Burr OAK Tool Inc. was established in 1944 in Burr OAK, Michigan, U.S.A. It was founded by a small group of men who had a vision to provide tools, dies, and fixtures to local companies. Burr OAK has remained family owned for three generations and retains the same roots and values instituted by Newell A. Franks, one of the original founders.

For 80 years, Burr OAK Tool has provided machines, tools and expertise to the heat transfer and tube processing industries, World-class facilities house the manufacturing and assembly operations and our dedicated employees settle for nothing less than excellence.

Our goal is to provide safe, accurate, and cost-effective solutions to your specific production requirements.

"As we look at the past, and try to figure out what to do in the future, it becomes a little perplexing due to the fact that the good old U.S. has really priced itself right out of the marketplace. We are certainly going to have to build a better mousetrap and sell it at a lower price, and this will certainly not be easy. " - Newell A. Franks I

The Beginnings

Back in the days when World War II was coming to an end...a few individuals began to talk about a venture in the area of tools, dies, and gauges...We finally decided that we would have a go at starting a business, but when we reached "D Day" we discovered a shortage of money. The bank decided we were a poor risk and apologetically told us that we probably out to go in some other direction. We called up another bank who was glad to loan us the money.

Our next problem was to acquire a building that would be suitable...there was an empty store building in Burr OAK on Main Street, and the rent was reasonable.

Early in October 1944 we had things pretty well organized and we needed a name...after due consideration, we decided on Burr OAK Tool and Gauge Company...we were granted a charter on October 20, 1944 by the Michigan Corporation and Securities Commission...we were off and running.

Growth

The first real job that we had was for an outfit in Hillsdale, Michigan...we were sorely handicapped by a lack of equipment, but a reasonable amount of imagination made it possible to finish the project.

We began shortly after the end of 1947 to have demands for larger items with a trend toward some special machinery which put us on the lookout for a larger building...

...By this point we had begun to be known somewhat in the industry where heat transfer products were concerned, and it was not long until with efforts of sales, along with the rest of us, we began to be reasonably well respected, particularly where condenser and evaporator coils were concerned. This condition made it necessary for us to again build on extra facilities, particularly of a higher nature so that we could accommodate tall machinery...

In the next few years we built on more additions and employed more people and consequently were able to do larger and more complicated jobs.

We finally decided to embark upon building fin dies for aluminum finned condenser and evaporator coils. We shortly elected to build our own presses and started what was to be known as OAK Products.