In 1920 this contract machinist firm took over manufacture of the "Averbeck" line of back-geared crank shapers from the Henry J. Averbeck Shaper Co.

Information Sources

• 1920-12-02 American Machinist.

  Steel Products Engineering Co. Buys Averbeck Patents—The patent rights and tools of the Henry J. Averbeck Shaper Co., of Covington, Ky., have been purchased by the Steel Products Engineering Co., of Springfield, Ohio, for the purpose of manufacturing the Averbeck shaper on a big production scale. Henry J. Averbeck was president of the company and was also inventor and designer of the shaper. He and his brother Lawrence will continue in general machine-shop business at their present address, having kept their standard machine-shop equipment. The Steel Products Engineering Co. also manufacture airplane motors and a universal gage grinder.

• Correspondent Tony Wiser sent us the following.

  Steel Products Engineering Co. made the fuel tank caps, the oil tank cap and a component of the fuel selector valve on the WWII TBM Avenger torpedo bomber. This info can be found in the AN 01-190EB-4 Aircraft Parts Catalog for the Navy Model TBM-3 Airplane dated 1 November 1945. This aircraft was of Grumman Aircraft company design but made under contract by Eastern Motors which was a division of General Motors company in WWII. I am sure that Steel Products Engineering Company manufactured those same products and other items for other U.S. Aircraft of WWII and beyond.

• The December 1920 issue of "Machinery" reports that Steel Products Engineering Co. of Springfield, O., was taking over manufacturer of the shaper formerly made by H. J. Averbeck Shaper Co. "It is the intention of the Steel Products Engineering Co. to continue the manufacture of the 17- and 21-inch sizes, and later to develop a 16-inch shaper for tool-room use, and a 25-inch shaper to take in a larger range."
• The February 1921 issue of "Machinery" reports that Steel Products Engineering Co. of Springfield, O., had available descriptive circulars of their No. 1 universal gage grinder and their 17- and 21-inch Averbeck shapers.
• The September 1922 issue of Machinery lists this firm under "Contract Manufacturers", "Grinding Machines, Gage", and "Shapers". The same issues has a full-page ad for SPECO's "Averbeck" back-geared crank shaper.
• The November 1922 issue of Machinery mentions this firm in an article on shaper construction.
• List of patents related to Steel Products Engineering Co. [PDF]. These patents appear to be mainly patents for which SPECO obtained copies, perhaps while researching the patentability of their own inventions.
• A Practical Machinist forum discussion centers around a shaper made by H. J. Averbeck of Covington, KY.