From December 1947 Popular Science

By 1942 the Tomlee Tool Co. of Minneapolis was in business with Thomas W. Donahue as president. Within a year the company name was changed to Tomlee Tool & Engineering Co. During World War II the company produced war goods, including carburetor and fuel injector parts for the P51 Mustang and the B29 bomber.

Immediately after the war the company must have faced the same difficulties experienced by so many manufacturers: a sudden cessation of income from their war-related production. The company's activities in 1946 through '48 are murky. By late 1947 they had begun producing home-shop machines, including a belt sander and a wood lathe. In 1948 the company was purchased by Raymond C. Bluem.

During this post-war era a tremendous number of small manufacturers began producing home-shop machines, and nearly all of them quickly disappeared as they were unable to obtain distribution. Tomlee and their home-shop machinery line was one of the rare exceptions that survived into the 1950s. In 1954 Bluem sold the Tomlee business to Toro Manufacturing Corp., who briefly continued making the machines under the Toro brand.

We have seen Tomlee machines badged as "Foley Power Tools / Foley Manufacturing Co." We are not certain if these Foley-badged machines were made by Tomlee or by Toro.

Information Sources

• 1942 Minneapolis City Directory lists "Donahue, Thomas W., (Tomlee Tool Co.) c Edina". Also listed is "Tomlee Tool Co. 251 3d av 5".
• 1943 issue of Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering (volume 50 Issues7-12, page 398) lists "Tomlee Tool & Engrg".
• 1944 issue of Domestic Engineering (volume 16 page 275 lists "Tomlee Tool & Engineering Co., 253 Third Ave. S. ,Minneapolis 15, Minn."
• 1944 issue of Newsweek (volume 23, page 64).

  "E" in Reverse—The Army Air Forces Matériel Command at Minneapolis was flabbergasted. Everyone had heard of "E" awards from the military to industry for excellence in production. But who had heard of one in reverse? No one had until Thomas W. Donohue, 30-year-old president and owner of Tomlee Tool Co., decided it was about time someone threw bouquets to the Army officers who were doing a swell job in cutting red tape and making government regulations livable...

• July 1945 Monthly Report of War Plants and Services in Urgency Rating Bands III thru VII lists, under Urgency Rating III, Tomlee Tool & Engineering Co., Minneapolis, agency AAF, supplying "Carburetor and Fuel Injection Parts, P51 and B29".
• Ads in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science between December 1947 and October 1953.
• Popular Mechanics February 1948 ad lists the address as 740 North Washington Ave, Minneapolis 1,MN.
• 1948-05-20 Hardware Age, page 218, brief promotional article on the Tomlee Wood Turning Lathe from Tomlee Tool & Engineering Co., Minneapolis, Minn.
• Robert Deatherage forwards this information he received from the Hennepin County Library: "A review of the 1948 Minneapolis city directory lists the following: Tomlee Tool & Engineering Co., Thomas W. Donohue (sic), President-Manager, Woodworking Tool Manufacturers, 740 Washington Avenue North; in 1953 (there was no 1954 directory) the same company has Raymond C. Bluen, President, Precision Machines, 718 Washington Avenue North; in 1955 Toro Manufacturing (Power Tool Division) is listed at the latter address. A review of the Trade Catalogue Collection and the Vertical File Collection within the Minneapolis Collection turns up no additional information."
• Correspondent Gary R. Bleum writes, "Raymond C. Bluem was my father and purchased Tomlee Tool in 1948. He sold it to the Toro Company of Bloomington MN in the late 50s. The W.W. Grainger Co. of Illinois was the main sales agency for the Tomlee line. There were other private label sales organizations."