Last week I was bidding on a Massey Ferguson Drill Press but got busy with other things and apparently I didn't put a high enough max bid, so now it is with a proud new owner somewhere in Nebraska.

I knew Massey had bought up the Varity Plow company many years earlier but for some reason thought the name Varity was lost along the way long before Massey Harris became Massey Ferguson. I was surprised when I came across this Massey Ferguson drill press on an auction site as I had never seen or even heard of such a thing like this. My first thought when looking at the pictures was how did they get the Idea to list this as a Massey Ferguson Drill press then to my surprise they even has a picture of the Serial plate. I was even more surprised when it had Massey Ferguson and Verity WKS. Brantford on it. Any thoughts on this one? Has anyone out there seen another one like it?

My guess was this was used in one of the plants as it appears as though the serial number says "Plant" in front of the V-8812 so instead of an actual serial number this Identifies the Plant it was in? Either way it is a pretty cool thing for a Massey Collector to own in their collection.

Joe

Joe,
Unique piece of history! I would like to have it to use as it looks industrial quality!  Maybe I can shed some light on the mystery.

Where I work all the equipment has a company inventory tag.  Of course these tags are plastic and have bar codes but they use the tag to track maintenance, tell like machines apart and of course for inventory for the bean counters.

I would say this drill press was likely used by the Verity company in their producion of plows or whatever else they manufactured.  Maybe even in the maintenance shop.  When Massey Harris acquired Verity they probably got the entire business buildings, equipment, inventory and all.  Sometime after becoming Massey Ferguson LTD it was inventoried as belonging to Massey Ferguson LTD at the Verity Works in Brantford Ontario.  The V-8812 would have been it's ID or inventory number.  The V likely stood for Verity.

I don't know where it was for sale from but Massey could have shipped it from Brantford to Batavia, Detroit, Racine, Des Moines or any other Massey plant as machines are always being moved from plant to plant for different reasons.  Eventually it was probably sold when they closed a plant or when it became to worn or outdated for their needs.

Still it would be an exciting one-of-a-kind addition to anyones collection.

        Bob

Upon further review - It also could have been purchased new by Massey and placed in the Verity plant.  It doesn't really look old enough to have been owned by Verity. 

Joe and Bob,

You let a very nice piece slip through the net there Joe, it would of been a great piece for your "Massey Shop Display" as you say from a later era but never the less it was nice to see the original tag still on the machine.

In 2014 the last time John and I visited the old manufacturing sites in Brantford, the old Verity Works had just been demolished, the entire site was cleared apart from an Historical Military Museum still active and open in one corner of the huge site.

The neighbouring *****shutt plant had also been demolished in the same way, apart from the main office entrance brick and stone building, although very run down I understand it had a local preservation order placed on it. Both of these old manufacturing sites cover a very large area in that part of Brantford and now I expect they are getting new homes built all over the sites.

Then the much newer and now redundant Massey Ferguson combine factory is just up the road, the drill press could of come out of either of those old factories in Brantford. I hope it manages to make it's way into some ones "Massey Collection"

Malcolm.