Big pipe threader

This beast has been sitting in the cattle shed for a few years waiting for me to bring it back to life. My goal is to show it at the local threshing show. Have any of you worked with one of these? I could use some tips on what to do and what NOT to do. It came from a local institute where it was used to thread the central heating pipes. From what I can tell it will thread up to an 8" pipe. There's also another chuck that can hold small pipes in the 2" range.The institute was built around the turn of the century and I assume this machine is the origional threader they used. , Here's a pic of the institute where the treader was used. Jim

Oh the things we did before we had arc welders!

That thing is huge! Good to see people wishing to preserve a part of Americana, its our industrial history that will be forgotten.

I assume that was an institute for the insane, quite large and ominous looking!

Charles

Just to give you an idea of the work involved in 8" screwed pipe.

8" Mallable Iron screwed 90 elbow =102Lb.
8" Standard Pipe =29Lb./foot.
8" Extra Heavy Pipe =43Lb./foot.

Phil pipefitter,retired

It was a mental institution. The first given name was Cherokee Lunatic Assylum, which I think is a very inglorious and shaming name, but back then our special people were thought of differently than they are today.

Now it's called something along the line of an inpatient psychriatic health institution, or something like that. I was inside one of the buildings when I paid for this threader, and it is quite impressive, with big wide hallways, tall ceilings and big heavy doors. it just exhudes history.Jim

At 29 to 43 lb/ft it'd hurt a little if the cut off end fell on your foot. This is where it would be cut off. Jim

You might try old wood working machines, dot com, look up the name, on that tag, sometimes, the company made other machines for other industries, and you can cross reference.

Man, that is a huge place! Wonder how many miles of pipe there was in there? Bet there aren't many of those machines left either. Be careful and good luck.

Fascinating machine, thanks for posting pictures. I imagine OSHA would have a coniption over something like that these days.

I did a Google on it and found this in a 1896 ad. It looks very similar to mine. There were three more ads with pics also, all a few years newer but the threaders they showed for those years were designed a little different from this one. This ad claims St Louis as the home factory where the tag on my machine says Edwardsville, Ill. Jim

I know of some machines that are bigger and are selfcontained,have internal electric motor with in couple miles of me.

Wow thats neat. Edwardsville is only about 10 mile from here. Thanks

The company that I worked for still uses That type of threaders to thread ductile iron pipe to put flanges on them. They have machines that will thread 16" pipe. all sizes above that they thread on a lathe, up to 40". I will take some pictures of the bigger ones if you would like to see them being used. They use chain tongs and tighten with machine. Also use expandable pipe dope that when it sets up you have to break the fitting of if you have to remove it.

Yes, do take some pics. Jim

I worked a similar machine once in a while decades ago at a place that made copper fittings in Elkhart, IN. The biggest we made at the time were 5" threaded on the outside. I was thinking just that job last night. It was a piece rate job where your pay over a certain $$$ base, was dependent upon how many pieces per hour we turned out. On that machine, we had a guy that I think turned out about one part per minute by the time he locked the fitting in the chuck, ran it manually almost up to the three chasers that cut the threads, locked it into automatic to index it forward to cut the threads, opened the chasers once the threads were cut, pulled it back manually, quickly pulled the machined part out, inserted and locked in the next part, started all over again. About a part per minute, 60 parts per hour for him as I recall.

When I ran it, I ran about 20 parts per hour, 1/3 of the rate of the normal guy that ran it, and here's why. When that thing cut threads in big pipes, those were big threads with big scrap. Those big twisted, curled scraps were like huge razor sharp corkscrews that built up quick and had to be cleaned out so they didn't get caught in the spinning chuck. Well, when you work piece rate and make your money off based upon the more parts you run, the more money you make, the only down time that you can afford, is to change out a set of chasers if one breaks cutting the huge threads, and that happened. They had to be changed, set, and gauged for accuracy before running parts production again. Now here is why I would only run about 1/3 of what could be run, and what was expected......the guy that normally ran it would keep it running and reach in to remove the twisted razor sharp build ups of scrap, day after day, night after night, year after year, no problem ever. One night while doing it, some got caught in the huge spinning chuck, and grabbed and shaved his arm down to the bone from above the elbow down to his hand. That was perhaps the sickest, bloodiest mess I ever witnessed. It was bad. That guy nearly bled to death right there. They cleaned that machine up and shut it down that night. The next night pulled me off of my big brake press and put me on that thing. I ran two, three, four, maybe five parts, shut the machine down, cleaned it out. Couldn't really run too many parts before ended up with a huge brillo looking pad the size of a pillow that was razor sharp, and you couldn't risk getting that getting caught in the spinning chuck, and was no way that I was reaching in to grab it like the expert had been doing, until he lost an arm the night before. Not me!!! I kept getting so yelled at by the foreman for not turning out the minimum amount of 5" couplers, and I didn't care.

Anyway, I was thinking about that machine last night, and today, there is a picture of what it pretty much was. They still use them today, I'm sure.

Mark

Thanks for the story Mark. It gives me an idea of what to expect. I sure would like to have someone who's done it show me the ropes before I break something like my neck being a lone ranger. Jim