O42 Knockoff Machinist Chests

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O42 Knockoff Machinist Chests

Updated 4/28/2026

For now, I’m suggesting these chests may have been Gerstner Market Test Chests manufactured in 1936 or earlier.

OR

 They were manufactured through a Special Order from The Sheffield Corp., Dayton, OH to H. Gerstner & Sons, possibly in the late ‘30s into the ‘40s.

I bought what I thought was a pre-1936 O42 Market Test Chest. I say MTC because of the different characteristics. It meets the Gerstner O42 8/3 drawer configuration & dimensions, except it’s ¼” higher at 16”. It has an A50M29 lid lock, which is embossed with Eagle Lock Co., and the original key. It has the front panel guide pin slots in each side bottom for sliding under the drawers. The only other marking is that it was #73 in the production run, no run number. 

Now for some different characteristics --

All, and I mean all, of the hardware is riveted in place with small-headed rivets, no screws.

At the outside bottom of the till’s face board are 2 slotted round head screws going into the till’s bottom board.

The lid has 3 original older style self-restraining hinges.

The old-style top handle center wire has 2 external button ends.

The top of the lids surface is a solid 5/8” thick oak board.

The only veneer is on the back panel.

No finger joints, at all.

No 45-degree corner wood in till corners.

No mirror in the lid.

 

It never had the metal pin-guide plates at each inside end of the case for the front panel guide pins. The panel pins are on metal angle brackets screwed to the bottom outside face of the front panel, it’s missing the left one. The panel itself looks and measures the very same as the pre 1943 O42 relief panel. Its finger pull is totally round, 2-piece, attached with 3 screws.

All Drawers have 3/16” plywood bottoms, not metal. Therefore, about 1/8” less inside depth. The large drawers are the correct inside depths. 

Frank Dressel is written in 2 places on the inside of the horizontal divider board. I did a genealogy search and quite a few Frank Dressel’s were in the New England area. However, In the 1940 Census there was a 19-year-old Frank Dressel born and raised in Dayton, OH. Maybe it was him, who knows? Frank could have been employed by Gerstner or Sheffield. 

I have pictures of 6 other of these chests that are identical to mine, except 5 of them have different front panels. Their panels have 2 flat reliefs with a vertical center board and a bottom tongue to fit into a groove in the bottom board of the chests, and no guide pins.