In the middle of the twentieth century Childs & Co. made small disk sanders, lathes, table saws, vises and a 14-inch bandsaw. They also made tiny engine lathes and milling machines.

Data on this maker is sparse. Here are the confirmed dates where the company's location is known. A small Childs wood lathe bears the Fort Wayne, Ind., location, and appears to pre-date the machines made in Conneaut and Conyers.

• Conneaut, OH: October 1948 — July 1949
• Conyers, GA: 1969 — February 1973

In 1954-55, the Southern Machine Tool Co, of Conyers, GA, advertised a small milling machine in Popular Mechanics. The ad notes that the machine was "Designed by Childs". This milling machine was later made under the Childs name. We do not know if Southern Machine Tool Co. was related to (or a pseudonym for) Childs or whether it was acquired by Childs or vice versa.

There is some connection with Double A Products Co. of Ann Arbor, Michigan. We have reports of Double A machines tagged as "Designed by Childs", and the Double A disk sander strongly resembles the Childs disk sander.

Information Sources

• Information on this maker came from a Photo Index posting by Brian Kachadurian.
• Ads in October 1948 Popular Mechanics and July 1949 Popular Mechanics.
• This firm also made extremely small milling machines. See the lathes.co.uk Childs page for more information.
• Brian Kachadurian pointed out the Double A / Childs connection in an owwm.org forum discussion.
• A correspondent reports a wood vise from this maker.