308 - pair of markers for a framing square. Handy for laying out stairs, rafter angle cuts, etc. 309 - Auto body dolly?
311 - Leather punch for openings for grommets?
What is it? LV - new
Mar 30, 2005
55 Replies
308. You clamp them to a framing square.
309. Car body shop hammer for tight places.
314. Mechanical calculator. One of my math profs had one.307. You clamp two of them to a straight edge and get a giant compass.
Five of the objects have been correctly identified so far:
308. Brass stair/square gauges309. This one was marked "body iron", as several replies have stated it's for body work on cars, I'm still trying to find one like it on the web.
310. Pencil sharpener311. Cobbler's/leatherworker's punch
312. There is more overhang in this stack of wood than you could normally get, though with nothing to compare it to I guess it's hard to tell. I'd like to change the question here to: What design feature was used to maximize the horizontal overhang?313. No correct answers yet, it wasn't made for cutting but was used circa 1890 for another purpose. Thanks to Bill for submitting this one.
314. Curta Mechanical Calculator, thanks to Mark for sending in this photo, and also for the surveyor's double prism optical square, from last week's set.Rob
The pieces are all the same size.
Rob
1/4 + 1/5... is infinite)
On paper this is true, but in real life it doesn't seem like anyone could get the top piece offset by more than two or three lengths. According to "Omni Games", "for three lengths you would need 227 pieces", and that's probably calculated using the exact fractions. When actually stacking them, it works better to pull the pieces back about an 1/8 of an inch, otherwise the structure becomes unstable very easily. According to the same book, for a ten length offset you would need 1.5 x 10^44 pieces!
I've searched the web looking for sites that show people stacking wood to get the most overhang, but all I could find were a couple math related sites with no pictures. Anyone know of a web page that has photos of folks stacking things in this fashion? Seems like it would be a good classroom or scouting activity.
Rob
313 looks to light duty to be used on any kind of wood.
I'll wager it's to shape the end of candles.
Velcro? It's what I'd use.
This one isn't for use on candles.
311. Fitting tool for "Lift the Dot" fasteners (hood covers on British sportscars)
I've seen and used these things many times, but only with home-made tools. I've never seen the "original" tool in the wild.
tools. I've never seen the "original" tool in the wild.
The guy I bought it from had it in a box of full of old cobbler's tools but I'm sure that this one was also used for other purposes than making shoes.
Rob
312. Assuming no glue, some sort of fastner was used ...
The center of gravity of all the boards above the top right corner of any individual board is to the left of that point.
Also plausible: An interlocking joint was used.
It is a trick photo and the table is not level, the right side is higher than the left. Or the camera is looking down on the stack.
There is airflow from the right which provides pressure to hold the stack up.
Art
One more possibility. The boards are not rectangles. They are triangles with the base to the left and the points to the right.
Art
312. Assuming no glue, some sort of fastner was used ...The center of gravity of all the boards above the top right corner of any individual board is to the left of that point.
Also plausible: An interlocking joint was used.
It is a trick photo and the table is not level, the right side is higher than the left. Or the camera is looking down on the stack.
There is airflow from the right which provides pressure to hold the stack up.
Art
Posting from rec.crafts.metalworking:
308) Fasten onto a square to allow repeatable layout of stair steps into the support beam.309) Bodywork "dolly" used to back up sheet metal as it is "dinged" (hammered) to straighten out the results of an accident.
310) Pencil sharpener as seen by the about-to-be-sharpened pencil. Looks like one of the nicer ones with a bronze body. But not one of the nicest ones, which have an adjustable point stop to select how sharp a point you will produce.311) Punch -- and it looks like the kind used to prepare a mounting point for a snap fastener of the kind used on tonneau covers and hoods (folding tops) for convertibles. It produces a hole in the cloth to clear the pin that the snap fits over, and the snap mechanism, and punches four slits in the cloth to accept tongues from the outer portion of the snap to pass through slots in the other half prior to being bent over to lock it in place.
312) The curve formed by the pieces allows more wood on the left to counterbalance the greater extension to the right of the few pieces. There may be magnets or velcro to aid, but I don't think that it would be necessary with this stacking pattern.313) Saw -- probably metal cutting (based on the tooth pitch) for use in close quarters.
314) ***** B * I * N * G * O ***** I *want* that. I've wanted one since I first read about them. It is a Curta mechanical calculator -- a wonderful example of mechanical engineering and miniaturization. It adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides many-digit numbers. With some tricks, it even will do square roots. That is a *major* collector's item.Enjoy, DoN.
There are a number of them for sale on ebay right now, the cheapest one is at just less than $500 dollars.
Hey ob,
Can we have a little better "size" description for # 313. I first took your description to be an overall measurement, but looking more closely I see no "teeth" in what is apparently the blade, so my thought is that is just the blade that is 3-1/4". True?
Take care.
Brian Laws>Five of the objects have been correctly identified so far:
The overall size of #313 is 3-1/4" and the "blade" (just a very thin piece of blued steel with no teeth) is 1-1/2" long. Probably not much use for this one today, though over 100 years ago it served a useful purpose.
Rob
Weights hidden in the blocks?
Horseshoe remover?
That would work, but there are no weights in the wood pieces.
This one isn't for removing horseshoes.
Camelshoe, Yakshoe or mother-in-law shoe remover? :)
Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022
formatting link
303 - land surveyor's widget for finding a perpendicular to a line already layed out.
Mike
Join the Discussion
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Didn't find your answer?
Ask the community — no account required