Set 509

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2965. Approximately 6" long:

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2966. Sent in by a visitor who is looking to find the purpose of this device, take a look at Neatorama for more guesses and a chance to win a T-shirt.

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2967. Around 40" tall:





























2968. 6" long, another unidentified tool:



























2969. 6-1/2" tall:

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2970. About 2" diameter:

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Answers:


2965. This is a bottle opener, the three links on the right are welded together:

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2966. Several people have told me that this was used to sharpen cutters for a sheep shearing handpiece.

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2967. A railroad drill, these days most train rails are welded together end to end, but years ago they were connected by bolting plates to the end of each rail.

"To make a jointed rail, the ends of rail sections are bolted together with 2 heavy steel plates, called fishplates or joint bars, one on each side of the rail joint. Full lengths of rail, as supplied by the factory, would have bolt holes in them. But, if an odd length of rail is cut for repairs or to fit a rail section, new bolt holes have to be drilled through the rail. Unfortunately, railroad workers in the 1800s and early 1900s did not have motor driven machines to make these holes. They had to manually drill holes in the vertical part, or web, of the rail. To help ease this job a bit, a rail drilling machine that used men as the 'motor' were developed in the 1800s."

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2968. An underscribe that was used to mark seams in hard vinyl flooring, it was also used for edge cuts on formica counter-tops, etc. The bottom pin rides the edge, and the top needle is adjusted for the particular function.





















2969. Someone had sent this in, looking to identify it, turns out that it's a fisherman's cricket cage:

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2970. This is the end piece of a singletree:

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A different one was posted here about seven years ago:



A singletree is the wooden part of the rigging between a horse and wagon:



The end piece is slightly different on this one:









An update from last week:

2962. This is a nail stripper, it was used to align nails so they could be quickly grasped by a production person making wooden crates, patent number 1,051,282.

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Are you interested in Old Tools and Tool Collecting? Want to learn more about tools, and meet some great people who have the same interests? Please take a minute to check out the Mid-West Tool Collectors Web Site at this link: www.mwtca.org.























To submit photos, send them to the address in my profile, please include dimensions, any text on the item, and where it was found.













Last week's set is seen below, click here to view the entire post.

Check out Neatorama for lots of funny T-shirts.







More discussion and comments on these photos can be found at the newsgroup rec.puzzles.