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!

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.

Sioux Bear Alignment Cabinets

Bear sold these Saftey Service workbenches for about 5 years starting in 1949.
Were they built by Sioux?

I have only seen three examples of this cabinet alive today, and none of them have an intact Sioux ID plate.

Even though I have never found ads mentioning a manufacturing company and the handles are a different shape than the earlier Sioux Valve service benches, I still fully believe these benches were built by Sioux Tools.

 

Early Style- present on all Sioux Valve Service Cabinets

Bear knob

 

The details that point me towards this are;
The Bear has the same wide edge wrapped worktop, ribbed trim, and top window box design. I have also been unable to find proof of Sioux producing their Valve Service cabinet after ‘49.

UPDATE: I found a later 50’s Sioux cabinet that has these later model knobs on it. I feel concrete about this now.

 
 

Original 40's - 50's Merchandiser Prices

Here are some of the original prices for these Work Stations over the years.

First Alemite, 1940 - $199.00

 
 

Balcrank Workbench, 1940 - $216.50

Kent-Moore Cabinet, 1940 - $135.50 in Michigan or $160.50 to Oakland, CA

 
 

ARO Merchandiser, 1948 - $265.00

Later Alemite, 1949 - $274.50

 
 

Sioux Valve Service Bench, 1949 - $395.00

Latest Kent-Moore, 1950 - $210.00

 
 

Lincoln Short Merchandiser and Cart, 1953 - $360.00