The American Watch Tool Company, later to be known as Wade Tool Company, was founded in 1872 in Boston Massachusetts, producing small precision jeweler's lathes. In 1918, Mr. Walter H. Wade bought the machinist bench lathe, the pinion cutter and profiler as well as the American Watch Tool company, and the company moved to a larger facility located in Waltham, Massachusetts. For several years the lathe line was manufactured under the name "Wade-American". In the early 1920's the American name was dropped and the name became the Wade Tool Company. During that time our product lines were developed and improved, and a screw cutting lathe, the Model 8A, was added to the line. In 1925, in an effort to diversify, a Printer's Lineup Table was developed which proved so successful that it became the standard for the industry.
During WW2, Wade Tool was producing the Model 8A Toolmakers Lathe to the factories over in England. Wade had just completed finishing an order to the English Government and had later received a telegram stating that the ship containing the machinery was lost due to enemy action..."please resupply the machinery..".
In 1961, the lathe business and the unique Wade Trademark were sold to the Covel Manufacturing Company in Benton Harbor Michigan. Covel produced the Wade #94 & #98 Hand Turret Lathe and also converted the the manual lathes into automatic turret lathes.
In 1970, Covel was bought by Atlas-Clausing who no longer wanted to offer the Precision Lathe Line, and offered it for sale. Later in 1970 the Lathe Line was bought back and moved back to Waltham, Massachusetts, and began production again in 1971,
Wade supplied South Bend Lathe, The Hand Turret Lathe, The models #94 & #98, in which South Bend Lathe converted the machines to an automatic and sold the lathe under the name of The Prompt Turn Automatic Lathe.
In 1985 under new ownership as Wade Machine Tool Manufacturing, Inc., we moved from Waltham, Massachusetts to a new and larger manufacturing facility in Chelsea, Ma.
Wade has been in the business of manufacturing quality Precision Lathes, and over the years have sold over 8,000 lathes that continue to out-produce and outperform all of the competition with greater accuracy. Wade Lathes have served not only industry, but the Armed Services as well. Perhaps the best known examples are the Wade 8A on the Battleship Massachusetts, and the Model 10B Lathe on the Atomic Cruiser Long Beach.
Our prime objective is to produce quality machines using the latest in technology, with an emphasis on the development and manufacture of innovative state-of-the-art machinery to fill our customer's needs.