H. Sørensen Splitter

[amuckart]

Hi all,

I've got what appears to be a hand-cranked 6" splitter, marked "H. Sørensen & Co. A/S, Mas*scratches*fabrik, Glostrup Denmark" It is also marked with "Type: 128 NR. 2000".

I'm wondering if anyone has seen one of these before. Googling for the maker isn't turning up anything useful. It adjusts by a lever on top and has a wing nut to tighten at a given depth.

It doesn't seem to adjust right down to 0 though, is that normal for this type of machine or do I need to adjust something somewhere? The guage on top goes down to zero, but there's still 3-4mm gap between the rollers at that point.

I'm going to be taking it apart anyway because it has quite a bit of fine surface rust on the rollers and blade and is completely blunt so if anyone has general hints on rebuilding a crank splitter I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

[bruce johnson]

I haven't seen one of those before. I would suspect that two of those screws on top are used to adjust the top roller in relation to the blade. If you screw them both down, it should close that gap some. As far as rebuilding, it shouldn't be a big deal to remove the blade to sharpen and strop it. The rest of the machine looks pretty clean. Unless you have a burning desire to take things apart I wouldn't. I'd use some steel wool and brushes on a Dremel to clean the rollers in place.

[amuckart]

Hi Bruce,

I haven't seen one of those before. I would suspect that two of those screws on top are used to adjust the top roller in relation to the blade. If you screw them both down, it should close that gap some. As far as rebuilding, it shouldn't be a big deal to remove the blade to sharpen and strop it. The rest of the machine looks pretty clean. Unless you have a burning desire to take things apart I wouldn't. I'd use some steel wool and brushes on a Dremel to clean the rollers in place.

Thanks for that. I've actually started taking the machine apart now mostly to understand how it works since I've never had one before.

It's a good thing I did because parts of it are quite worn and one of the castings is cracked. The four screws on the top are just structural. The adjustment seems to be done on the lower roller from underneath. It looks like the reason it won't adjust down to zero is because of wear in the cams that set the height of the upper roller, so I'm going to have to shim it somehow.

I'm still curious about the maker. It's odd to find a company that has no hits on google.

[oldtimer]

I have a twin to your machine, the nameplate has a company name from Stockholm, but It seems that my machine comes from the same manufacturer as yours .

/ Knut

[amuckart]

Hi Knut,

I have a twin to your machine, the nameplate has a company name from Stockholm, but It seems that my machine comes from the same manufacturer as yours.

Do you happen to have a manual for it? Near as I can tell it is a clone of a Landis or American splitter but with a different adjustment mechanism on top. I'd love to see a photo of your one.

Cheers.

[bruce johnson]

Finding out a little more about your splitter today. Landis did make a similar one, and thoughts are it predates the Landis 30. There is one of the old Landis style crank splitters on Ebay with a bunch of pictures. Other than the bottom frame casting, it looks pretty similar. Here is the Ebay listing link - Landis Splitter on Ebay . The Landis 30 and the Americans I have had all were similar and have two set screws that go down through nuts on top to level the top roller. The other views of the Landis on Ebay doesn't show anything like that.

I have heard from a few guys in the past that most of the crank splitters were factory set that 6 oz equivalent was zero. They were set up to split and level shoe soles. To go thinner for other use a guy either cranked down the set screws on the adjusting bar or replaced them with longer screws if they were too short. He suspects there must be some way to adjust the top roller or make it go thinner. Most all of the other crank splitters had a way to adjust the top roller height for wear, but he just can't recall on the style you have. ShopTalk might have a manual, and Campbell-Randall might be someone to contact also.

[amuckart]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for looking that up! That's exactly the type of top mine has, but it had a naff aluminium part covering the arc where the adjuster screw runs and it's a bit mangled and the screw won't grip it properly. I'll probably replace it with a brass or steel one.

The roller can't be adjusted one side at a time. The adjustment bears on a pair of cams which apply pressure to the top roller symmetrically. I guess that as long as everything wears evenly it's a good way of keeping it straight but if it does ever get out of line I can't see a way it could be ajusted.

I've got mine in bits now and the rusty parts are sitting in a bath of evapo-rust to clean them off. Once I've cleaned the gunk out of the rest of it I'll take some photos of it and put them up here.

Cheers.

[oldtimer]

Hi Knut,

Do you happen to have a manual for it? Near as I can tell it is a clone of a Landis or American splitter but with a different adjustment mechanism on top. I'd love to see a photo of your one.

Cheers.

Hi. When I took a closer look it was not a twin, but I suspect my machine to be a W. Pedersen from Denmark. The Stockholm based company imported many of Pedersens machines under their own label.

Here is a pic of my splitter. The adjustment handle is broken and I have sent it to be welded, but it is similar to yours, with a wing nut lock. Sorry, no manual.

/ Knut

[amuckart]

Thanks guys. Knut, your splitter looks very similar to mine but the main casting is slightly different. More like the Landis than the solid casting mine has:

Bruce, here's the guts of the adjustment doohickey on the top of the splitter with the cams that lower the top roller. There are springs between the two roller bearing blocks which raise it, like on the Landis.

The down side of this system is that it's pretty hard to lock down with the thumbscrew, if the leather is a touch thick it'll spring the top roller up. I have a couple of ideas on how to fix this though. A better handle to get it tighter and a cover plate that is tapered towards the thin setting end of the curved slot so it wedges in place better.

Having stripped and cleaned the machine I have a fairly good understanding of how it all works but having never owned or used a splitter before I'm not quite sure of the subtleties of getting this machine set up properly. I've read the Landis manual from bootmaker.com since this machine is pretty close, but I'll start another thread with adjustment questions so it's more useful in the search results later for people with similar machines.

Thanks.

Edited March 3, 2010 by amuckart

[Kate]

Good gravy, did you see the final price that old Landis brought!?!? I better go out to the shop and give my Landis 30 a loving pat! Not that it will ever be for sale, but wowee... it should be gold, not green.

I did find a manual for the 30, I think it came from the Crispin Colloquy forum - shoe and bootmakers, fascinating group of folks - and if I can find it again, I could send it if that would be helpful.

[simontuntelder]

I can't help but wonder, how a piece of Danish-made machinery ended up in New Zealand. I think, it would be better if you returned it to it's country of origin. Just let me know, if you need a shipping address :-)

The word that was unreadable due to scratches was "Maskinfabrik" - A factory where you make/produce machines.