I have seen this several times at a local swap. Today I could take it no longer and it came home with me so I could post it here.

Most everything moves one way or another.



The six wedge shaped fingers can be moved rotationally as well as in and out. The one near the 6 o'clock is moved in the next two pictures. The large circular plate can also be rotated.





The marking LM CO Orange Mass appears to hand stamped as do the other markings. The number 3 asks me the question is there a number 1 and 2 size as well? It could equally represent the size of the plate as it measures 2.999. The large screw when loosened allows the plate to be rotated and when tightened locks it.



This is the top edge in the last photo. Another 3.



The edge at the right side in the photos above. The hole is blind and tapped. Looks to my eye like 1/4 20



The reverse side. The screws loosen to allow adjustment of the six fingers.



The other marking 46. Is this a production number? A model number? An operator number?



It is marked Patented so there must have been reason to file a patent but curiously no patent number or date.

Probably Leavitt Machine Co , but that likely won't help much, they have made all kinds of strange things over the years (including lath's and tooling)

That is about the coolest whatever I've seen.

I'm pretty sure it's an alien spacecraft.  I see an alien in some of the photos I think.

If it isn't that, I'd guess some sort of fixture for measuring threads somehow.  Those bits look like they might be acme or some special thread.  Are they all 6 the same?  I see a number on some of the bits also.  Pretty nice tool though.  It does look like a limited production run with hand stamping.

There are 23 patents patents associated with the Leavitt Machine Co listed on DATAMP.

http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayIndex.php?source=query

They are mostly for valve seat reconditioners. The closest I could find to this tool is:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=eNRqAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=patent:1227514&as_psrg=1&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Wow...could that thing be that old? It looks like it was made last week...

>The edge at the right side in the photos above. The hole is blind and tapped. Looks to my eye like 1/4 20

Which must be where a handle attached!  Rotary cutter it is.  I thought about that, thinking about the rotary planer I got with my ShopSmith, but didn't think about something that much older.  I thought, "Nah.  There's no way to attach this to a drill press (or whatever) because it has that section hanging off to one side."  Bus got it.

A Google Patent search for "Leavitt Machine" turn up several more patents ranging from the 1880's to 1950's. Here's a couple from the the 1930's that might apply to this cutter:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=6NdXAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=%22Leavitt+Machine%22&hl=en&ei=0hduTtmCEuOvsQL_xs28BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAzgo#v=onepage&q&f=false



http://www.google.com/patents?id=yIVSAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=%22Leavitt+Machine%22&hl=en&ei=zPltTtnHCaqDsgLst7XdBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=%22Leavitt%20Machine%22&f=false

Bus I believe you knocked it out of the park, thank you.

Now if I cold figure out what to do with it.

Quote from: rusty on September 11, 2011, 03:44:34 PM

Wow...could that thing be that old? It looks like it was made last week...

That's because they made things to last way back then!
Good job, Bus!