What is it? Set 523

Someone would like to find out the purpose of a hole in the wall of their basement, inside and outside photos of it along with a description are below.

"Brick house, built in the late sixties. Downstairs, there is a hole with rubber and plastic ports on either end that go clear through the wall from the basement (not underground, I?m on the side of a hill) to the carport on the other side of the wall.

The thing is about 7 feed from the ground. The hole has a diameter of under an inch, the outer diameter of the plastic grommet things is about two, and it sticks out from the wall about one inch. The outside port extends an extra half inch from the wall.

The inside and outside ports appear to be of a white plastic, painted/yellowed over time. They have darker rubber caps with a slot in them to aid in their removal via prying with a flathead screwdriver.

I have no idea what this is for. I?ve never seen it before. Not sure if it has a regional connection (Columbia, SC). Not sure if it was original or installed later. Possibly has something to do with a boat that was stored in the carport next to the port exit."

Any ideas on the purpose of this hole?

3053 The one I recognize is a razor blade sharpener.

3053

My Dad had one of these. Sometimes he would let me sharpen his razor with it.

3050 Guess... A magnetic position transducer/sensor. I speculate that one of the two sets of terminals goes to a pair of opposed solenoids and the other pair goes to a central solenoid. As the stick moves the movable solenoid, the coupling between the pairs of terminals linearly changes with distance, measuring the position of the stick. I guess, it is also possible that this is a linear actuator rather than a sensor.

3051 Not a particularly helpful answer... This is a removable handle for turning something. The central knob cams the jaws to grasp the something. It would possibly be helpful if I had any idea of what the something is.

This guy put a compressed-air fitting on the side of the house. The mystery hole looks like a better idea. Pry off the caps and slide a line through when you need it.

3049 I'll guess that this functions as a production fixture that is used like a 4-jaw chuck. If there is a production run, and the whitish thing is a workpiece, then the two screws with lock nuts are set up to position the workpiece and the other two screws clamp it in a centered position. Then some machining operation is done, well centered, on the exposed face. I'm still at a loss for how the fixture is held in place.

Your guess brought to mind a theremin.

3053 is the only one I know this week. It is a Rolfe (sp?) razor that has the neatest self sharpening system going. when in the holder the blade is flipped back and forth on the hone and strop.

#3049 Part of a "level sensor" mechanism--like from an airplane? Bill

Sounds like a good use for it! Thanks

Razor blade sharpener is correct.

Sounds feasible but I don't know what this one is so until we get a good reference it is still a mystery. Thanks for the guess.

This answer is correct.

This is another one that I don't have an answer for this week, not sure if your guess is right or not, I did a search on airplane gyroscopes but didn't see a similar device.

This particular one is a Rolls Razor, not sure if there was one like it called Rolfe.

*.* "no clue"

Really great set, you totally stumped me on all items. Well, at least I got the hydrant wrench, last week.

...

Columbia, SC? I moved there for two years as a senior manager for the Y2K project for SCDHEC. General construction practices there are just short of "idiot during a particularly stupid spell".

Does your roof have those dumb "curl-over" drips at the eaves, where they just let the sag of the shingles form a drip path, and with no metal drip-edging or doubling at the edges, like all the other houses up on the plateau? Did they slope all the concrete work toward the house, so the footers would stay nice and moist? (keeps all that 800psi "Cawncreke" from turning to dust)

It's likely a pee-hole for the owner, so he could pee INTO the crawl space or basement while doing barbeque and drinking beer out in the carport (while shouting, "Heey, Boyz! WATCH DIS!")

Lloyd

Delivery port for fuel oil. Probably for a furnace or boiler. Just a guess from the description?