Look at what is buried over there

A collection of Workbenches covered or obscured from years of sitting in the shop

John Bean Prototype, Built by Lincoln

Measuring in at 11 feet long with 26” wide doors, this earliest Visualiner is 2 1/2 feet wider than the standard merchandiser it was built from. In 1946 the Lincoln Engineering factory in St. Louis fabricated this workstation for John Bean, to be used as their first trial Visualiner cabinet.

This prototype looks to have been shipped out to a couple larger car dealerships to be tested and refined. The above test unit stayed close to its roots and was used in Minnesota then in Iowa. The other cabinet was sent to a Buick dealership in Tacoma Washington, called Mueller-Harkins, as seen in the b/w photos below.

The desk is less deep than the other Lincoln’s and there is a thin chrome trim across the top. The top sign is not original, and didn’t come out til months later in production when John Bean decided to build their own purpose-built alignment cabinets.

I am honored to be the new owner/caretaker of this nearly lost piece of history.

 

New Work Station found in Canada

Strong’s Garage is a repair shop in Bruderheim, Alberta. The two gentlemen specialize in historic vehicles and use some equipment that predates the 50’s. Also in use is this unique merchandiser.

Consisting of a wide edge, reinforced work top, narrow side cabinets w/ piano hinges, a rolled pull-down door, many shelves and flat edged outer corners, this cabinet is special.

A few of the details look similar to Sioux Tools workstations, but based off of the construction we believe this unit was most likely scratch-built by a local company for its original dealership.

The owner added on the Model A shift knob handles. The original back panel was a solid metal, horizontal ribbed section like the Sioux’s have. We really like the roller door, sign placement, and recessed kick plate under the bench.

These guys have an AMAZING YouTube channel documenting some of their work, and we highly suggest checking it out:

Strong's Garage on YouTube


So happy to see these gentlemen utilizing this vintage cabinet in their shop!

Time Capsule; Some scarce unit finds

Here are a few newly uncovered and seldom seen cabinets.

First is a late 30’s full Alemite Lube Unit with an incredible original wall covering.

Next is this 1944 early Lincoln Merchandiser with the rare double door, flat sided lower bench.

And this Alemite with Aluminum side cabinets and tool board.

Rarely Seen Graco Cabinet Variations

Here are a few Merchandisers that Graco produced that don’t show up very often these days. Starting with this complete example of their Wall Luber, found in Belgium.

This red unit is one of the Service cabinets speciality built for the Graco Service departments. Used to repair their own products.

This Oil Bar was a stand-alone model without the side cabinets.

And how about this cabinet and wall surround configuration. Only one we have seen in this layout.

ARO Workbenches and their Different Styles

In 1948 ARO introduced this box top work station, that was built off of a Lincoln bench.

They complemented their portable lubrication line, but sadly only lasted a few years.

Sometime after 1950, they changed the side cabinet style to this round, short top, and added on a taller middle section and different marquee. You can see the Lincoln lower bench still being used.

By the mid 50’s the company was no longer putting out their own cabinets, but attaching their badges on Shure workbenches, with added reels underneath.

Mystery Cabinets - Can you ID them?

Here are a few unknown cabinets we wanted to share. If you have thoughts as to what they are or a manufacturer, please reach out to us.

First up are these two below Lubrication Ad wall units. The left one has an Alemite next to it but the unit isn’t from their line. The right one has ARO gear but a very cool Zephyr display shelf.

I haven’t found any maker close to the look or trim on this unique red service cabinet. There is no id plate on this unit.

This 1944 image from a Vancouver Dealership has always interested us. The handles and cabinets look like kitchen equipment.

The below image is also from the same repair shop, and it appears that they repurposed other household cabenitry behind this gentleman.

 
 

We know this strange red, horizontal opening cabinet was built by Kent-Moore, but what is it used for?

This last image has some cool vertical work stations with illuminated departmental signage.

Uncovered; Unique John Bean Visualiner Cabinet

We believe that this cabinet was produced before the standard Visualiner long cabinets were built. It appears that this cabinet was manufactured out of a Lincoln Merchandiser, with a longer top and wider side doors.
The bench, hinges, spacing, marquee signage, back bracing, and handle shapes all mirror the Lincoln’s.

John Bean probably commissioned Lincoln to make these benches for them, rather than modify them in-house after delivery. It is interesting that at this early stage they attempted to project right on the widened doors, only to later build in an alcove for each projection surface.

 
 

The car in this below promotional image looks to be a 1946 Buick Roadmaster. This would most likely put this interesting cabinet being tested out in ‘46 before the 1947 roll out of the standard above Visualiners.

Thanks to a friend of the site; Here are some images of a surviving version of this wide door Lincoln/Visualiner. There is a different rounded and thinner top trim as well as the spacers between the desk and side door have been swapped with wider sections.

