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Manufacturers Index - Foster Manufacturing Co.

Foster Manufacturing Co.
New York, NY; Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class: Wood Working Machinery

History
Last Modified: Sep 16 2020 3:11PM by Jeff_Joslin
If you have information to add to this entry, please contact the Site Historian.

In the late 1940s this company sold home-shop machinery. We have mainly seen their planers and bandsaws. All of their products were made by someone else. Here is a list of products, where they shipped from, and who made them.

Model Description Shipped from Maker
4500 8" tablesaw Providence, R. I. Peerless Precision Products Co.
A-3200 12x36 lathe Boston, Mass. Darra-James Corp.
B-4000 14" band saw St. Paul, Minn. Bett-Marr Manufacturing
C-711 9" drum / 8" disk sander Bridgeport, Conn. Darra-James Corp.
D-6100 ?" or ¾" shaper Sylacauga, Ala. J-M Machine Works, Inc.
D-6000 ½" shaper Sylacauga, Ala. J-M Machine Works, Inc.
F-4700 8" radial arm saw Port Austin, Mich. Flexsaw Co.
H-4400 8" tablesaw Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-4300 8" tablesaw Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-4100 12" bandsaw Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-3300 9x34 gapbed lathe Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-1300 18" scrollsaw Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-5300 12" drill press Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-6300 ½" shaper Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
H-8300 4" jointer Buffalo, N. Y. Henry Power Tools Ltd.
K-2000 12¾" planer Hudson, Mich. Kneisley Electric Co.
K-2100 10" planer Hudson, Mich. Kneisley Electric Co.
R-6200 ½" shaper Detroit, Mich. Barron Tool Co., Inc.
S-4600 Spee-D-Kut 12" tablesaw Long Beach, Cal. Spee-D-Kut Products, Inc.
W-4900 12" tablesaw Waterbury, Conn. Toolkraft Corp.

The products used the Foster Line name except for the planers which used K-Line.

Address (1949 Popular Mechanics): 247 Delaware Ave, Buffalo 2, New York. A Foster toolbox has the address as "One Kinsey Avenue, Buffalo 17, N. Y."

Information Sources

  • The list of makers was compiled with assistance from Bob Holcombe, who reported the following.

    According to Tom Kneisley, Everett Foster was a basic manufacturer’s representative. Tom said, “Everett Foster was Foster Manufacturing. He marketed and sold the planers (and other machines), and had nothing to do with their manufacture". He rebadged as Foster the Darra James 12” cabinet saw and the Spee-D-Kut 12” tilting arbor. Foster also rebadged a 4” jointer, 12” bandsaw and 8” table saw all manufactured by Henry Power Tools.

    Tom said Everett purchased a new Cadillac every year and logged at least 100,000 miles on each. Seems like Foster started marketing products heavy in 1947 and pretty much vanished by 1953.

  • Brian Kachadurian pointed out that the sander sold as the Foster Model C-711 was also sold by Montgomery Ward with the Powr-Kraft model-number prefix TCE.