Thursday, February 10, 2011

What Is THAT?

Well now, after the bit of cleanup in the cellar today, it's time for another edition of What Is THAT? our series of posts where we put up pictures of things we've found that we just got no clue what they might be, even though in general we (or at least Tara) are pretty good at figuring things out. As always, genuine guesses or wild speculation about the things are welcome in the comments.

We've got a couple today.

The first is this group of things. They were found on the shelves over the giant scary Industrial Revolution lathe among all the bits and dies and parts that we could identify; so we are guessing they are something to do with it, though we can't figure out how they'd be used, or where they'd even attach to the thing. Keep in mind, however, that just because they were over by the lathe doesn't mean that they go with the thing, oh ho no. It is really quite likely that that is pure misdirection. Here they are:



The biggest one is maybe a three or four inch cube, roughly. They do look somewhat machiney, but we just can't figure them out.

The other thing is probably some kind of tool. We ran across a couple of similar ones which we tossed since they looked broken to us; but at the third one we realized it was its own, weird, thing. This one, the largest, also closes in an odd way, which the first two did not, and which you can see in the action shot below. It's probably like ten inches long. It reminds me rather of a Celtic-type bird from the Lindisfarne Gospels or something.



Good luck!

11 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I have absolutely no clue what these are, but I love your idea that the second one is a Celtic-type bird from the Lindisfarne Gospels! Only you could see something so whimsical and beautiful in an obscure hunk o' steel!

Anonymous said...

The cube-oids look like secondary vise jaws ... I've used small ones in a machine shop to hold round stock (tubing, etc) in a vise for cutting or drilling. The V-shaped profile keeps the round stock from turning, whereas a flat vise jaw can slip unless you crank down so hard that it deforms your tubing.

I've only seen them in pairs, though.

Craig said...

The last things on the top photo are lathe chuck jaws. The tool in the second photo is some sort of a spanner wrench.

Sidney said...

"Oh ho no." I may have to steal that one, Thalia.

Claire said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Claire said...

That second one is for removing a slotted lock ring or other slotted nut. I thought at first that it was a bicycle tool, but it looks too beefy, so I'm guessing it's for cars.
(I edited a typo in my previous comment.)

Craig said...

More searching says that it's an "adjustable spanner wrench."

Anonymous said...

I'm not a machinist, but handy with tools. I'm pretty sure the blocks are "V" blocks. Tubing can be clamped in them, and then machined, or drilled with more precision.

Tonia said...

I may sound like spam here, so pardon in advance.

There's an app on my smartphone called Google Goggles. You snap a photo of something and it tries to match it to what Google has saved in its photo directory.

I've only used it once, for a bar code, so I have no idea if it's a wonderful wondrous thing or a waste of bandwidth. But if you've got a smartphone, you may try giving the non-bloggie items a try.

Anonymous said...

The most interesting thing I came across at my mom's was a pig snouter. That's what is said on the side of the thing at least.

Thalia said...

A pig snouter. A. Pig. Snouter.

My brain is just but but but pigs are already born with snouts!

A pig snouter.

I can only sit here and blink.