There are still new merchandiser styles out there to be found…

Alemite later model emblems

What years did the last sytle cabinets have these round Alemite badges on their doors vs the cutout style? As well as how many were there?

Those are questions that I do not have a solid answers for. But, below is what I have gathered about them over these years.

 
 

You can see that the two emblems have different oriented mounting studs.

Almost half of the trim-topped cabinets that I have seen, without badges, possess 4 mounting holes in their doors. This would allow the company to use either of the two emblems.

Below are what the other half of the cabinets mounting holes look like. Just two vertical ones for the cutout A badge.

This non-round A emblem is present on all lower workbenches for the whole run from 1948-55.

The Round A door badge is present in a few ads in ‘49 and ‘50, But all other ads show the other style even over these same years.

 
 

Out of nearly 400 images of these cabinets - 35% less cabinets had the round circle than the A alone. These quantities would roughly mean the round emblem cabinet was produced for 3 years, and the other cutout style for close to 5 years.

My current guess would be that the Round emblem was in use from 1948-50 and the other from 1951-55, with the 4 mounting holes lingering just past 1951.


As door badges can go missing, the round ones are more readily available, because they are on the lubers produced through all these years.

Merchandiser Catalog Front Pages

A collection of all the main Workbench manufactures catalog front/ad pages. Recently, I found this Lincoln Engineering pamphlet from 1947, of all places for sale on Etsy.

Almost all of the companies referred to their work station cabinet units as Service Merchandisers, outside of Alemite and Balcrank.

Little seen Alemite options

Alemite offered a few add-ons or units that we have seldom seen.

This Bench has the optional 4” back panel, and the right has the built-in hose reel.

 
 

We have yet to see any of these early 40’s short, side cabinets out in the world.

This ad from Mexico shows the top window model with a built in Oil Bar option.

Finally a rare Alemite Vacuum, and the Super De Luxe stationary Service Desk.

Kent-Moore Emblems

We finally got our hands on a NOS emblem for a 1945 and above Merchandiser. These badges don’t fair well over the years, and we had yet to see what the true red color was til now.

Many of the emblems we see look discolored and worn away like the one on the right.

This is the best example we have seen of the the early 1940-45 Kent-Moore Orgination badge.

Graco Differences

Thru the years Graco made some very subtle tweaks to their Merchandisers. They are the only manufacturer to have this long of a production run and keep their Work Stations unchanged.

Here are two different ID plates; displaying the change from ‘47 to ‘48

The most common version of this bench came with lower square handles and this round bucket parts-washer.

In some of the later model Graco’s, the washing bin was a bowl shape, and the lower bench had a simple round pull knobs present.

About half of the models have an electrical plug on the back tool-board as well as the right side of the lower bench

Recently we found out that these Oil Bar benches, with the drain in them, were 4 inches less deep than the standard merchandiser benches

1950 Kent-Moore round top Workbenches

This Kent-Moore made its debut starting in Febuary of ‘50.

Built for at least three years; there was two configurations of this low style merchandiser. One with the side cabinets and another with just the rounded end caps instead.

 

This modular design and the one style of a right hand swing cabinet, allowed the company to offer these two models without building many extra components.

Lincoln Engineering Early Merchandisers

As early as March 1940, Lincoln started producing these deco styled workbenches.

They came with a built in front light, wall surround and a unique waterfall top marquee sign. These early door badges state Lincoln Systems.

 
 

The flip down door on the bench was for access to the parts washer bin.

Around ‘41 the company added in a left cabinet door on the front of the rounded top bench.

Sometime before ‘45, they included their straight sided desk into this model with the more standard double door access.

Alemite Service Memorabilia

Sharing some of the Alemite items we have collected over the years.

Here are a couple awards for years in the sales department

We now have over 50 different catalogs from their company

Their Service signs and a Custom glass set sent to us by a merchandiser friend

 
 

Rare Alemite Configurations

These unique variations on the layout of Alemite cabinets do not show up very often.

This Diagnosis merchandiser was sold by Allen as a package with their Electrical testers.

 

the only image we have found of one of these in use

A drawing and an image of a long Alemite lowboy layout with extra spacing between units

And lastly a new one for us; A double bench stretch top layout.

Cabinets that look like they belong with Merchandisers

These light-up back cabinets appear like they may be part of some long lost workbench, but they are actually part of a self-service ice cream cabinet from the 50’s. It looks as though a few different models were built by, companies like Schaefer, Coldin, Nelson, and Savage.

Another display cabinet with styling that could easily put it in with Lincoln’s and Alemite’s is this Smith’s welding supply cabinet.

 
 

I really like the curves and trim on these, but they are getting harder to find.

Another similar cabinet is this Westinghouse roaster. The one on the right is has been customized to actually go with a Work Station.