Craftsman 109 Lathe Ads 1940s

While rummaging around the vast internet a number of years ago, I ran across a site (christmas.musetechnical.com) that had a large selection of Sears Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter, and Christmas catalogs. Today I was hoping I'd find my little Craftsman 109.20630 lathe in one of their online catalogs so I could get an approximate date of manufacture. I didn't see on their site that the content was copyrighted, so I'm going to post a few images.

I guessed my Craftsman lathe to be about 1940 vintage, but it appears that Sears was selling this lathe under the name Dunlap, not Craftsman, in the early 1940s. The Dunlap lathe was very similar to mine, and I found a catalog advertisement for the Dunlap from 1942, shown below. The Dunlap lathe had a 6 inch swing and 18 inches between centers.

The catalog website was missing a number of catalogs from 1943 to 1947, so the next one I found advertising these lathes was the 1947 Christmas catalog, shown below. The lathe was now labeled Craftsman. Interestingly, the size went from 18 inches between centers on the Dunlap to 12 inches between centers on the Craftsman.

The 1948 Fall/Winter catalog showed the Craftsman 109 (below), and the advertised price of $47.95 in 1948 would be about $550 in today's (2021) dollars, or about what a generic Chinese 7 x 14 mini lathe sells for. In my humble opinion, the Chinese lathe is light-years ahead of these "109" lathes in terms of capability, but I'm still a sucker for old rusty stuff.

This next image is from the 1949 Sears tool catalog that I nabbed from VintageMachinery.org. The lathe is now referred to as an "80". Several things have changed from 1948, such as the tumble reverser handle is spring loaded rather than being a screw-down knob, the gear cover is updated, the lead screw handle is different, and the headstock has a flashy engine-turned applique rather than the cast-in ribbed design of the older unit. They also say it's sturdier. It does weigh three pounds more, but that may be because the bed is over an inch longer (23-7/16" versus 22-1/4").

In any event, the above ads would put my lathe in the 1943-1948 date range. These lathes were not serialized so it would be difficult to pin down an actual year of manufacture.

Update 7/17/2021: I found information online that puts the 109.20630's short production run from 1947 to 1948. Here's the quote: "The 6x18 versions [Dunlap] were the 109.0702 (for wood turning, no lead screw) and 109.0703. Made 1941-43, and has a 1/2"-24 spindle nose threads. The 6x12 models [Craftsman] are the 109.20630 (made 1947-48) and 109.21270 ([model "80"] made 1949-61), both of which have 1/2"-20 spindle nose threads."