Pekka, I think the advantage it has over Cleeve's design is that you don't need to retract it at the end and advance it at the beginning of each cutting pass. The disadvantage compared to Cleeve's device is that it won't work on internal threads, as you say.
It is a lot simpler and easier to make than Cleve's design, though.
Roy, I know Mike Cox. He says MEW have been sitting on this and other articles of his for months, and he is surprised to see that they have suddenly put six of them into the current issue.
Andy