What Is This Thing?

A roasting spit!

Needs a drip tray...

Is it a precision gnomon for a high-accuracy sundial?

A suppository inserter for small critters?

Sinus scratcher?

Something that will reach that roof of the mouth tickle?

shaft clock.

Some sort of comparative/measurement device used to transfer dimensions from this device to an instrument with a calibrated scale?

Gnomen gknow gthe ganswer?
Gdel the Gcat.

I haven't got a clue!

Maybe an elaborate "Banana Bunch" hanger.

I could use it on a lathe to set the edge of the cutter to the centerline of the workpiece. If the cresent rotates in relation to the horizon it can be set to the center line of the work piece, (a one time job for each lathe), and then secured in place. For convenience the armiture + cresent should rotate about the center post from the base, allowing me to set the edge of the cutter correctly by adjusting the tool post.

The first line is "B B" the rest is "B S".

I guess it's not a cosmolabe...

It's a device used for dimensional inspection.

Agreed! Some came with traverse scale attached and differrent attachments.

very good, but what does it do...........how do you use it............

Slide the hole down the curve? But why is it on a stand like that?

Captain Hook's spare prosthetic (for bbq nite)

Thistlewick? Whirlyjig?

I know! It's a defensive paperweight! The curved spike spins around to stab anyone who tries to take the paper.

I actually do call it a "whirly-jig".

Ahhhh ... I just realized the indicator is centered (or can be centered) over the pivot to gauge concentricity or roundness ... but, I still can't guess for what. An underside hole or detail of something after installation, or something too large or otherwise inconvenient to move.

Now I can only guess ...

Globe stand (minus the globe).

Well, for one, it looks 'home-made'. The weight reducing 'holes' were just some machinist's idea of being high-tech (if aircraft have 'em, I will have 'em too)

Maybe it's a fooler to have the height calipers next to it on the surface plate, and a little 'ball' on the tip, but I'd say it's some kind of a height gage, designed to be 'under' something to be gaged. Sort of a 'go / no-go' kind of rig.

On the other hand, it might just be a belly-scratcher for cats .

It is very much home made by ex-farmers that have no budget.....good eye.

For Engineers that have their hands full and still want to pick their nose?

I know what it is "an accident waiting to happen!" put a cork in...on it.

A 'Witness Marker'? Mebbe for repeated set-ups. Looks like the tip would stay in the same place no matter which way either axis was rotated. AHA! You say. But for what?

Could be an early Executive toy for launching spitballs.

I know, only one brilliant answer per post.

Hi...the Globe is missing !!!

Anil Tiwari/Delhi

Came off a chariot on a movie set.

markar

Its clearly a moon clock. When the sun is down the moon will throw light on it and create a shadow. The sickle bit has to be adjusted to fit around the moon when one stands seven feet away from it. A second person is needed unless you have really long arms.

Once it is aligned, go and read were the pointy bit is on the surface were the shadow falls. In this case it looks like it could be 2.15 am, declining moon, mid March, could be the 21/3/2007. Not sure about the exact time, need more details.

Go to www.wereismyshadowgone.com.Ire;

You can get them in a greenish color too, all the best, Ky.

I think you're trying to fool us.......can you really see the moon from oz?

Paddy made me do it.

I think it could be a fabric orientator, needed when sewing long stretches of cloth. It would be adjusted and make the fabric flow over it and not to be caught at the corner of a working station.

No more moons for Paddy! OK, once in a green moon, Ky.

It's something markar created in his workshop just to have something to post in the "What Is This Thing" series of threads.

_{Mwahahahaha! Let's see them guess what this is!!!!}

regards,

Vulcan

I wish I had the skills to make something this accurate. The guy I apprenticed under designed and made it but I'm sure it was adapted (stolen) from another design.

How strong and sharp is the spiky bit. Could it be used when sewing leather (shoes for example).

No one has yet mentioned the other object to the left, which may be a clue:-

That's still not enough information unless you're familiar with it.

