This company was founded as Production Manufacturing Co. in 1943 to handle war contracts. During the war years it made tank track end connectors, parachute bomb couplings, and 500-pound incendiary bomb parts. Postwar the company retooled to manufacture woodworking machinery, garden tractor parts, and engaged in the commercial heat treating of metals. In 1947 Production Manufacturing Co. employed 65 people. In 1946 the company address was 4011 SE 17th Ave, Portland, Oregon.

The shaper shares many characteristics with the Boice Crane shaper Model 2100 which was introduced in 1938: a reversible spindle with two different diameters (typically 3/4" and 1/2"), a somewhat ornate fence with three knobs all in a row projecting out the back, a stepped base casting, and spindle height adjustment and locking controlled via two circular knobs projecting through the body of the shaper. One unique feature of the Production Manufacturing shaper is the 1/8"x1" miter slot in the table. We have no proof that there was any official relationship between the two companies though the design similarities are too obvious to miss.

We have seen two different iterations of the shaper, the first version with serial number 10xx features a smooth front. The second version with serial numbers 11xx features a pair of vertical seams on the front, dividing the face of the shaper body into three fields.

Information Sources:

• The Oregonian for June 22, 1947, p. 39 describes the newly released woodworking shaper.