Photo Index - Yates-American Machine Co., Inc. - J-170

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Yates-American Machine Co., Inc.
Beloit, WI; Roscoe, IL; Liberty, NC

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Lathe, Wood
Machine Size:	12 in
Submitted By:	Gary Brown

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	J-170
Date of Manufacturer:	Late 30s to 50s
Serial Number:	184
Last Updated	6/19/2011 9:04:58 PM

Comments:

I found this very cool looking Lathe on Saturday morning and not knowing anything about it other than thinking that it was very cool looking told the PO i would take it and be coming to pick it up. I had been selling cherries for the last couple weeks and we had a rain storm come through and just to nasty of a day for selling cherries but a perfect day for picking up old Arn. The lathe was in Watsonville, Ca about 2 1/2 hr drive away. PO told me that he bought it from a tool dealer in the area many years ago and was told that it came from a school in the area. We found engraved on all the wood tools Aptos Jr high Rm 335, PO believed that's where the lathe came from and is not far from where he lived. Sense Saturday i tried to find out what i could on the lathe. It is a Yates/American Type J-170 ser# 184 I think this could be from the late 30s to the 50s. If someone could tell me a closer year would be great. The lathe other than the green paint is
in really nice shape. It has the original 1/2 hp 3 ph motor. From looking at other pics in the photo index it looks like some of the shop kids wanted to take some of the knobs home with them. It came with the tools that are sitting on top. I would love to here from whoever can tell me about these lathes. Thank you for reading this,
Gary

I found this in the history section of Yates American. If i am reading this correctly could it be from the 30s?

In the early 1930s Yates-American introduced the J-Line ("Junior-Line") of machines aimed at the vocational education market, where shrinking school budgets had triggered a move to smaller machines. Over 1936 and 1937, Yates-American introduced the W-Line. In the words of a 1936 ad,

"Now the 'J' line is supplemented by this 'W' line, as a further contribution to education, in order that those 'Laboratories of Industries' whose needs are not as extensive as the large vocational schools and those Industrial Art Departments who are courageously carrying on their work in the face of restricted funds, might also enjoy the quality and built-in safety features of Yates-American machines... All non-essentials have been eliminated."

In 1961, their J-180 18" planer was sold to Rockwell Manufacturing Co..

Over the ensuing decades the W-Line was discontinued and the J-Line marketing was shifted to focus on hobbyists. During the 1960s, Yates-American ran live infomercials on Sunday afternoons on WGN in Chicago. The company president happened to be watching one Sunday as the demonstrator cut off his thumb on live television. Shortly afterwards, the company sold its consumer-oriented J-Line to Brodhead-Garrett Co.

In 1961 they purchased the S. A. Woods Machine Co., and moved just across the state border to Roscoe, IL. In 1981 they moved back to Beloit. By this time they were specializing in large planer-matchers. In 1989 they announced that, due to safety and liability considerations, they would no longer support many of their older machines; Batory gives a partial list of these machines.

By 1994 the company was reduced to 6 workers in their plant. In 2002 they had 50 workers, about half of whom are in the plant.

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