The Acme Mfg. Co. of Michigan was founded in 1910 and have specialized in abrasive finishing machines from the beginning. The company is still active.

For their entire existence and up to the present day, much of Acme's production has been specialized machinery for manufacturing polished automotive components: Headlight shells, bumpers and bumperettes, hubcabs, etc. Virtually none of their early production machine survive.

In about 1917 the Syracuse Sander Manufacturing Co. developed a line of stationary sanding machines. The company was sold to Porter-Cable in 1922. The stationary sander line was sold to Engelberg and then to Sundstrand and then to Acme. Dates for these changes are not known. Please contact us if you have any information.

The company's origins are uncertain but by 1922 it was owned and operated by Gustave A. Carlson. In 1947 one of Carlson's sons, George R. Carlson, established his own business, Midwest Supply & Mfg. Co., also manufacturing specialized grinding, buffing and polishing machinery. George put in $50,000 capital and it seems likely that his father must have provided some financial assistance. In any event, it seems that sometime after Midwest Supply had obtained a series of patents for improvements to their specialized and highly automated machines, they sold that product line and the patents to Acme. It seems that George returned to working with his father. Gustave's other son, Glen A. Carlson, was also a machine designer for Acme and/or Midwest.

Acme still provides some support for old Porter-Cable stationary belt grinders (and, presumably, the other brands mentioned above). Visit the Acme website for contact information.

Information Sources

• Our early research on this and related companies is courtesy Dave Potts.
• We have seen quite a few Acme machines on the used market. A study of the various Syracuse, Porter-Cable, Engelberg, Sundstrand, and Acme sanders would probably provide clues on the relationship between these companies.