Brodhead-Garrett Co. was founded in 1906. They specialized in supplying to the educational markets. Though previously not a manufacturer, in the 1960s they bought the J-Line of vocational machines from Yates-American Machine Co., Inc. Yates-American continued to manufacture the machines but left the marketing to Brodhead-Garrett.
Besides the woodworking machines, Brodhead-Garrett made (or put their name on) a line of U.S.-made machinist vises that have an outstanding reputation for ruggedness.
Brodhead-Garrett remains a prominent supplier to school shops, though the J-Line was discontinued some years ago.
Information Sources
- This company was founded in 1906, according to their trademark filing.
- 1951 catalog.
- One correspondent writes, "From the late '60s to the late '70s I serviced a lot of J-Line machines. As time went on into the '70s, the quality of J-Line machines deteriorated, like Rockwell and others, and we began to call them Junk-Line machines." The correspondent describes a scrollsaw from 1972/73 that never worked properly and has been in a crate since 1980.