What is it? LXXI

Just posted another set:

Rob

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

It's for hammering the lug tight to the cable just in case you don't have the large crimper for 1/0 or 2/0 cable lugs handy.

407: Morse key

409: Jar opener

411: Crimp terminal

Petrified pentanusaur poop.

Civil War era precision eraser.

Card shuffler.

Kung-fu grip self-defense device.

Terminal end for welding cable and such, stick the bared end of the cable in and hit the rectangular wedge with a hammer.

John

My husband was looking over my shoulder at these, so most of the identifications are his.

408: a card shuffler

Jeff (Just kidding...3X)

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 08:31:59 GMT, "R.H." wrote in rec.woodworking:

407: Early computer mouse

409: DIY Vasectomy Kit Klamp (removed from market 4/1/1960)

411: Lee Press-On Nails, Cyborg Cuticle Edition

--

• TomH + antonomasia-at-canada-dot-com

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

Also:

407 - telegraph receiver

409 - holder for toothy fish (grabs them by the gills)

411 - electrical terminal

Cheers! Rich

O.K. Posting from rec.crafts.metalworking again:

407) It looks like a very old panel-mount momentary contact switch. The wooden knob passes through a hole in the panel, and the rusty old screws still visible at the top of the upright sections in the photo attach it to the panel.

I think that the center portion should include a spring to hold the switch in the open state. And it looks like an adjustment to control the amount of force needed to actuate the switch, by which I assume that this is for something like a battery powered dynamite detonator.

The wires connect to the underside below the knob, and to the flag under the pivot at the other end.

With the fine adjustment of the contact gap, I would almost think that it could be an early telegraph key, except that the mass of the moving parts would make it rather slow to operate.

409) A patent set of ice tongs? or A gripper for unscrewing jar lids?

I say "unfinished" because of the tooling marks from the milling cutters. Such things are normally machined slightly oversized, drilled and tapped, and then hardened. After hardening, the dimensions are finished on a surface grinder, accurate to better than 0.001" (that is 1.000" x 2.000" x 3.000".

I find the projection on the top to be interesting, and I suspect that the crimper collapses this into the wire which was inserted into the cup. It might even allow the crimping to be performed with a vise or a hammer and anvil, instead of the usual hydraulically-powered crimpers for things of that size.

Given the date, it might even be specific for aluminum power wiring.

Now to see what others have guessed.

Enjoy, DoN.

I guessed (and have already posted) that it was an *incomplete*

But I *can't* accept that it might be a "Jo" (Johansson) block.

Those are much smaller, and at least the two ends are finished to a mirror finish. (The other surfaces are normally ground to a nicer finish than this -- but then, so is a 1-2-3 block.

The size is wrong, too. They are about 5/16" thick, and a bit over 1" wide, with the length varying from 0.100" through at least

Enjoy, DoN.

Thanks for the correction. My office opens onto a machine shop, and I hear the terms - I'd heard of Jo blocks before, as you described, but the guys around here sometimes call gage blocks "jo blocks"; albeit I've never heard anybody refer to a 1-2-3 block as a "jo block"; I made that up all by myself. ;-)

Although, the 1-2-3 blocks around here that have holes in them, have holes all the way through. Hmmmm....

Thanks! Rich

You're welcome.

That is because their inventor was Carl E. Johannsson (I'm not sure that I have the right number of 'n's and 's's in that name), and he was hired to implement his set of reusable standards at Ford many years ago. Brown & Sharpe gauge blocks are still marked with his full name, or on the smallest just "C.E.J".

Starrett sells a different line, marked "Webber", which I presume started when the patent that Johannsson had ran out. Both are excellent sets. But "Jo blocks" tends to be used even when they are marked "Webber". :-)

While a good 1-2-3 block is quite accurate, they are not as accurate as gauge blocks. Even the cheap Chinese ones are supposed to be accurate to 0.000050" (50 micro-inches), and the best (and most expensive) of them are as good as (I think) 0.000002" (2 micro-inches). At that kind of accuracy, the thermal expansion from the heat of your hand when you hold a "Jo" block too long will introduce errors.

Agreed. I've never seen ones with blind holes, which makes me wonder about the item in the posted puzzle set.

Enjoy, DoN.

But what is it for? what does it do, exactly?