I bought a small box of tools in an auction recently becuase there were a couple of things I wanted. Included in the lot was this. It looks like a tool for something, but I've got no idea what that something is. Thought someone here might recognise it.
Yea, I gotta agree. being in the box with the machinist scale, it's likely hand made. I worked with old German machinist that would hand make stuff rather than buy it. They called 'em "G" jobs.
It is a set of threading dies made in ye olde manner as one piece; name useta was something like "screw plate". Much more useful than the complete set of taps made as one piece...
I'll go along with the thread chaser guesses, but it's kinda an "all your eggs in one basket" deal. The handle looks purpose-cast so I'm leaning toward the commercially available end of things. Perhaps true with any ethnic group, but when I was doing the buying/selling lathes bit one of the most interesting lathes I bought was from an old German machinist and came with a whole bunch of stuff. Lots of home-made tools, some of which I learned what they were later when trying to do a new thing with lathe or mill and finding one of the home-made tools was for a specific set-up or job. Since I was trying to get a piece centered in the mill yesterday I came to the realization that one of the two piece home-made tools was a centering device. For some reason, a lot of small stuff gets tossed into the pot when you buy a lathe, some of the best being several hundred hand ground cutting bits. Most times a little digging will bring up a cutting tool that's just what's needed for a one-off job. Every once in a while I find a killer bargain at one vendors semi-permanent tool place at the swap meet. Got a precision ground and factory tapped 90 degree angle plate, 4" x 4" on one side and 4" x 6" on the other side, 1" thick. $3.00 . . . whatta deal.... Sometimes machinist stuff isn't recognized for what it is....
My dad made something similar, but not with as many holes...all threaded like that...he used it when he cut bolts, then backed them out to keep the threads in place when backing out the bolt.
it's not a die set, it's a thread chaser for bolts that are a little messed up or dirty and need to be fixed. it doesn't see the kind of use and abuse that a die would so a one piece deal would be very handy. btw, the handle is forged not cast.
Boys that is an early die set, possibly gunmakers I say this because of the size of the dies clock/watch makers dies would have been smaller other trades would have been larger ect.I have seen ones almost identical dated from around 1700 thru about 1900 here in the states. Chris
Both real dies and cleanup dies were made that way for a long time, from the earliest days of ancestors of the machine screw into the modern period of standardized sizes--they were made as singles, as large sets like this one, and as small sets to cover something like all the screws on a particular gun. This general type was especially important back when there were no standards and each machine maker invented his own bolt types. Even in the early 20th century, sizes were still much more complex than now--several gauges, far more semi-standard thread counts for each size, and renegade manufacturers who used lots of special fasteners not conforming to anyone's standards. Taps were relatively easy to make after the screw cutting lathe came along in the 18th century... with this design, dies could easily be made if you had a tap--drill and tap hole, create instant cutting edges by drilling side holes, then case harden using heat and bones or whatever.
The pie-server look must be traditional--here's another: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...plate%22&start=20&ndsp=20&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=N And here's a specialized one, a hinged plate made to rethread axles on early Fords and others after misguided attempts to remove the hub...this one can still be found at Snap-On, I think: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...eading+%22axle+threads%22&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=G
No, I'm just narrow minded and like things to follow set arbitrary rules. Its a control thing. And remember - just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
Thanks for all that. I knew someone on here would have the answer. According to my better half, I'm going to clean it up so it can spend the rest of its days as.......a pie server!
Don't know much about heat treating, but ground up bones were used as a source of carbon for case hardening...heat your chunk o' steel to X degrees, bury it in bone powder, I think. Stuff used to be available in tin cans for small shop use.
im thinking its a thread GAUGE instead of a thread chaser.....thread chasers are people who follow the HAMB.........threads........ok, I'll shutup now....back to eating my breakfast gruel......
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