Patent ID: 7513720

Claim:
In an apparatus for gaging, tapping and/or re-chasing threaded devices, wherein a driven threaded member having a longitudinal axis engages a cooperating threaded member having a longitudinal axis, and wherein the longitudinal axis of the driving threaded member may be misaligned with respect to the longitudinal axis of the cooperating threaded member, thereby potentially causing a jamming or malfunction of the apparatus, the improvement comprising first means for automatically accommodating and/or correcting for a lateral offset between the longitudinal axes of the respective threaded members, and second means for automatically accommodating and/or correcting for an angular tipping or non-parallelism between the longitudinal axes of the respective threaded members, wherein the driven threaded member is connected to a holder, the holder being mounted in an adapter, the holder further having a flange formed thereon opposite from the threaded member, a pair of semicircular retainer halves disposed in the adapter, each retainer half having a circumferential groove formed on an internal arcuate surface wherein the flange on the holder is loosely received in the respective grooves and the holder may move laterally in all directions with respect to the surrounding retainer halves, wherein the holder and the connected threaded member automatically accommodate for lateral offset between the longitudinal axes of the respective threaded members.