What is this thing?

well, whatever it is, that site won't show me the picture - maybe it's an incorrectly coded JPEG

Interesting... Works for me. I have to scroll up to the top of the page to see it tho. mike

picture does not show.

ok, so help me debug this. Should be a webpage with the label "Pictures" Two lines of text and the image. What do you see? Which browser are you using? page filters? blockers?

Here's an alternate:

I see the same thing, sans image.

I can't see it either with Firefox and Adblocker. I turned off several things and it still won't appear. The frame for the image is there and some sort of a "broken image" icon.

Ok thanks. had the thing linked to my home machine instead of tripod. Should work now. May have to reload the page to flush the cache.

So, what is this thing? thanks, mike

Works ok for me - no idea what it is.

Screwing the middle part in/out spreads the 3 leaves? Some sort of reamer - but the leaves are curved?????? Maybe its a proctologists reboring tool.

'Dunno, but it's a cool thing, whatever it is.

It looks like some kind of through-hole or blind-hole clamp, that's made to expand in a hole as the center portion is driven into it. Can you think of any holes it might fit into?

Looks like an xpander for some sort of tubing, based on the mass of the threads.shaft and size of the fingers

Cant expand all that far, but it does expand a fair amount. Exhaust system tubing?

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch

The pointy ends are extremely sharp. thought it might be some kind of end cutter. But there's no obvious way to operate it. It's knurled suggesting hand operation, but you'd have to be mighty steady to do anything useful like that.

There's a "knob" on the back end that unscrews. Permanently affixed is a drill bit. And there's a hole cross-drilled in the bit near the tip. Put another pix at the link

I was beginning to think "dent remover" for tubing until I saw that drill bit. That is a weird one, all right.

On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:52:06 -0700, mike wrote the following:

That's a Victorian era gonorrhea drill for men. It hurts just to look at it. =:0

You should take some clear pictures that show both ends and another pic of the overall appearance with something common in the picture for scale (a 6" rule, for example).

As a further step in your quest, email Rob H, the guy that posts weekly "What Is It" puzzle posts here in RCM (and elsewhere) generally, every Thursday morning.

Metal parts can be somewhat difficult to take clear pics of, particularly if one is only using the camera's flash for lighting. I've found that sunlight/daylight compact fluorescent lamps (~5000+ degrees Kelvin) are very helpful for photo lighting.

That is an adjustable reamer for smoking pipes.

Give that man a cigar ;-)

"Paul K. Dickman" on Wed, 14 Jul 2010

Give the man a ... well, a pipe.

And the hole in the drill bit would make it "easier" to attach a swab - aka "pipe cleaner" (but that's ... hmmm, the whole thing is "over engineered" for the task, but "so what?" "I have this nifty gadget, and you don't.")

tschus pyotr

Take a picture of the whole thing, not just a part of it.

Jon

I can sleep soundly tonight. Thank you,

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller