Can someone please identify this?

BadDog · Post by **BadDog** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:16 pm

I know it's familiar from some book, catalog, or magazine; but I don't know what it is. It came in a box of other unrelated stuff, completely disassembled. This is my best guess putting it together based on how the pieces are made...

Thanks for any help.

Post by **Harold_V** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:47 pm

Hard to second guess the builder, but it could be used as a holder for a long travel indicator. All depends on if the base could be held rigidly enough to prevent movement. Magnetic bases are often used for such an application.

Harold

Ben91069 · Post by **Ben91069** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:02 pm

Harold_V is right. It is a base for an indicator. It need not be magnetic. The purpose is to set on a granite surface plate and hold the indicator on the arm on the left side. Note the small screw with the spring. This adjusts the indicator preload. Once you preload it and zero in the dial, you either move the part around under it or move the base.

BadDog · Post by **BadDog** » Wed May 24, 2006 12:57 am

Thanks guys.

Hmm, never even though of an indicator holder that heavy. If course there is nothing in the pic to give scale. <sigh> Sorry. The bars are ~0.5" dia. or so, and the base (if that is the base to it, as I said, it was just a pile of parts until I realized it appeared to fit together) is not magnetic, or even weighted (it’s actually hollow turned if that matters). Each piece is also locked in place with set screws with the vertical bar being completely round and the cross bar having a milled flat that keys into the blocks to prevent rotation on the horizontal axis. There are also no springs or "fine adjustments" like my magnetic indicator holder has. The one that looks like it has a spring on it is only locking the "block" onto the rod. And the one on the end does nothing but hold the flat plate in place, and presumably clamp something out there. There are also no dovetail or pin mounts for an indicator. Perhaps there are parts I didn't get? <shrug>

Sorry for the lack of detail earlier.

BadDog · Post by **BadDog** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:00 am

Here is another view that may help clarify, particularly now that I've given the scale. It may still be an indicator holder, and just a more primitive/heavy one than I'm aware of. Or maybe just missing some parts?

Post by **Harold_V** » Wed May 24, 2006 2:06 am

To be honest, I hesitated with my first response due to the strange configuration of the "head", which appears to be more for holding some kind of flat object. Long travel indicators can have a mount that allows for a ¼" bolt, which would clamp the back of the indicator to the head, but the flat plate in the picture gives me pause. It's possible it would interfere with the fit of the indicator. As a result, I'm not convinced that's what the original builder had in mind.

As was mentioned by Ben, such a setup is often used on a surface plate, where a magnetic base wouldn't serve well, but the fact that the base is hollow seems a bit strange. Mass in such things is always in one's favor, so they stay put of their own volition. A hollow base would tend to be counter-productive in that regard. Dunno! I still have my doubts. Could it be it was intended to be clamped or otherwise fastened on a machine?

By the way, thanks for the intelligent size of your pictures. It saves me the trouble of resizing them, both in pixels and file size. You really did good!

Harold

Ben91069 · Post by **Ben91069** » Wed May 24, 2006 2:47 am

Another point that baffles me. Why the three drill points in the base?

BadDog · Post by **BadDog** » Wed May 24, 2006 2:59 am

Beats me...

And as I said, this may not be exactly as it was designed. I got it in a 5 gallon bucket with a bunch of random machining stuff from a gun smith estate. It's just a best guess based on screw marks on the bars and holes in the "blocks" that obviously have to fit a flat where the round simply won't go through due to a chordal intrusion by a bolt, that type of thing... When I was separating things into my "stock" piles, it hit me that some of the pieces looked like the "had once been part of something". So I gathered up the matching blocks (the one did have the flat plate bolted on the end, and all the bolts were in place), grabbed the bars that seemed made to order, fitted it based on where the bolts had marked the bars and phyisically would work (like the milled flat) to produce something that looked vaguely familiar. The result is in the pics. I could be completely off base in saying this was all part of the same contraption. May be a coincidence that the hole in the "base" is a VERY nice close/snug slop-free slip fit, but that's kinda hard to believe too. And no clue about the drill hits, maybe just an accident? <shrug>

And on the resize/crop of the pics, I totally understand and hate seeing those monstrous things that you scroll 2 screens sideways to view. <grin> You are most welcome...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:08 pm

The three semi-holes are from where the peice of steel was "pre utilized" as another part. I have some of them in my scrap box, not that I EVER make a mistake! The dimples were there prior to me, honest!

Post by **Harold_V** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:44 pm

Anonymous wrote:The three semi-holes are from where the peice of steel was "pre utilized" as another part. I have some of them in my scrap box, not that I EVER make a mistake! The dimples were there prior to me, honest!

Oh, yeah! We all believe you. Honest.

If you're like me, you're still waiting to make that first mistake. That, of course, excludes marrying my first wife.

Harold

larry_g · Post by **larry_g** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:52 pm

Ress
That looks a bit like some optics breadbording equipment or something industrial to hold a sensor or camera in some manufacturing equipment. We used to us a lot of items like that to make machines and hold small things in the right place.
lg
no neat sig line