Note: you are probably looking for Sears | Craftsman. The Craftsman Tool Co. of Conneaut, Ohio, is not related to Sears, Roebuck & Co.

In late 1911, the MacLean Cream Separator Company of Detroit merged into the Atwood Wrench, Tool & Stamping Company of Conneaut, Ohio, to create the Atwood Manufacturing Company of Conneaut. They made cream separators and a patent pipe wrench. This merged business survived only a couple years before going under. From the ashes of the failed Atwood Mfg. Co. emerged the Craftsman Tool Co. of Conneaut, Ohio, which continued manufacturing the pipe wrench.

None of the above would be of interest to this machinery-focused website. But in about 1917 the Craftsman Tool Company began manufacturing a milling machine that was specialized for cutting the slits in castellated nuts. The machine soon evolved to support other kinds of milling operations, and by 1921 there were three models of the Craftsman "Craftool" miller, the Nos. 1, 2, and 3.

In 1925 the Craftsman Tool Co. were acquired by the Equipment Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland and became the Craftool Division of the Equipment Mfg. Co. So far as we can tell they immediately disappeared without a trace.

Information Sources

• 1912-01-01 Industrial World.

  Conneaut, O.—MacLean Cream Separator Company, Detroit, has merged with the Atwood Wrench, Tool & Stamping Company, under the name of the Atwood Manufacturing Company. The company has a capital of $150,000. L. A. MacLean, president and sales manager, William Atwood, vice president and general manager; A. C. Tinker, secretary and treasurer.

• 1912-01-11 The Iron Trade Review.

  Adds to Its Plant—The Atwood Mfg. Co., Conneaut, O., advises that is recent increase in capital stock was made to occupy the extra space in the buildings it now occupies, and to equip the same with the necessary machinery. The new space will be used for the manufacture of a modern cream separator, and a new valveless gasoline and kerosene engine, and to establish store room so as to allow the company to act as a jobber on different lines of farm implements and home power plants.

• 1912-04-19 Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter has an illustrated writeup of a new adjusting quick-acting wrench from Atwood Manufacturing Co., Conneaut, Ohio.
• 1914-01-03 The Ohio Journal of Commerce.

  Conneaut—The Craftsman Tool company of this city has been incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000. The incorporators are: F. D. Sawdey, J. W. Beardsley, H. Leavitt, A. W. Pelton, Fred L. Horton, all of Conneaut. The Craftsman Tool Company is the name of the company that recently purchased the property of the Atwood Machine Company at trustee's sale, and has been reorganized.

• 1915 Engineering Directory lists The Craftsman Tool Co., Conneaut, O., as a maker of pipe wrenches.
• June 1915 Popular Mechanics, page 24, has the following classified ad.

  AGENTS for new automatic tool. Sells to mills, factories, contractors, plumbers, steam fitters, gas fitters, machinists, stationary engineers, locomotive engineers, autoists, farmers, householders: made in five sizes. Sells in sets and separately. Attractive in appearance. Guaranteed throughout. Opportunity to build permanent business. You can give whole or part time. The Craftsman Tool Co., Conneaut, Ohio.

• 1918 Directory of Ohio Manufacturers lists Craftsman Tool Co., Mill & Bliss Sts., Conneaut, with 52 male employees and two female employees.
• December 1921 Mill Supplies.

  The Wright-Alexander Tool Co., 201 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass., has been made New England representative for the Craftsman Tool Co., Conneaut, Ohio, line of rotary milling machines.

• January 1922 American Machine & Tool Record.

  The Craftsman No. 2 Continuous Rotary Miller

  This rotary milling machine was originally designed as a single purpose machine for castellating nuts , and has become a standard machine for the purpose mentioned, and because of the fact that it has been found adaptable for a great many milling operations other than castellating, and its general utility covering so wide a range, the builders, the Craftsman Tool Co., Conneaut, O., decided to give it a title in keeping with its performance—the Craftsman Continuous Rotary Milling machine, of which three types are being built, the Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

  A general description of the No. 1 follows: From a careful study of the machine it will be noted that it combines rigidity, simplicity, accuracy and durability. The frame is of heavy castings resting upon a substantial cast-iron base. The principal feature is the continuously rotating chuck 10½ in. dia., consisting of three plates made from machinery steel and carbonized. The outer plates are approximately ¾ in. thick and full diameter. These plates are made standard, either for castellating or screw slotting, and supplied special for other parts or operations. The left-hand plate is attached to a cast-iron bushing which in turn is pinned to the central shaft of the machine, this shaft being 2¾ ins. cold rolled steel. The right-hand plate is slotted to a depth varying from 2 to 3 ins., thus forming an independent jaw for each part to be milled. The central plate is furnished in varying diameters according to the operation to be performed. The standard chuck is supplied with three of these plates of varied thickness and diameters. The right-hand plate runs loose on the shaft and is radiused in the bore which allows the plate to swivel.

