What in tarnation is this?

[eddiecurrent]

I found it on someone's move out pile. It's in a beautiful wood case, I'd date it to the 50's or 60's judging by the electric cord and motor.
The top slides up and off to reveal a plexiglass-enclosed apparatus, quality built, unusual attention to detail, I looked into the base and all that's there is a motor to drive the mechanism. I tried to plug it in to start it, but even tho' I'm a tech I can't figure out how the switch...built on the mechanism in a small metal enclosure, works. It has only a small rubber pulley on it.
I at first guessed what you might be thinking, that this was some kind of ticker tape reader for stocks, but there's no data or signal input, just the motor to drive the mechanism.
Granted, I don't know if anything's been modified or removed, it doesn't appear that way. This thing is beautiful but what in the heck IS IT?
any guesses?

 

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[Bruce R]

Try to google the company name and find out what they produced.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Look for an ID plate

 

[ARC]

I did a couple searches just out of curiosity... nothing.

Have you plugged it in and turned it on to see what it "will appear" to be doing ?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I recognize the UNITED logo and the color of the machine but cant place it. But there must be a plate with model numbers, patents, etc. and we could google it.

 

[Nitric]

This is just an way out there guess by looking at design.....And is the roll or stuff on there regular paper or something else?

It looks like maybe? materials went through the first set of rollers and maybe? Pressed or rolled two together. I 've seen the same type of thing in graphic or decal shops that were using old industrial type equipment but way way bigger!. Maybe, It took either a cloth or an adhesive or whatever, and rolled it onto another surface. The only thing that gets me with that is that the rollers are steel, and not one rubber. This might have been on display somewhere and the plastic box was built to keep fingers out of it. Sometimes companies will have their older machines on display, or even a local museum. It might have been for something delicate or portable being in the wooden box....Those are just some thoughts from looking at the pictures! Stuff like this is too cool!

A roller together machine!

Here's a link towards the type of machines I'm thinking or along the lines of...
http://vandercookpress.info/years35-53.html

Type of small special purpose Calender Machine?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calender

Down to the history part on that page...

 

[Tony in SC]

It's a model of a winder for plastic film or paper. Looks maybe a salesman sample. They come in many different sizes and for many uses, I worked for a plastic film manufacturer for 35 years. We had winders up to 12' wide. After the extrusion process the film is wound on to a core to be made into sheets, bags, or printed with labels, later (turkey beef chicken etc). Paper machinery is basically the same thing. Tony

 

[eddiecurrent]

Thanks for the responses so far, yep I tried to look it up, but the bottom, where the info on the model might've been, is roached. It's had a thin layer corroded off the wood, discolored, from whatever it was sitting on.
All I have is that "United" badge.
The roll of paper btw may not be what goes on there, it may have been thrown on by someone, the bar it is on is much wider.
There are about four rollers with rubber sleeves, which I restored with acetone (nail polish remover) and qtips.. That's better than alcohol for rubber since alcohol tends to dry out rubber.
Nitric you led me to thinking this might be a "mock up"...sometimes a company rep will sell his company's equipment with a miniature model to show the potential customer what the machine looks like...but this thing is functional...I just have to study it more to see how it switches on...the box containing the switch is not assembled with screws, it will have to be bent to disassemble, and I resist having to do that. Mystery machine.

 

[Lafitte Deux]

Looks like an old label press to me.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Reminds me of the feed roller for a newspaper printing press, just a lot smaller....

 

[eddiecurrent]

It's a model of a winder for plastic film or paper. Looks maybe a salesman sample. They come in many different sizes and for many uses, I worked for a plastic film manufacturer for 35 years. We had winders up to 12' wide. After the extrusion process the film is wound on to a core to be made into sheets, bags, or printed with labels, later (turkey beef chicken etc). Paper machinery is basically the same thing. Tony

Thanks Tony.

 

[Anduril]

There is some printed text on the side of the roll of paper (or whatever the material is).
I would Google around for that to see if you come up with any matches.

