CollectingSnapOn.com

I just recently found your website and it has been a tremendous help!!! The reason I'm contacting you is i found a old snap on midget ratchet M-70L 9/32" drive. According to your date chart it is a 1940 model. The paten # is still legible and reads 1854513.... of course as i already said it also has the model and made in the USA stamped on it and is still very clear to read. I have attached a few pictures, and wanted to inquire if you had any more info on this particular ratchet and a ball park figure of what something like this might go for. Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you!!

Thanks

It looks like a good find to me. I think it is a $20 ratchet. These were developed in a unique way

Snap on routinely gave away special tools are rewards for sales. Some were gold plated, others are cross sectioned or partly formed and still others are small scale models of actual tools

The 9/32 ratchet was originally developed as a sales give away and was a miniature of the larger ½ inch ratchets. The sales guys loved it and thought they could sell them, so Snap on made them. It was a happy accidental development. The 9/32 inch was picked up by Plume tool and some others, but the ¼ inch was also in the market. In WWII there was a regulation (Or law) unifying and standardizing tool sizes for interchangeability. This was the death of the 9/32 drive. During the war, everything was unified under the ¼ so common today.

The original use of these sets was for small work – type writers and radios. Later carbs were added. There is another – 2nd life – for these tools. There is a line of tools sold to industrial customers called the “P” series. The P series were old designs, some special order at lower prices to companies who wanted Snap on but did not want to pay for them. The 9/32 existed into the 1950s and maybe the early 1960s with a different model number PM-70L. Often the finish on these tools was a black oxide and not chrome (for cost)

So your tool is on the last part of this size’s life. The same handle with a different insert was used for the ¼ inch. Nice ratchet

Good find