Sunday, March 22, 2009

Fuchs Surface Indicator

I'm helping a friend dispose of some tools and thought this little indicator was worth showing.

I had already cleaned the gunge from the face, but the whole thing is somewhat dirty and rusty.

Loosening the clamp on the right allows the case to separate. The little knurled nut is used to engage or disengage the mechanism so that the body can rotate.

I cleaned out this side.

This was difficult to clean as I didn't want to completely disassemble it. Tiny hairlike springs make me nervous.

The small pinion transmits force when screwed down against the larger gear. The one coil spring provides tension.

I flushed out the filth with solvent, scrubbing lightly with steel wool and a toothbrush. The small hair spring is hooked into the other end of the indicating needle wire that's staked into the small gear.

Back together, very lightly oiled. The indicator is responsive again!

BRATSCHI MFG CO
Fuchs
PAT NOV 18 1913
CLEVELAND O USA

I searched a bit and found the patent, #1079169. The "Fuchs" is one Leon Fuchs of Dayton, Ohio. There are some small differences between the patent and the production model.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know how much this product is worth today?

Felice Luftschein said...

Hard to say, you really have to put something like this up on Ebay to determine value. Probably in the $15-$60 range. depending on condition and whether one of the few indicator collectors is bidding.