1916

American Machine & Foundry Co. (AMF) is best known for making bowling equipment, and for owning Harley-Davidson for awhile. They were a diversified manufacturer with an eclectic mix of products.

The American Machine & Foundry Co. was established in Brooklyn in about 1899 to make tobacco machinery, and in those early years they also made commercial baking machinery and heavy stitching machines. During World War I the company manufactured machinery to make munitions, employing about 1000. At the close of the war they reverted to making tobacco machinery plus custom automatic machinery and jigs, tools, gauges and fixtures. Their tobacco machinery was sold worldwide and they used their distribution network to sell the drilling and tapping accessories made by the Wahlstrom Tool Co., which was a nominally separate business that shared executives and, at times, buildings. By 1937 Wahlstrom Tool Co. had been acquired by AMF and was operating as their Wahlstrom Tool Division.

AMF acquired DeWalt Products Co. in 1949. DeWalt's very successful line of radial arm saws continued under the AMF name. American Saw Mill Machinery Co. sold their Monarch woodworking machinery line to AMF in Oct. 1951. The Monarch 8" benchtop jointer was labeled, "Monarch 8" Bench Jointer, Model X13 90, Made by American Machine and Foundry for DeWalt, Inc. Lancaster, PA." Additionally, AMF bought the "Monarch Tilting Arbor Saw Bench" (table saw), similarly labeled. In 1960, AMF sold the DeWalt operations to Black & Decker.

If you are looking for information on a radial arm saw, also check under the entries for DeWalt and Black & Decker.

By the early 1950s an AMF subsidiary, Float-Lock Corp., was manufacturing a line of all-steel vises for the workbench, drill press, and band saw. The original manufacturer, also Float-Lock Corp., had been in Bloomfield, NJ.

By the late 1970s it was evident that AMF's top-down bottom-line-oriented management style had led to declining product quality and operations that had become obsolete due to lack of investment, which in turn led to falling revenues and accumulating financial losses. Under pressure from unhappy investors, AMF senior management responded by divesting themselves of their businesses, and by 1981 the Float-Lock line of vises and the Wahlstrom line of chucks and tapping heads had been spun off into a separate company, the Wahlstrom Float-Lock Product Co.

Our interest in AMF ends with their divestment of those woodworking and metalworking related product lines. For more on the company's later history see the Wikipedia article on American Machine & Foundry Co.

Information Sources

• The company name was registered with the State of New York in April 1902.
• 1919-11-01 The Foundry page 801, in the Obituary column.

  Bernard Theodore Burchardi, vice president of the American Machine & Foundry Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., died recently at his home in that city, aged 70 years. Mr. Burchardi came to this country from Germany nearly 50 years ago. He built the great ocean pier at Palm Beach. Fla., and later constructed the Florida East coast and the Florida West railroad and also the Gulf stream road. Mr. Burchardi became general manager of the American Machine & Foundry Co. in 1902 and designed the building occupied by this company. He was president of the Wahlstrom Tool Co., and was interested in other corporations which he served in various executive capacities.

• 1919-12-15 The Foundry page 926.

  Contracts have been awarded to the H. D. Best Co. 949 Broadway, New York, for the erection of an addition to the plant of the American Machine & Foundry Co., Brooklyn, N. Y. The proposed building will be 100 x 192 feet with an ell, 30 x 40 feet.

• 1919 Condensed Catalogues of Mechanical Equipment lists American Machine & Foundry Co., 250 Second Ave., Brooklyn, as makers of Special Machinery and Tobacco Manufacturing Machinery. "Special Machinery" means custom machinery.
• 1921 Condensed Catalogues of Mechanical Equipment lists American Machine & Foundry Co., 5520 Second Ave., Brooklyn, as makers of Special Machinery and Tobacco Manufacturing Machinery.
• 1921-10-06 American Machinist page 194: text ad. "Special and Standard High Grade Machinery / Jigs, Tools, Fixtures, Punches and Dies / Jobbing Specialists / American Machinery & Foundry Company / Contract Department / 5520 Second Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y."
• A correspondent reports a ½-inch keyless chuck made by American Machine & Foundry Co., and also labeled, "Wahlstrom Chuck". A 1926 keyless-chuck patent was assigned to Wahlstrom Tool Co.; presumably AMF bought Wahlstrom.
• Another correspondent called our attention to a 2020 machinery auction listing for a Monarch tilting arbor saw bench, identified in a photo as "Made by... DeWalt Inc. Lancaster, Pa., Subsidiary of American Machine & Foundry Co." The size of the saw was not given and the model number was possibly "X 4B40" in the photo.
• Lancaster New Era, Oct. 9, 1951, Pg. 22.

  Woodworking Machinery Line Bought by DeWalt. DeWalt, Inc., this city, has purchased the complete woodworking machinery line of the American Saw Mill Machinery Co., Hackettstown, N. J. The products taken over by DeWalt, which manufactures woodworking machinery, include a large radial saw, planer, bench saw, mortiser, jointer, and band saw. The purchase was announced today by Moorehead Patterson. board chairman of the American Machine and Foundry Co., New York, DeWalt's parent firm.