This firm was established in the 1970s by schoolteacher Gaston Viel to manufacture a lathe, duplicator attachment, and a narrow-belt sander/grinder. The company is still in business, making updated versions of their original products, plus portable sawmills, larger lathes, sharpening equipment, Logosol style shaper cutter-heads, and other products.

Information Sources

• A Quebec online sale site lists the following: "tour à bois 'Viel' (fait au Québec), peut tourner 51" de long (ou plus, si on allonge les tuyaux)". Translation: a Viel wood lathe, made in Quebec, with capacity of 51", or more if the pipes are lengthened. The picture shows a lathe with a twin-tube bed. The headstock has the motor mounted immediately behind it and driven by a pair of four-speed pulleys. The lathe appears to be of "homeowner" grade.
• In 2012 Louis-René Perreault, the current owner of the business, sent us this summary of the company history.

  It all started in the 1970s with Mr. Gaston Viel, machine shop teacher in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec. Mr. Viel is from L'Isle-Verte, Quebec and he still lives there. While teaching, one of his friend asked him to help make an efficient copying wood lathe because he couldn't find anything at a reasonable price. From this he made a wood lathe plus duplicator based on two water pipes. This lathe became very popular in the area and he started selling some. After a year the demand was still increasing so he quit his teaching job and started making wood lathe, duplicator and a little sander-grinder in a garage in L'Isle-Verte. Mr. Viel had one employee, an old lathe, one small milling machine, and he built himself a little aluminum/zinc foundry to cast most of the parts on his machines.

  For under $60 transport included you could buy a good quality wood lathe (you had to supply the motor, water pipes and you had to build the base). This lathe is no longer being produced

  The sander grinder was the second product invented by Mr. Viel and the Viel S-5 1" x 42" sander-grinder and S-5-M 1" x 42" sander-grinder with motor are still in production. The S-5 is also available through Lee Valley Tools.

  In 1984, Viel Tools Inc. moved to a new location in L'Isle-Verte and at the time Mr. Viel had 10 employees. In 2000, Viel Tools Inc. developed a new kind of router fence which is still being sold by Freud (the SH-5). The same year 2 CNC machines entered the very small shop.

  In 2008, Mr.Viel retired and sold me his business. In 2011, Viel Tools Inc. moved in a much larger location in the closest town, Riviere-du-Loup. We have now 16 employees. We still have the foundry and we still cast all our aluminum and zinc products. All Viel machines are made in our shop (except for some processes such as chrome and powder coating paint which are done locally also). We have over 100 different products that we make and have been developed either by Mr. Viel or my team. Products like portable sawmill, 12" planer moulder, sawblade sharpener, bandsaw sharpener, universal wood duplicator, 15x96 wood lathe, ... Our market is for semi professional woodworkers.