C & G Wheel Puller Company

Table of Contents

Introduction

The C & G Wheel Puller Company was an early maker of gear pullers and related tools. Many of our readers will be familiar with C & G's products without knowing about the company itself, as C & G operated primarily as a contract manufacturer for Snap-on Tools. The company was notable as the oldest independent manufacturing partner for Snap-on.

Company History

The C & G Wheel Puller Company was founded in 1924 by Arthur L. Cornwell and Lawrence R. Grames as the maker of a wheel puller, for which patent #1,633,314 had just been filed the previous year.

At that time wheel pullers were typically designed to screw onto the threads of a wheel hub, but since wheel hubs were made with a number of different diameters and thread pitches, a repair shop would need a different wheel puller for each of the hub types. The innovation of the Cornwell-Grames patent was to design a wheel puller that worked with threaded adapter rings for each hub type, so that only one puller body was needed.

The C & G idea of a wheel puller with interchangeable adapter rings (called collets) is in a way analogous to the idea of drive handles with interchangeable sockets. So it's not surprising that C & G Wheel Puller came to the attention of Snap-on, which by the mid 1920s was selling a wide variety of tools through its Blue Point division. By 1931 Snap-on was offering a C & G wheel puller as the Blue Point No. 200 tool. This wheel puller was based on a slightly later patent #1,858,238 in which the adapters were threaded on the outside (to fit the puller) as well as on the inside for the specific hub.

The "CG" Gear Puller Line

In 1937 A.L. Cornwell filed for a patent on a gear puller with a spring-loaded pressure plate, and the 1938 patent #2,136,004 became the basis for the highly successful "CG" line of gear pullers. The puller design was scalable in size and was soon extended with the addition of 3-jaw yokes and slide-hammer pressure screws, resulting in a family of products that covered a wide variety of pulling applications.

In later years the company extended their products to include hydraulic pullers, in which a hydraulic cylinder replaces the pressure screw of a mechanical puller.

Name Change to Hydramec

In 1987 the company changed its name to Hydramec Incorporated, as by that time traditional wheel pullers were only a small part of the business.

The company remained in business until the 2010s, but its website is now offline and the company appears to have closed.

Patents

Trademarks

We haven't found any trademarks for C & G Wheel Puller.

References and Resources

Photographs and observations of particular tools are based on items in the Alloy Artifacts Collection.

Catalog Resources

Currently we don't have any catalogs for C & G Wheel Puller. Since the company's products have been sold by Snap-on Tools from the 1930s onward, the Snap-on catalogs are probably the best source of information.

Selected Tools

We have a number of pullers and related tools in the "CG" line and will add them as time permits.

Blue Point CG-270 10 Ton Two-Jaw Gear Puller

Fig. 1. Blue Point CG-270 10 Ton Two-Jaw Gear Puller, with Insets for Marking Detail, ca. 1938 to 1950s.

Fig. 1 shows a Blue Point CG-270 two-jaw gear puller rated for 10 tons of pulling force, marked with "Blue Point" and the model number forged into one side of the pressure plate, with "Made in U.S.A." and "Patented" on the other side.

The overall length (as pictured) is 11.5 inches, and the finish is cadmium plating.

The "Patented" marking refers to patent #2,136,004, filed by A.L. Cornwell in 1937 and issued in 1938. This patent formed the basis for the highly successful "CG" line of gear pullers sold by Snap-on from 1937 onward.

The photograph shows the puller set up for an outside pull on a larger gear. The jaws can be moved inwards for pulling on smaller objects, and can be reversed for an inside pull.

The CG-270 model was first listed in an apparent prototype version in the 1937 Snap-on catalog. The 1938 catalog shows the CG-270 puller with the same construction as the example in our photograph. We may be able to refine the production date estimate for this example after further catalog review.

Exploded View of Blue Point CG-270 Gear Puller

One of the strengths of the "CG" gear puller line is that the parts are interchangeable within the family for the pulling capacity. This next figure shows the component parts of the CG-270 two-jaw puller.

Fig. 2. Exploded View of the Blue Point CG-270 Gear Puller.

Fig. 2 shows an exploded view of the Blue Point CG-270 gear puller to illustrate the component parts.

The parts are, from left to right and top down, (two) CG-270-3 jaws, CG-270-6 spring, CG-270-7 adjusting nut, CG-270-5 pressure plate (or "washer"), CG-270-2 yoke, and CG-270-1 pressure screw.

Note that the yoke provides two semi-circular notches on each side to secure the jaws, allowing adjustment for a range of diameters.

Blue Point [CG-270-1] 9 Inch Pressure Screw

Fig. 3. Blue Point [CG-270-1] 9 Inch Pressure Screw, ca. 1938 to 1950s.

Fig. 3 shows the Blue Point [CG-270-1] 9 inch pressure screw for the CG-270 gear puller. This early tool is unmarked, although later production generally had stamped markings for the model number.

The pressure screw has an overall length of 9.5 inches, with a diameter of 0.75 inches and a pitch of 16 threads/inch. The finish is cadmium plating.

Blue Point CG-270-3 7 Inch Gear Puller Jaw

Fig. 4. Blue Point CG-270-3 7 Inch Gear Puller Jaw, ca. 1938 to 1950s.

Fig. 4 shows one of the Blue Point CG-270-3 7 inch jaws for the CG-270 gear puller, marked with the model number forged into one side.

The overall length is 7.3 inches, and the finish is cadmium plating.

Snap-on CG-273 10 Ton Three-Jaw Gear Puller

Fig. 5. Snap-on CG-273 10 Ton Three-Jaw Gear Puller, with Insets for Marking Detail.

Fig. 5 shows a [Snap-on] CG-273 three-jaw gear puller rated for 10 tons of pulling force, stamped with the model number on the pressure plate (see right inset), along with "Made in U.S.A." and "Patented" (not shown). Interestingly, this tool is not marked with either of the Snap-on or Blue Point brands.

The overall length (as pictured) is 12.7 inches, and the finish is cadmium plating.

The CG-273 puller as pictured consists of three CG-270-3S jaws, a CG-270-6 spring, a CG-270-7 adjusting nut, a CG-273-5 pressure plate (literally a washer in this case), a CG-273-2 yoke, and a CG-270-11A pressure screw.

The "Patented" marking refers to patent #2,136,004, filed by A.L. Cornwell in 1937 and issued in 1938. This patent formed the basis for the highly successful "CG" line of gear pullers sold by Snap-on from 1937 onward.

The photograph shows the puller set up for an outside pull on a larger gear. The jaws can be moved inwards for pulling on smaller objects, and can be reversed for an inside pull. The CG-270-3S jaws are similar to the previously shown CG-270-3 jaws, but have an extra long hook at the end.