{"id":879,"date":"2014-03-27T07:11:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T07:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/?p=879"},"modified":"2026-01-07T04:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:36:23","slug":"vintage-floor-sanding-machine-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/vintage-floor-sanding-machine-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Vintage Floor Sanding Machine Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it\u2019s fun to see where we\u2019ve come from. So we thought we\u2019d look through our collection of vintage advertisements and share a few with our readers. In particular, old wood floor sanding machine ads.<\/p>\n

\"Vintage<\/p>\n

The vintage advertisements we found below are from way back in the 1900\u2019s through the 1930\u2019s and up to the 1950\u2019s. It gives a small glimpse into the evolution of our two most used machines for refinishing hardwood floors \u2013 the belt sander and edger.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>This first ad is from a \u2018American Builder\u2019 magazine. I don’t have the exact date, but it would be from around 1910 – 1915\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Vintage<\/p>\n

The FREE-O-DUST Super from the Electric Rotary Machine Co \u2013 what a beauty. From what we have seen, this is the first try at making a floor sander dustless. It’s not quite up to today’s standards for dust free sanding, but it was a huge innovation at the time.<\/p>\n

From the same \u2018American Builder\u2019 magazine is this beauty of an ad below from the American Floor Surfacing Machine Co…<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/p>\n

It’s a snapshot of the change in the industry at the beginning of the industrial revolution \u2013 “ONE MAN ON HIS FEET IS WORTH SIX ON THEIR KNEES”. This really was the start of a HUGE change in how hardwood hardwood floors would be refinished from this point on. Prior to these new sanding machines, workers would literally be on their knees hand-scraping floors.<\/p>\n

This next ad is from a \u2018Canadian Carpenter and Builder\u2019 magazine in 1913\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Elliot<\/p>\n

The Elliot Floor Sander. It looks like it\u2019s just a motor and drum attached to a dolly with a handle. Notice there\u2019s no guards over the belt or drum. Safety sure has come a long way since 1913. There seems to be no way to collect any dust either so I\u2019m sure it made quite a mess as it was being used.<\/p>\n

The ad below is from 1915. The cool thing about the Schlueter Rapid Floor Surfacer is that it was made right here in Chicago\u2026<\/p>\n

\"July-1915<\/p>\n

Looks like it would weigh a ton.<\/p>\n

You can see that they have added a few more features to this sander, including a guard over the drum and a dust bag collector. I\u2019m not sure if the lever on the handle is to raise and lower the drum or a quick safety off switch, maybe one of our readers could help fill in a few details about this cool looking machine. Looks like the drive belts are still out in the open though. Check out the small castor wheels at the front holding up the huge drum. I would LOVE to have one of these old sanders\u2026 so if you know the whereabouts of one please let me know.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re in the 30\u2019s, November 1936 to be exact. This ad is from the American Floor Surfacing Machine Co which were one of, if not the first companies to mass produce hardwood floor sanders all the way back in 1903. The great thing about this company is that it\u2019s still going strong today \u2013 110+ years later\u2026<\/p>\n

\"1936<\/p>\n

You can see quite a lot of advances since 1915 with this sander. First of all it is much safer with the drum completely covered. The lever for lowering and raising the drum in a more ergonomic position on the handle and the dust bag and stack is centered so it\u2019s more user friendly.<\/p>\n

Notice the early type of edger in the ad too. This one was a mini belt sander unlike the disk edgers we use today.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another ad from the same company (these days called Clarke American Sanders) in 1956\u2026<\/p>\n

\"1956<\/p>\n

You can see the addition of the belt guard in this ad. It also came with \u201cvariable speed drum transmission and drum speed dial selector\u201d which would have been a huge advancement over the standard sanders of the day.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny but belt sanders haven\u2019t changed too much since this time other than getting lighter, more ergonomic and easier to transport.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest changes since this model was probably in the 1970\u2019s, when the paper went from having to cut and fit lengths of sandpaper from a big roll, to easy to use belts instead. That\u2019s when these sanders went from being called \u2018drum\u2019 sanders to \u2018belt\u2019 sanders.<\/p>\n

In the ad above you can also see the \u2018new\u2019 type of edger that was being offered. Instead of a mini belt the paper was now a rotating disk, which is still being used today as well.<\/p>\n

That was kind of fun to see the progression of hardwood floor sanding machines through these ads. Again, if anyone has any more in-depth info about any of these machines we\u2019d love to hear from you in the comment section below. We weren\u2019t around when these machines were popular so we\u2019re definitely not experts on them.<\/p>\n

And if you have any vintage, antique floor sanders in the Chicago area that you don\u2019t know what to do with, we\u2019d be more than happy to provide a good home for them.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Updated Jan 2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A collection of vintage hardwood floor sanding machine advertisements from the 1910’s, 1930’s and 1950’s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Vintage Floor Sanding Machine Ads","_seopress_titles_desc":"A collection of vintage hardwood floor sanding machine advertisements from the 1910's, 1930's and 1950's.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervillehardwood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}