Scherr - Tumico

[Monarchist]

Saw them at the show. Read the name and kept walking untill I saw a "made in USA" tag on a machine.

Tumico - made in USA?

They told me how they arrived at that name and it is NOT Jap.


----

Tell me all you know aboot these fellers...


Think Snow Eh!
Ox

S-T has never NOT been American. I've always preferred their goods to Starret, on a par with Lufkin, but behind Hamilton, B&S, P&W.

See George Scherr. Germanic surname. US citizen. Optical goods maker, New York. Merged with the Tubular Micrometer Company (Tumico), long time ago.

Company Profile | About Us

Confusion may be due to their having also imported goods from the likes of Mahr to fill-out their product line. Mahr made decent goods, so I'd not class that as a foul.

Bill

 

[Bruce Nelson]

During the 1980's and 1990's, when I was teaching machine shop classes at the New Richmond campus of Wisconsin Indianhead Technical college, we usually took a field trip to Scherr-Tumico at St. James, Minnesota. These trips culminated in a visit to the room where they sold seconds and discontinued tools at a serious discount. I have several different rules in my toolbox and some inch and metric micrometers. However I do not have any of the tubular frame micrometers. Sears Craftsman micrometers were manufactured by Scherr-Tumico. The cutest tool that I purchased from them is a 0 to 1/2 inch micrometer. I had called them after my retirement to organize a private visit by myself and brother-in-law to their seconds room. I would recommend that you do the same if you want to visit.

 

[PeteM]

. . .Confusion may be due to their having also imported goods from the likes of Mahr to fill-out their product line. Mahr made decent goods, so I'd not class that as a foul.

Bill

Confusion may also be due to MSC having trashed the name, sourcing S-T micrometers under their "Accupro" brand and then substituting Chinese goods for their "Accupro Gold" brand. Thankfully, they didn't source an "Accupro Platinum with Diamond Coatings" model . . .

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/accupro-138448/

 

[James H Clark]

I have used their inside mics for years. Good stuff, was made years ago. Anybody that has been in a big shop for longer than a week, has seen their tools.

JH

 

[ewlsey]

I have a full set 0-12 of Sherr Tumico tubular OD mics graduated in .0001. They are very nice. I think they feel a bit more fragile than a cast frame mic, but a micrometer is a precision instrument, so it doesn't really need to be "tough".

 

[Pete Deal]

I used to think they were a Japanese company too.

We have a newish ST comparator that we bought in the last 5-10 years. We need it to measure screen mesh and I think an optical comparator is still the best way to do this. It recently failed calibration and that has been a little bit of a problem to get fixed. As I understand it the calibration failure was over a large distance, which we don't use, but I guess it is part of the calibration. I also have one of their old ones and have only used it a few times. I'd like to mount a microscope to it somehow. I think an optical comparator with a microscope with a reticle would be very useful.

 

[Monarchist]

I have used their inside mics for years. Good stuff, was made years ago. Anybody that has been in a big shop for longer than a week, has seen their tools.

JH

Inside, depth, vernier up to my 40-inch one... Wes mentioned a full set of Tumico clear down to 0-1". I don't think I've ever had one in my hands under 5-6". They REALLY prove their handiness at 12" and above, where they are lighter to handle, yet feel LESS fragile than conventional frames.

2CW

 

[Eric M]

I copied this from PM member PeteM's book "An incomplete compendium of micrometers and their makers":
Scherr-Tumico Company
Scherr-Tumico Company (St. James, Minnesota) has a heritage going back decades. It started just (before?) after WWII as the Tubular Micrometer Company (Tumico) and was famous for its lightweight vacuum-sealed tubular micrometer frames. Especially in larger sizes, these were easier to use.
Along the way it acquired the micrometer business of Reed Small Tool Works which itself dates back to 1902 as the Reed & Prince Company. Later, the Tubular Micrometer Company merged with a precision tools distributor, the George Scherr Company, to become Scherr-Tumico; probably around 1960.
At some point it was part of the Rank organization (e.g. Rank Scherr-Tumico, Inc.). More recently it has gone by the name S-T Industries and also established the Accupro brand.
The smaller micrometers (including several sets available here) may have solid frames along the lines of the Reed designs.
The company has always made good quality micrometers, but was a perennial runner-up to Starrett and Brown & Sharpe in brand recognition (and also a good example of how the top two suppliers in a market often dominate; as in Pepsi and Coke versus Dr. Pepper etc.)
Its niche for many years was selling precision tools to the US government.
Scherr-Tumico also built micrometers for others to sell under their brand name. These included the Central Scientific Company (laboratory equipment) and Sears Roebuck. As with many US suppliers it most recently started selling Chinese-made tools; usually of a somewhat lower quality. The old US-made micrometers are, in my opinion, equivalent in quality to the Starrett #436 series, but not nearly so well-known.

 

[Monarchist]

Later, the Tubular Micrometer Company merged with a precision tools distributor, the George Scherr Company, to become Scherr-Tumico; probably around 1960.

