"Gizmocity" factor of about 8? Need help with maker

[mikeswrenches]

I got this several years ago in an antique mall in western PA.  I didn't know what it was when I bought it but it looked kind of cool and was in excellent condition.  No rust at all.  After playing with it awhile I finally figured out that it was an automatic feed pipe/tubing cutter.  Each rotation of the handle advances the cutter wheel into the pipe/tubing.  This is accomplished by the 'star' wheel as it rotates and causes the cutter wheel to move farther into the pipe

The problem is I have not been able to track down the manufacturer, other than S.A.C. Co., which doesn't mean anything to me.

As you can see from the relevant picture, the only marking is S.A.C. Co. and Pat appl'd for.  My search in Datamp and Google patents for something by S.A.C.Co didn't return any meaningful results.  I now turn to the real experts.

Mike

[superzstuff]

Looks something like a cutoff atachment for an automatic screw machine or turret lathe.

[Billman49]

A little over complex for cutting metal pipe, and only fits one size... would it cut sight glass tubes for a steam boiler??? Laboratory glass tubing cutters often have  a wheel, similar to the modern tube cutters used by plumbers, but sight glass tubing has very thick walls (to withstand steam pressure in the boiler)...

[rusty]

I *think* I know what it is, and if it is, it's the only one I have ever seen...

S&C is likely, Schweitzer & Conrad, still around as S&C Electric co.
Old ad's use S&C, so that is a leap from S.A.C.....

If the above is true tho, what S&C made was fuses...BIG fuses...a foot and a half long...out of glass tubing.....

And probably other kinds of tubing, like ceramic, bakelite,fibre.....

So..I am currently eaning toward a tool for making custom length fuses....

[mikeswrenches]

Rusty, Billman49, superzstuff,

I think you may be on to something with the fuses.  As a pipe cutter it didn't make a whole lot of sense, way to complicated for that simple task, although it would work for that.  The absolute maximum diameter of anything that could be put through the hole is 3/4 in., and that would be snug.  What can't be seen from the pictures is the internal 3-jaw chuck that holds the outside off whatever is being cut.  These jaws are very close to the end of the hole by the cutter.

The rod that the "star" wheel rotates on has 32 threads per inch, thus the advancement of the cutter wheel is quite slow...around .003 in./rev of the crank handle(by my math, which is not always correct anymore).  A much slower rate of advance than would be used for pipe but much more in line for glass, Bakelite or some other hard and/or perhaps brittle material, or even a soft material that you didn't want to crush.  This device takes the "operator error" factor out also, unlike a standard pipe cutter that can be tightened up faster than it should be.

I looked through all the patents that Google shows for Schweitzer & Conrad and didn't find anything for this device.

Thanks guys for the input.  Now if I could just find the patent number.  Oh well, you can't have everything.

Mike

[Billman49]

Hi again - fuses tended to be made in factories, but steam boiler sight glasses often got broken and needed to be replaced on site. Think back to the days of steam - traction engines, railway engines, stationery engines in shops and factories - there were tens of thousands in every corner of the world - each needed a boiler (or several) and each boiler needed two sight glasses (one for high water and one for low water)....

The design of the tool looks to be 19th century - when electricity was not widely used. Not sure when glass cased fuses started to be used, but most 'cartridge' type fuses tend to be made in ceramic, glass being used for small fuses, e.g. in automobiles... I still opt for a glass cutter for sight glasses, despite any possible link to an electrical contractor in the initials of the maker. Sight glasses would be cut next to the boiler, to replace as quickly as possible and to get the length right - this appears to be a hand held tool, not a bench mounted one as one would expect to find in a manufacturer's shop.....

[rusty]

There were fuses everywhere as well.
Before the 60's, the large cartridge fuses were almost all rebuildable, you took them apart, emptied out the sand and the blown link, and reassembled it all into a new fuse, you didn't throw them away just because they were blown, they were expensive.
One of my first jobs involved sorting out fuse parts in the stockroom at a place that made things totally unrelated to electricity, but we fixed our own fuses...

Mostly I lean from glass cutter because of the cutter design tho, the huge triple roller cutters don't seem like they would work at all for glass tube...(they *might*, but they look really odd for that, I would expect them to shatter the glass )

I have seen that star wheel on something else before...it is driving me nuts ;P