What is it? LXXI

Just posted another set:

Rob

406. Pyrite or other fake gold piece. 407. Telegraph key? 408. Card shuffler. (the only one I am positive about) 409. Jar lid opener? 410. Puzzle block. 411. Heavy gauge electrical swage end like the ones used on welding leads. I don't recognize the extra lug on the swage barrel.

(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.

406: Cassiterite

407: Morse key

408: Dough cutter (for lasagne?)

409: Jar opener

410: Light bulb tester

411: Crimp terminal

Petrified pentanusaur poop.

Civil War era precision eraser.

Card shuffler.

Kung-fu grip self-defense device.

1-2-3 block.

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

John

406 Some mineral, perhaps iron pyrite 407 Telegraph key 408 ? 409 Draft 1 of Robby the Robt's hand 410 Set up block for machinists/tool and dye. Also known as 1-2-3 block 411 ?

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

406: an iron pyrites crystal 407: an old telegraph key (Those two I got before he joined me.)

408: a card shuffler

410: a machinist's dapping block 411: a battery-cable end

407. "Firing Key" used by FDR at the September 30, 1935 dedication of Hoover Dam. 409. "Sack grabber" for use by dock workers. A sophisticated version of the hook type I noticed last week being used by actor Russell Crowe as Jim Braddock in the recently released movie "Cinderella Man." 410. 1-2-3 block used in the movie "El Maquinista" ("The Machinist"). A stage prop only filmed from one angle.

Jeff (Just kidding...3X)

406 Galena crystal 407 very old telegraph key 408 card shuffler??? 409 pipe carrier 410 "123" block 411 heavy duty terminal with attachment point for a smaller wire.

406. Iron Pyrite crystals 407. Telegraph key 408. Playing card shuffler 409. Tongs 410. some kind of jig 411. High-capacity electrical terminal

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

406: Kryptonite

407: Early computer mouse

408: Toast Flipper/Counter/Stacker (Limited Edition Stereo Model)

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

410: Failed Rubik's Cube prototype

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:

406 - a chunk of iron pyrite

407 - telegraph receiver

408 - playing card shuffler

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

410 - homemade 1-2-3 block

411 - electrical terminal

406: A lump of pyrite 407: Dunno - some kind of antique precision repair/calibration jig 408: Card shuffling machine 409: Cut-off tree limb grabber 410: 1-2-3 block, or Johansson block 411: Crimp lug. BIG crimp lug, and the wart on the top of the barrel is so that you can crimp it with an ordinary squeezer.

Cheers! Rich

406: pyrite 407: telegraph key 409: fisherman's fish-grabbing tongs for pike, musky

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

406) Iron Pyrites (Fools Gold).

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.

408) A crank-operated playing-card shuffler?

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

410) It looks like an *unfinished* 1-2-3 block, except that a proper 1-2-3 block typically has the holes all the way through, and a certain percentage of them are also threaded.

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".

411) Crimp terminal for power leads. The markings say for 1/0 and 2/0 wires.

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*

1-2-3 block, given the lack of the finish grind (though they also normally have holes all the way through, with a certain number tapped).

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

6.000" (the longest that I have seen).

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?