Wadkin "tradesman" brand?

[KingAether]

Can anyone give me any information on the Wadkin Tradesman range, cant seem to find any information about them at all which probably isn't a good sign. i've planned to look at a wadkin tradesman ags10 later today. The price is "good" as it needs a small amount of work to get it working but i haven never heard of the tradesman range so wonder if its not a modern chinese rebadge ?
Thank you

 

[Vann]

Likewise I don't know much about the "Tradesman" range either. I believe they were someone else's machine rebadged (as you suggest) but not necessarily Chinese.

Sorry I can't help further.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[KingAether]

I've managed to find they where made in brazil and definitely not to the same quality as the bursgreen AGS. Im going to take a look still but from the pictures it looks like a daltons sheet metal machine but from the 40s

 

[deema]

This was the economy range that they brought in in the later days of the company. Not to the same standard of build.

 

[schnapps95]

Can anyone give me any information on the Wadkin Tradesman range, cant seem to find any information about them at all which probably isn't a good sign. i've planned to look at a wadkin tradesman ags10 later today. The price is "good" as it needs a small amount of work to get it working but i haven never heard of the tradesman range so wonder if its not a modern chinese rebadge ?
Thank you

Can anyone give me any information on the Wadkin Tradesman range, cant seem to find any information about them at all which probably isn't a good sign. i've planned to look at a wadkin tradesman ags10 later today. The price is "good" as it needs a small amount of work to get it working but i haven never heard of the tradesman range so wonder if its not a modern chinese rebadge ?
Thank you

In reply to your query i am sure the Tradesman range was known as the Evenwood range and were made at Evenwood in Co. Durham by Evenwood Engineering who also fabricated the BZD bandsaw cases i don't know if Wadkin had a financial interest in Evenwood Engineering but the factory was not far from Wadkin's Fenchouses factory. In about 1970 plus we bought an Evenwood saw bench which was not very good and after quite a bit of use the rise & fall nut which was a piece of brass round bar with an acme thread through it stripped while i was using it and the blade dropped down below the table top (frightening). As our workshop is only 10 miles fom Evenwood i went to the factory for a replacement one fixed the machine then sold it, and then i bought a Bursgreen 20"BSW ( a proper Machine ) and it is still in use today. Wadkin made machines allover the place the last RS lathes were made in Colne in Lancashire when it closed one of the workers bought the factory and runs a woodworking machinery business VWM Ltd from the premises i bought an RS lathe off them about 9mths ago as they did not want to resell it to the public. I hope my ramble has been of interest. Stan

 

[KingAether]

Very interesting @schnapps95 but im not sure this one has made in Durham, it has a "Made in Brazil" sticker but could well be a similar machine rebadged for that market because as you said its not very good. The price i paid due to needing electrical work was fine as i could cover it with the cast iron top on fleabay but im hoping i can get it running and make a little more for the time.

 

[JobandKnock]

Evenwood made their own range of machines which AFAIK were never sold as Wadkin. They also imported and sold the Lurem combination machines under their own name for a while. They stayed as part of the Wadkin Group until after the Rudd take over as they were a specialist and highly automated steel fabricated and manufactured most of the group's steel chassis components from the 1970s onwards. They were subsequently sold off and were certainly in existence at least a few years ago.

Wadkin Tradesman as already stated, were manufactured in Brazil and in some cases were Brazillian copies of American Delta machines. They seem to have been some in the late 1970s to mid 1980s (I remember seeing adverts for them in The Woodworker in the early to.mid 80s). The quality was so so and I'd describe them as agricultural

Bursgreen at Colne for a long time specialised in low volume machinery and building tail end production runs of Sagar and Bursgreen kit. This was to continue in later years under Wadkin. Prior to the Sagar take over (c.1948) they had certainly manufactured machines for both Robinson and Oliver (who were and still are in Stockport) as well as Sagar. The Fence Houses site was set up as and remained for its' entire life the mass production end of the business and Sagar invested a lot of money in the place, probably to the detriment of their Halifax factory, which was closed after the 1957 Suez Crises because it was the weakest site in the Wadkin Group by then (Sagar having merged with Wadkin in 1953). Sagar-Bursgreen was subsequently rebranded Wadkin-Bursgreen. In later years Colne became the router factory where the UX manual and CNC machines were built

 

[BarryM]

In reply to your query i am sure the Tradesman range was known as the Evenwood range and were made at Evenwood in Co. Durham by Evenwood Engineering who also fabricated the BZD bandsaw cases i don't know if Wadkin had a financial interest in Evenwood Engineering but the factory was not far from Wadkin's Fenchouses factory. In about 1970 plus we bought an Evenwood saw bench which was not very good and after quite a bit of use the rise & fall nut which was a piece of brass round bar with an acme thread through it stripped while i was using it and the blade dropped down below the table top (frightening). As our workshop is only 10 miles fom Evenwood i went to the factory for a replacement one fixed the machine then sold it, and then i bought a Bursgreen 20"BSW ( a proper Machine ) and it is still in use today. Wadkin made machines allover the place the last RS lathes were made in Colne in Lancashire when it closed one of the workers bought the factory and runs a woodworking machinery business VWM Ltd from the premises i bought an RS lathe off them about 9mths ago as they did not want to resell it to the public. I hope my ramble has been of interest. Stan

The Evenwood woodworking machines were designed and built from scratch. Same as the BZB. B700 and B800 as well as other Wadkin base frames. All machines were powers by Crompton Hawker Sddeley motors..
How do I know? Well I was the parts manager at Evenwood.

 

[Adam W.]

The Evenwood woodworking machines were designed and built from scratch. Same as the BZB. B700 and B800 as well as other Wadkin base frames. All machines were powers by Crompton Hawker Sddeley motors..
How do I know? Well I was the parts manager at Evenwood.

Love it.