  The chuck rotates between two steel rollers at a point where the work contacts the cutter and, due to each part being held independently, any variation in size is thus overcome. A spreader is placed in the front of the chuck at a point opposite the shaft; this serves to keep the chuck continuously open at the point where it is fed. The cutter is driven by a hardened and ground steel spindle which is carried by a rocker arm and is bronze bushed. The rocker arm provides for adjustment for depth of slot and variation in size. A Scully-Jones spacing collar is furnished with the cutter spindle and collars, these two adjustments insuring accuracy.

  The machine is supplied with countershaft which runs at 125 r.p.m. The cutter spindle is back geared and the central shaft, which propels the chuck is worm driven, thus insuring ample power in each instance. The worm drive is provided with a clutch, the handle of which is conveniently located and slip gears are supplied, giving 10 changes of feed.

  The work is milled by being fed into the chuck as it rotates, each jaw being full as it comes under the cutter, the operation is thus continuous. As each independent jaw of the chuck approaches the cutter it is closed automatically by the two roller bearings between which it passes. The work at the same time resting upon the central plate is thus held in positive position while being machined. As the work leaves the cutter the chuck in turns automatically opens and the parts drop from the chuck and pass from the machine through a chute which makes the machine semi-automatic.

  When castellating, each nut has to pass through the chuck three times but, due to the fact that the operation is a continuous one, the production is very satisfactory, ranging from 1200 slots per hour on ½-in nuts, up to 2100 slots per hour on ¼-in. nuts. This insures a production of 400 to 700 complete nuts per hour all accurately slotted.

  One user has had a machine in operation for several months slotting hex head cap screws. On slots 1/16 by 1/16 in., ½ in. long, the production averaged 2000 slots per hour, which is doing the work heretofore performed on three machines. Other sizes of screws are being slotted in like proportion.

  Slab milling, straddle milling and plain milling operations are also performed with satisfactory results by this machine on a wide variety of parts.

  The machine is equipped with a pump and lubricant tank in the base. Attached to the right is a metal container for holding the parts to be milled which has a capacity for a half day's run.

  The total weight of the machine and countershaft crated for domestic shipment is 1430 lbs.; for foreign shipment 1500 lbs.A description of the No. 2 machine illustrated herewith, differs somewhat from the foregoing, in that while following the same general lines as the No. 1, it is equipped with two chucks and consequently has a wider housing and larger pulleys. By applying two chucks to the machine a much higher production is obtained, except on very small parts where one chuck will mill the parts as fast as the operator has the ability to feed the machine. For example, in castellating ½-inch nuts the No. 1 machine is limited to the maximum production of 1200 slots per hour or 400 complete nuts, whereas the No. 2 machine can be advanced to a production of 2400 slots per hour as the operator becomes accustomed to feeding at that speed.

  The No. 2 continuous rotary miller was intended to appeal to the manufacturer having quantity parts, for combined with its constant cutting and the double chuck it calls forth the enthusiasm of the operator and results in an enormous production at a very low cost.

  The No. 2 machine also differs from the No. 1 in the arrangement for changing chucks, where different operations are to be performed. The machine frame is constructed with pillow blocks so that the shaft which carries the chucks can be rolled out of the machine and a change effected with very little delay. This feature is made necessary by reason of the chuck plate support or middle disc being shrunk on the shaft which renders it impossible to remove the shaft from the side of the machine as is very conveniently done on the No. 1.

• 1925 Machinery, vol. 32 p. 260.

  Equipment Mfg. Co., 257 Leader-News Building, Cleveland, Ohio, announces that C. G. Kellogg has been put in charge of the sales and development department of the "Craftool" division, which was formerly the Craftsman Tool Co. Conneaut, Ohio. The Conneaut plant will continue to manufacture the Craftsman continuous rotary milling machines under the name of the Craftool Division of the Equipment Mfg. Co. The Company is planning to exteend the uses of this machine by the design of special jigs and fixtures.

• American Milling Machine Builders: 1820-1920 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2007, page 77.