Per other sources, 1941-42 or so, not 1960. Sixties were when Britain's Rank organization took them over. For a time. Rank-Xerox was one of their better-known efforts.

George Scherr, New York based, 1930's or earlier and onward, had BUILT precision tools, primarily for the Optical side of the industry. Toolmaker's microscopes, early-days optical comparators & such.

They were also distributors,

Popular Mechanics - Google Books

... but not-only. See also "Exacata" lathe chucks.

Scherr had at one time also made fine wooden Machinists chests in competition with Gerstner:

Vintage George Scherr Oak Wood Machinist Tool Box Chest 7 Drawers Not Gerstner | What's it worth

http://www.gerstnerforum.com/forumdisplay.php?28-George-Scherr-Wood-Tool-Chests-New-York-NY

 

[michiganbuck]

S-T Industries, Inc. - SCHERR-TUMICO Optical Comparators, Video Inspection Systems, & Precision Measuring Tools

Good find...now if we would even the playing field .. that is to stop subsidizing postage for China and India products we might have a chance.

When you see "Free Shipping" it means we are paying the costs with our tax dollars..Nothing is free we should know that.

 

[crij]

Jim R -- I'm not sure, but it might have been a different Scherr Co. that made the tool boxes?? The George Scherr Co, headquarted in NY, made the micrometers and pretty much a full line of measuring tools, optical flats, Ultra-Chex gage blocks, magnetic parallels, etc. The S-T solid frame mics were basically Scherr designs. The only Scherr catalog I have doesn't show any tool boxes, though of course they might have made or resold them earlier or later.

Pete M, Except for the current frames (changed in last 5 years), both micrometer frame designs and the spindle design goes back to Reed Small Tool in Worcester Mass.
Rich C.

 

[daredo222]

There was some involvement in Israel> http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0763/ms0763.002.008.pdf

 

[EndlessWaltz]

Bump.

Seems they may have bitten the dust. Sad.

News | News & Events

 

[IrritableBadger]

Yeah. They were shopping for outside funding for the last couple of years but couldn’t get much attention. They were pretty far behind the technology curve when compared to other leaders in the precision instruments industry and were leveraged too heavily to do anything about it.

I do not know who bought their physical and intellectual properties, but I hope their products live on in more than name.

 

[Cyclotronguy]

I know this is a very old thread, I'm one of those guys that cannot resist picking up a "cute tool" at a second hand sale.

I recently picked up a Tumico 0-1/2" satin chrome micrometer in what appears to be an Alder wood case. Inside the case it's badged "feathertouch".

I've never seen this mic in any of their old catalogs. By that meaning 1960's - 1970's Any idea of the age, I'm guessing 1950's?

 

[Breechman]

My calipers are german made, i can guess by Helios. Probably 70s manufacture.

 

[JohnM20]

I have Mitutoyo (some of these www.bestadvisor.com/digital-calipers ) and it works good. It's german, i suppose

 

[cranium]

S-T dial and vernier calipers are marker Mauser.
Here's an interesting one just sold on the bay which appears to read 10ths:
Vintage Mauser Caliper Made In Germany for Scherr-Tumico in Original Case | eBay

 

[Ultradog MN]

The last year I was in the Navy the old WWII era repair ship I was on was in the yards at Mare Island shipyard - N of San Francisco - for a few months.
While there they brought in a WWII Heavy Cruiser that was being made ready to take out to sea and be used as a target and sunk to make an artificial reef. They told us everything was going to be lost so we could go plunder it - supposedly to be used on our own ship. The machine shop on the doomed ship was very complete with materials, tools, lathes, mills, tooling, etc, etc.
We hauled off what we could carry and brought it back to our ship.
I brought back these Scherr Tumico micrometers. They looked brand new.
Imagine our surprise when we were told to get that @%## S#!&T out of there. We were dumbfounded and asked what we should do with the stuff. The Chief said throw it over the if you have to, just get it out of here. Wink Wink.
Then we understood that we could keep it ourselves but not officially of course.
I still have the 0-5" mics.
We wanted to go back and get more stuff but were told no. They towed the old Cruiser out to sea the next day and that was the end of it.
That was in 1974 and they were eliminating about 50 old WWII ships from Suisan Bay at that time -scrapping, sinking, etc.
There was a glut of machinery and stuff so they just destroyed everything.
It was very sad.
Scherr Tumico is located in St. James, MN.
About 100 mi SE of the Twin Cities.

 

[donie]

Wow! what an interesting old thread, even has the late Jim K in it! Back then most of us used our REAL NAME.
Funny is an appearance of the forum troll "termite" using one of many of his fake IDs "Monarchist" he was actually banned!
Anyway ST tools often fly under the radar, such as this #16 36" Vernier caliper that I picked off ebay for $150, and it was un used!
The ST #16, is every bit as good as the Starrett 123, meets the same federal specs of no more then .0005" per foot error on the scales graduations.
I also picked up the 12" inch/metric, it is new for under $100.

50 division Vernier on the #16, same as Starrett 123.