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ID this two-handwheel tool/fixture?

Cannonmn

Stainless
Joined
Jun 25, 2016
Got my MSC sales brochure today and noticed the guy in the cover photo was using something I have in the junk box but haven’t yet identified. What’s it used for please?

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On a more serious note it looks like a custom jig maybe for inspection or possibly to assist in putting an assembly together. Just my off the cuff wag.
 
Thx, good info. Looks like some burning’s been going on under the near side of it, and there’s a small air line nearby. He’s not welding or he’d have a mask on. If anyone recognizes him (yeah fat chance) ask him what he was doing with that thing. Mine’s function and size-identical but materials used to make various parts of it are different. So I guess some particular industry with more than one facility had some operation that needed these. If I ever get time I’ll make a you-tube video “How to use the Beanie Baby Compressor” then wait for somebody from some tool room to tell me what it really did.
 
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to assist in putting an assembly together.

Rotating to keep a resistance weld or braze sweet comes to mind. Working glass + metals is another. One Uncle once made experimental vacuum tubes, 1930's. Kinda strange stuff, that can be - to a metalworker.
 
Or just cracking pecans with precision

Maybe. I can see what I need to do is post detailed photos or video of exactly how it moves. Was dumb to skip that but I wasn’t motivated to ask about it until I saw the MSC brochure at home today.
 
Another bit of one off custom tooling - AKA scrap.

Not all "custom tooling" is scrap. Over the years I've made dozens if not hundreds of tools and fixtures that were supposed to be for "one off" operations. Like a dummy I put them in a "special place" without bothering to identify them. A few years ago I decided it was time to clean out what I couldn't identify, and properly label the ones I was saving.

About half of them went into the scrap bin or were disassembled to reuse the stock. The rest still sit on the shelf today. The disappointing part is that I've had jobs that could have used at least half a dozen of the fixtures I couldn't identify at the time. This time when I remade them I clearly identified each one and the part it was used for. I guess it's one of those catch 22's. If you do save it you'll never use it and someone will post pictures and ask "what's This" on a bulletin board. If you throw it away you'll surely have to use it again and will have to recreate it.
 
There's a pattern shop in the area who makes foundry tooling for a larger yellow tractor company. Today, they make more money storing surplus tooling for said company than building new stuff...
 
I dug mine out and saw that it seems functionally but not physically identical to the MSC cover device. Two worm shafts end on opposite sides of a fixed plate. Each shaft has a threaded slider moved by the worms, and both sliders have two slots for mounting an unknown item.

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