MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

Is it some sort of stop?

[Stanley]

WELL DONE GLO! (This woman is more of a fitter than she thinks!) You're dead right, it's a carpenter's bench stop. It's fitted in a recess on the bench top and when not needed can be retracted into the housing. Used for stopping timber sliding when you plane it but has the advantage of a completely flat bench when it is retracted.
Try this one.... it's made of very hard wood and is tapered.
.

[Gloria]

A peg of some sort---for putting in sash windows to stop them closing? for holding one of those old fashioned school blackboards up when chalking on the under side?

[David Whipp]

A peg to go in one of several holes in the leg of a bench to hold long pieces of timber?

[Stanley]

Sorry, you're not there yet. Glo, you've reminded me of those pegs for the swinging blackboard, I'd forgotten them but as soon as you mentioned it I could see one in my mind's eye. That must be seventy years ago, isn't it wonderful how you can remember small details like that.

[Stanley]

No takers? I'll give it another day!

[chinatyke]

Assuming the taper is an important feature, then the diameter of the stick would increase as you slid something down it. This leads me to think it is something that could be used for 'stretching' wedding bands or even sizing them. Sounds a lot easier than putting Billy Cotton on a rack.

With your engineering background it is more likely to be a thing-a-mi-jig for resizing brass olives or such if that was ever done.

[Stanley]

No, thanks for trying but nowhere near. I will give you a clue, think medical matters and tattooing, both of them old-fashioned. This will be over 100 years old.

[PanBiker]

Is it a rest for the forearm or wrist, similar to what an artist might use?

[Stanley]

Sorry Ian. No. This is proving too difficult. If it's any consolation Doc couldn't get it when he had it in his hand even though he'd seen one used for tattooing. The man that gave it to me said it was his grandfather's and it's a blood stick. It was used with a fleam, a special blade with a very sharp triangular projection on the edge. It was used for tapping the back of the blade to get a controlled incision in the vein when bleeding an animal. As soon as I told Doc this the light bulb glowed and he remembered seeing a native tattooer using one in his travels to make multiple small incisions for the ink. So there you are, a very hard one and not many about! By the way, it's made of very hard tropical wood, similar to Ebony.
Now I'll have to rack my brains again!

[Stanley]

Try this one.....

[StoneRoad]

Three speed pulley

[Stanley]

Sorry, no.

[Bodger]

Are there two or three "blades" ?, they appear to slide up & down the tapered section held by the large dia ring ?, is it a bush extractor / reamer

[Stanley]

Getting closer Bodge but not there yet. I thought you would have recognised this one straight away....... (yes, three blades)

[Stanley]

No offers? It's an adjustable mandrel for the lathe. Used for mounting anything with a true hole in the middle, I have a smaller one as well. I can't remember where I got them but they were a disappointment as they weren't true. However, when I got my toolpost grinder working I mounted a roller bearing on each of them because I knew the bore on them would be true and ground the blades. Complete cure, they are accurate now. I remember I was surprised by how far out of true they were, couldn't understand it.
Try these, a bit easier I think:

[Gloria]

Stays for a lathe.

[Bodger]

Ive never seen a corset on a lathe !, but one is a travelling model and the other a fixed type.
Re the expanding mandrel, i had'nt come scross that type before, my experience was more like an expanding reamer, ie, they were adjusted via nuts

[Stanley]

Now now Bodge! Gloria got it right even if she got the nomenclature wrong!
This type of mandrel is very easy to use. The big boss acts as a hammer. You pop the object to be turned on to the blades, pushe weight up the taper till it bites and then thump the whole assembly on a wooden bench and it tightens up adequately.

Here you are, try this one:

[Gloria]

Some sort of drive mechanism??

[Tripps]

I still don't know what most of these objects are - even when you've told us the answer.

[Bodger]

is it a face plate for driving a dog on a mandrel, i hope hat makes sense to you Tripps ?

[Tripps]

I rest my case.

[PanBiker]

OK, what's this then..



It has a specific use.

[Bodger]

something to do with music frequency, beats to a bar or similar