in the shop and actually store your wrenches and screwdrivers on them and make them functional.

I'd like to find a Proto Tools tool board like those, because they don't have the tool outlines on the board, so I could integrate them into my shop and use them.

-Brad

930dreamer · Dec 26, 2011

Very nice, are you going to keep them?

Outlawmws · Dec 26, 2011

You definably ****...

Bull · Dec 26, 2011

I have seen only a few Plomb boards in my days of surfing for vintage tool displays. To think they were buried under your uncle's junk! Pretty awesome score!

michael murder · Dec 27, 2011

I'll probably keep them since they're family pieces. Pretty sure I couldn't afford to fill them full of PLOMB tools but I'll try to put some Proto sets on them.

jim m · Dec 27, 2011

Very very cool finds would love to find some. It would be fun trying to find the Plomb tools to fill them. But that would probley take me years

You defiantly **** :pimpflash

Jim

Lump · Dec 27, 2011

Nice find. Very cool that they were your uncle's.

lbgradwell · Dec 27, 2011

jim m said:
You defiantly ****

Does he **** with certitude or in spite of orders not to do so? :lol:

stormking · Dec 27, 2011

Great boards, is the lighter color on the face painted or shellac? Especially love the screw driver board I have been looking for one of these for the wood handle drivers.

Bolster · Dec 27, 2011

Those boards rock. I'm guessing they're at the end of the Plomb timeline because of the stylized lady and the word "streamlined." They might have even held pebbles! If so, it is your duty to fill them.

DandDMachine · Dec 27, 2011

Very nice find, My father in law gave me a couple of early Proto tool boards similar to yours. They were sitting covered in dust in a barn at the farm he recently bought. He was going to throw them out. He was suprised that anyone would want them.

michael murder · Jan 4, 2012

Found two more!

A 1/2" set board and another screwdriver one. These are a bit different though and possibly more rare. The others just had the PLOMB logo painted on. These have the PLOMB logo painted on but are then also covered with a PROTO sticker.

I think these might be just around the lawsuit period and PLOMB just slapped a sticker over the logo as they became PROTO.

See the green logo sticking out?

If I pursue filling these with PLOMB, as now I'm almost obligated to, I'll update it here.

Also, does anyone (Bull) know where to get replacement hangers for these things?

Outlawmws · Jan 4, 2012

Now you **** double!

lowbucktruck · Jan 4, 2012

Wow! Those are frickin COOL! I think you qualify for a YOU **** x 2!

4x4gearhead · Jan 4, 2012

Was your uncle a tool dist? Just wondering how he would have all those tool boards.

michael murder · Jan 4, 2012

4x4gearhead said:
Was your uncle a tool dist? Just wondering how he would have all those tool boards.

If I remember his father in-law was a mechanic, so maybe it's somehow related to that. He also worked for a mine and they were PROTO exclusive, probably from one of the two.

stormking said:
Great boards, is the lighter color on the face painted or shellac?

I can't really tell if they were painted tan and the grain is now starting to show through the paint or if they were shellacked.

Lump · Jan 5, 2012

You may be able to tell better by removing one of the bigger metal hooks, with the wide base. Hopefully the base will have prevented light and other corrosive elements from striking the original finish, and removing the metal will reveal the original finish almost completely intact.

Let us know!

stormking · Jan 6, 2012

Thanks for the information. The reason I asked is because I have a few of these and mine are a clear shellac.

Smokeshow69 · Jan 6, 2015

I know this is an old post but I absolutely love these boards! In the plvmb thread I saw you took the stickers off of the ones that where able to be taken off. Glad to see you still have these and are filling them up!

montanafordman · Jan 6, 2015

The one with the peeled off proto sticker was mine, they are cool! My grandfather had 4 boards, and my dad brought out two. The others are still in his garage that I hope to collect later. I have no idea what they held yet but the ones I received held double open end wrenches, and punches, chisels, and screw extractors. I have the proto wrenches on there since I already had a stash of them, and came across a good deal more in the same era as what I had (50s-mid 60s). Also these boards came from my great grandfathers hardware store that burned down in the late 50's in a very small farming town. You can see the outline of the wrenches on the wrench board from the smoke and heat - I know it had to be that because its not dirt that will wipe off and the surface is blackened, and blistered even if you look close., My grandfather never had anything hanging on these since he got them some nearly 60 years ago. The Proto wrenches I found to be longer than their Plomb predecessors of the same part number so the proto wrenches fit the outline better. I should add, that I think the store burned in maybe 1959? Not totally sure. But it appears there was a mix of old and new stock on this board judging from the outlines. Most of these outlines are longer, but a few less common sizes have the shorter outlines where a Plomb wrench was probably still resting against the wood in the fire.

Lump · Jan 8, 2015

Awesome find. Good for you!

zeet · Jan 9, 2015

Easily one of the coolest "Barn Finds" ever!

I had a set of five of those boards about 15 years ago... I wasn't in a position to hold on to them at the time so I swapped them to California Tool for their Plomb Museum. Even went back and took pictures of them years later. (Unfortunately, California Tool is no more and neither is the museum, though I have no idea what happened to all those Plomb Tools!)

stage20 · Jan 9, 2015

keep digging. maybe youll find some tools!

PLOMB Tool Display Board

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Super Moderator

Well-known member

Super Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member