Paul Brong Machine Works

Celebrating over 80 years of custom manufacturing, repair and specialized machine engineering.

Paul Brong Machine Works was founded by Paul Brong in 1927 and has been incontinuous operation at its current location in Northeast Portland for 80 years. Brong’s family recalled how their father first worked out of their garage until the business needed more space. And befitting the company’s somewhat mad scientist personality, Mr. Brong was never seen wearing anything other than a business suit and white lab coat — even when he was up to his elbows in grease.

Built up around the needs of the nearby logging industry, one of the firm’s first roles was to produce drilling bits. And speaking of drilling, a recent search turned up a 1937 patent for a hand piece to a dental drill. So even from the beginning, Paul Brong was working with a wide range of companies – both large and small.

The company became even more diversified around World War II, producing parts for NW Pipe and Oregon Steel. After Paul Brong’s death the business was sold in 1964 to it’s current owner. And the company continues to be a well-mixed blend of small and large projects: manufacturing a large run of baking oven parts one day and on the next, creating a miniature bicycle for a trained parrot.