Photo Index - Blue Star Products - No. 600 12" Floor Model Drill Press

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Blue Star Products
Fairfield, IA

True Manufacturer:
Heston & Anderson, Fairfield, IA

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Drill Press
Machine Size:	12"
Submitted By:	Thomas Slota

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	No. 600 12" Floor Model Drill Press
Date of Manufacturer:	1939 +/- a year or two
Serial Number:
Last Updated	2/24/2014 3:42:08 PM

Comments:

Picked this drill press up earlier today and have already taken it apart and cleaned it. Painting in the next day or so. It is a very cool little drill press but i cannot seem to figure out who made it. It has a W.W. Grainger logo painted or old sticker which leads me to believe it was sold at one of their stores. It looks very american similar to the old craftsman / Dunlap or companion drill press. Also what is interesting is it looks like a junior model since everything on it is just smaller. The table is around waist height and the total height is just over 4-1/2 feet. The motor is a 1/4 hp general electric made in Schenectady, NY. and looks original to this machine. If anyone knows more about this little guy it would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE:
This drill press was made by Heston & Anderson as part of their "Blue Star Products" line. Blue Star Products machines were sold directly to consumers by way of catalog sales, and were somewhat smaller and lower cost machines then were their primary H&A labeled products which were sold through dealers and were aimed more at the school and light industrial market. W.W. Grainger, a catalog house, sold some Blue Star Products machines through their catalogs and retail outlets with a Grainger label on them.
Dating the machine is somewhat uncertain, especially if you are looking for a specific year of manufacture. I have added a catalog image below from the 1939 catalog which shows this machine in it. (That catalog and others can be found in the Publications area on the Blue Star manufacture page.) We unfortunately don't have a full set of Blue Star catalogs in our digital archives. It does appear that by 1941 this model had been updated in the Blue Star catalogs. However I don't know when the model first came out, and I don't know if the model was sold through Grainger beyond 1940. For that reason, I would date this machine as having probably been manufactured in the latter part of the 1930's give or take a year or two.
Admin:dg

Photo 1:

Comments: Unknown Drill press
Source: My phone

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IMG Code

Photo 2:

Comments: Painted logo
Source: My phone

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Photo 3:

Comments: 1939 Blue Star Catalog image
Source:

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