Why is a cats head call a cats head?

Maybe because the bolts stick out like cat's whiskers.

I know what a "cat's paw" is, but "cat's head" doesn't ring a bell. What's it used for?

It's a collar with three or four screws with locknuts perpendicular and pointing in. The screws are used to hold and center odd shaped work (like rectangular) pieces for use with the steady rest. The collar rotates in the steady and the item turns with it.

Andy

Good explanation. I didn't know what it was either. "Cathead biscuits" is as close as I could come.

Garrett Fulton

Different trades, different backgrounds!!!

Cathead, in my experience, is a smooth power driven drum used in winching. here's one:

Went to look for one to show you and came up with this from answers.com: A beam projecting outward from the bow of a ship and used as a support to lift the anchor.

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

Beacuse it is attached to a cat?

Errol Groff

Instructor, Manufacturing Technology H.H. Ellis Technical High School

New England Model Engineering Society

By that definition, my cats each have 6 heads :)

jk

I should think the males would have 8 or 9, depending on how you choose to count the bits... ;-P

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ROFLMAO!

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,

that's what I thought of as well, Dan.

Tom

However, from the OED: .................... a. A small capstan (Simmonds Dict. Trade 1858). b. A broad-bully hammer (Raymond Mining Gloss.). c. An attachment to a lathe to assist in supporting long bars when they are being turned' (Cent. Dict. Suppl. 1909).

So perhaps, as resembling "a small capstan" the lathe attachment became so named..

Tom