Hopefully, when you find the paper, it will give you a clue what machines it is designed to fit -- and you should have your answer.
Looks like "Fort Worth, TX", and maybe a phone number and/or part #. ?

 

[Tony in SC]

One other thought. Our R&D lab had smaller machinery for testing new products. Tony

It's a model of a winder for plastic film or paper. Looks maybe a salesman sample. They come in many different sizes and for many uses, I worked for a plastic film manufacturer for 35 years. We had winders up to 12' wide. After the extrusion process the film is wound on to a core to be made into sheets, bags, or printed with labels, later (turkey beef chicken etc). Paper machinery is basically the same thing. Tony

 

[cw0909]

There is some printed text on the side of the roll of paper (or whatever the material is).
I would Google around for that to see if you come up with any matches.

Hopefully, when you find the paper, it will give you a clue what machines it is designed to fit -- and you should have your answer.
Looks like "Fort Worth, TX", and maybe a phone number and/or part #. ?

i see it too, closer img of OPs posted img

 

[smokeythecat]

It's a thing.

 

[eddiecurrent]

There is some printed text on the side of the roll of paper (or whatever the material is).
I would Google around for that to see if you come up with any matches.

Hopefully, when you find the paper, it will give you a clue what machines it is designed to fit -- and you should have your answer.
Looks like "Fort Worth, TX", and maybe a phone number and/or part #. ?

You have sharp eyes, thanks, I'll follow that to see where it leads. I'm leaning towards Tony's observation, I found a site for United food label machinery. I might email them the pics.

 

[DCMatt]

This may be a clue. I found ads in the back of Popular Mechanics magazines from the late '20's for United Machinery Company. It seems they built models for people trying to develop inventions. They are mentioned in the Patent Office Gazette from the same era.

 

[marion moore]

I AGREE WITH TONY, I SEEN A FEW MACHINES THAT RUN PRODUCTION ON THEM. THE BOX ON THE SIDE

IS THE OFF AND ON SWITCH. IT SHOULD HAVE SOME BOLTS ON THE BACK SIDE TO REMOVE IT. PLEASE DON'T

BEEN IT, IT WILL COME OFF. THE BIG ROUND KNOB SHOULD BEEN THE EMERG STOP BUTTON, THE

GREEN IS ON, RED IS OFF, I WOULD GUESS THE OTHER BOTTON IS FOR REVERSE. I'M PRETTY SURE THE MACHINE

IS AN AUTO-MATIC LET-OFF. THE 4 SHAFTS ON 2 TOP & 2 ON THE BOTTOM WOULD BE LOADED WITH ROLLS OF PAPER OR ETC?

THEY WOULD TAKE THE TWO BOTTOM ROLLS & PULL PAPER PAPER THRU THE TWO NIP ROLLS IN FRONT OF THE MACHINE

THE PAPER WOULD GO TO SOME OTHER MACHINE FOR PRINTING OR WHAT EVER. WHEN A ROLL WAS READY TO RUN OUT

THEY WOULD TAKE THE 2ND ROLL ABOVE IT (WHICH HAVE TWO SIDED TAPE ON IT, WHILE THE MACHINE IS RUNNING

THEY STICK IT INTO THE NIP ROLLS AND JUST KEEP ON RUNNING. THEY JUST KEEP PUTTING MORE ROLLS ON AS THEY

RUN OUT.LOT OF PRODUCTION IN ONE DAY. IF THEY ARE RUNNIG IT VERY FAST, IT WILL WORK ONE GUY TO DEATH

JUST TRYING TO KEEP UP. THATS MY FIFTY CENTS WORTH. MARION

 

[Tony in SC]

I think marion is right. I've been thinking about this thing all day. Instead of just being a winder, I think it was a machine itself. What Marion said is exactly how this type machine would work. I noticed that the metal roller at the left end has a square slot. This could have been for a knife or perforator to cut the material to length. I see you're in Florida. WR Grace Inc owned Cryovac, one of the largest packaging companies in the world at the time. They were headquarted in Boca Raton Fla. Tony

 

[TheRingFinder]

It looks to be a 1920's or 1930's tarnation maker.