It looks like something to check the "roundness" of a rotating cylinder or plate. You place the "needle" on the rotating part and allow it to follow the surfece then you watch for it to touch or not touch the surface. ???

I remember when I was a kid, I would place a homemade device such as this against my bicycle tires when I repaired one to check to see if I had re-mounted it such that it would turn true. Maybe that is what it is, a crude, ancient device for aligning the wheels on a Model T Ford.

Its a gem stone polisher...not complete, the gem goes on the end of the spike., the "stone" is the round base but its actualy a steel disk coated in diamond dust.

looks to be sitting on a granite surface plate. so i will guess surface gage. looks like a custom surface plate with the nice color. i only got to use the plane old gray kind.....

It's a Hinway!

U V I know how much a Hinway and unless this is some exotic material a Hinway more. J.Conway

What I can't guest fish. Exotic materials are unobtainium or they are not very exotic

Brad

Surprisingly, it is a model 'Commander 12 Invoice Self Extractor - Adjustable' that my ex-wife utilized to retrieve the bill from her lawyer after I deposited it. She was still late with the payment and her lawyer is now suing her. Take a number pal ....

Very much inline with The Commoner:

Let us say we need to center a job that has been partly done in another machine this gadget could be useful..

Say, a job with a hole (done in a drilling machine) needs to be grooved inside the hole.

The job with the hole has to be set concentric with the drill/bore head.

This gadget sets (the bottom is not seen, may have a cylindrical projection to get lined with the hole) concentric with hole.

Then the table is to be adjusted in x-axis and/or y-axis, while watching the tip of the probe touching the drill shank hole around 360 degree by rotating the gadget's arm.

getting warmer...........

hmmm... former farmers...

could it be for holding a sheep in place while it's being sheared? As in not impaled on it but with the round part resting over the neck perhaps??

or under the neck...keeps the animal submissive. Good idea. Other possibility: support of hoof during shoeing.

So: once you've adjusted the height, the little sphere remains in exactly the same place relative to the base whilst you can rotate the other parts of the "gauge" to keep it out of the way of the work piece.

It looks as if the tip doesn't move when you adjust the pivots - so the pivots are there to provide clearance from other bits of the item being probed. So it would readily transfer the location of a point (in all three dimensions) from one object to another. What puts me off this idea is that accuracy would be limited by how well you could adjust the height and slide the base - I'm more used to using loaded screw-type adjustments for this sort of thing.
But I suppose that it could be used to transfer the height and centre of a blind hole onto something that it will need to mate with (or vice versa)

Looks like a globe stand

Is it for measuring an animal's girth? I can see where farmers would want to know that, to buy/grow enough feed, or to gauge the animal's output of milk, meat or leather, or to tell how big the offspring will be.

HINT

Once propperly adjusted the sphere is to remain/float in the same position while you "dot-in" sections of airfoil castings that have been cut by the metal lab. Also it's used on a large high quality comparator with present day mylar plotted master sections. I think they used to be glass masters. There's another piece not pictured. I'll ask the guys exactly how it works tomorrow.

Its an arse cheek radius gauge the user simply lowers themself down carefully onto the centre locator and if the cheek is within tolerance then the job is yours.

This was used in prehistoric times on an optical comparator to "dot-in" or "eyelash" an "as-cast" profile of what ever you could cut up and place in the beam of light.

1. A plate with a series of scaled holes was located in line with the sphere, in the focus (line of sight) of the comparator so they occupy the same point in space on the screen.
2. The sphere was placed in contact with the section to be transferred 1 to 1 to thin vellum paper overlaid on the screen.
3. An arm connects the "whirly-jig" and the hole plate assembly to draw in a radius (eye lash) or dot on the vellum. These markings were crudely connected using drafting principals (connect the dots) and laid over the glass master to view the "as-cast" profile and to measure the deviation. At 10X and 20X minor errors were not viewed as critical in the old days.

The height stand and sine plate picture are for decoration.

Personally I prefer probe compensated 3D scanning on a CMM ......but hey if you like pain...

Yank thou!

Mear as clud.

Fits onto a chastity belt.