Unusual Non-Ferrous Starrett indicator Clamp

I've seen many Starrett back plunger indicator sets with the old style "indicator hole attachment", but today we had a very unusual one come into the Tool Thrift Shop. The clamp is made of either brass, bronze, or perhaps beryllium copper (I can't tell the difference) and there is a number poorly cast into the frame. I believe it is 3794-X3P. There's no lateral post hole, only a single one on the clamping screw axis. The clamp screw foot is also non-ferrous. The clamp is not cast to usual Starrett standards.

Does anybody know anything about this odd style of clamp?

Yes, at the Hanford nuke site, many common tools like Cresent wrenches, Stanley claw hammers, and about everything else were made out of beryllium alloy.
From what I have been told, it is more for use in explosive atmospheres, then hammering plutonium nails.
The tools that show up on the used market were simply stolen from where they belong.
The alloy material is said to be perfectly safe, but do not grind it, so they say....

I was on a submarine tender when I was in the Navy.
Once we had a mine sweeper come along side for some emergency repairs to a fire main pump. I had to go onto the little mine sweeper to do some measuring and all of their hand tools were made if beryllium copper. The ship itself was mostly aluminum - because of magnetic mines of course.
The 1st class engineman watched his tools like a mother hen watches her chicks. If we could have made off with an adjustable wrench we surely would have. But he was too good and gave us no chance.

They seem to keep a tight grip on those tools at Hanford also. There are rumors of a beryllium Stanley #5 hand planes made in the 40s, would probably be very collectable if they really exist.
I would guess the cost of brand name tools made of beryllium alloy would be very high.
I have only seen an adjustable wrench, a claw hammer, and a large pair of pliers that have escaped. The tools appear to be strong.

NOT berylium copper. Non sparking tools are Manganese bronze. Berylium had no use at Hanford and would have been a contaminant.

tdmidget said:

NOT berylium copper. Non sparking tools are Manganese bronze. Berylium had no use at Hanford and would have been a contaminant.

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Say what?
NGK Berylco | BERYLCO(R) Safety Tools

Beryllium itself is a neat metal. One of the millwrights I used to work with had worked in a beryllium mining outfit and had a small piece of beryllium metal round stock in his toolbox. It was very very light, looked a little like dull aluminum. And yes it is alloyed with copper to make non-sparking tools. I have seen manganese bronze used also, not sure which is used for which specific purposes.

tdmidget said:

NOT berylium copper. Non sparking tools are Manganese bronze. Berylium had no use at Hanford and would have been a contaminant.

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I'll have to take your word for the nuke environment, way outta my experience.

We had lots of non-sparking tools for working in the Ammo Dumps and other high risk areas, many were BeCu, and as many more were AlBr. Wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers, pry bars, pretty much the gamut.

Silly thing was the logistics required to dispose of a BeCu wrecking bar. LOL! Apparently the Russians could not figure out that technology! At least, according to the controls placed on the disposal of the bar...

At some point, yet another of a long line of bosses read as far as "Beryllium", and decided they had to rid themselves of the stuff, and chucked out the whole pile of non-spark tools they had. A filled 45 gallon drum worth. It was a pretty good day to be on the scrounge, the BeCu tools went in to a 5 gallon bucket, the AlBr ones went....away....

tdmidget said:

NOT berylium copper. Non sparking tools are Manganese bronze. Berylium had no use at Hanford and would have been a contaminant.

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Wrong again! Hanford was a Plutonium production facility, beryllium plays an interesting role with Plutonium, look up "Demon Core", and see what happens when a mistake was made with a beryllium container, near critical amount of plutonium, and a screw driver.
I have multiple machines from Hanford that were used on these alloys, but no more, because it was listed as a contaminate in the late 1990s for the public, surplus machines used on the alloys were then buried, many Monarch ee lathes!

donie said:

Wrong again! Hanford was a Plutonium production facility, beryllium plays an interesting role with Plutonium, look up "Demon Core", and see what happens when a mistake was made with a beryllium container, near critical amount of plutonium, and a screw driver.
I have multiple machines from Hanford that were used on these alloys, but no more, because it was listed as a contaminate in the late 1990s for the public, surplus machines used on the alloys were then buried, many Monarch ee lathes!

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You are wrong again. There were no "cores" or any other weapon components at Hanford. The plutonium was produced and extracted and sent to Rocky Flats to be made into the "cores" . These were sent to Pantex for assembly. Any Beryllium, even a trace, would have stopped the reaction that produced the plutonium. This such a concern because just contact with Beryllium might be enough to prevent a reaction.

I am glad there is a real expert like you to set it all straight! Of course you were never there, its all in your head! But a good try for the termite-Ha Ha!
You should research the demon core, it was used in a bomb, after it was in the beryllium container, and the incident that happened.
Also, I did not say the core was made at Hanford. but the Plutonium it was made from certainly was. And, alot of beryllium was machined out there, sounds like you didnt get the memo!

Ultradog MN said:

I was on a submarine tender when I was in the Navy.
Once we had a mine sweeper come along side for some emergency repairs to a fire main pump. I had to go onto the little mine sweeper to do some measuring and all of their hand tools were made if beryllium copper. The ship itself was mostly aluminum - because of magnetic mines of course.
The 1st class engineman watched his tools like a mother hen watches her chicks. If we could have made off with an adjustable wrench we surely would have. But he was too good and gave us no chance.

Click to expand...

Cool...My father served on a Sub during the Vietnam era. I was actually born in Hawaii when he was stationed there...though unfortunately we moved when I was still an infant.

this thread makes me think back to the complete tool roll of beryllium copper tools that I stupidly did not buy at a swapmeet years ago for the princely sum of $25.00 or so... appeared to be military issued, most likely comshawed. Jim

They are also non magnetic, so useful where any strong magnetic fields would suck steel tools up, like particle accelerators

D.Minnich said:

Cool...My father served on a Sub during the Vietnam era. I was actually born in Hawaii when he was stationed there...though unfortunately we moved when I was still an infant.

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A PTHS '63 classmate of mine was of Hawaiian origin. Already a Westinghouse Nuclear favorite person by age 15. Straight-A student K12 through PhD. Smart guy. Very.
Some other kid clocked the Merit Scholarship, age 15 though. Lazy f**ker as didn't much give a damn about school grades wasting his learning time. Go figure the lazy one ended up having more fun?

Dr. Donald Dei retired as Chief Technologist, United States Navy Underwater Nuclear Propulsion program. Nuclear Physics had been one of our shared interest in HS. One of many, actually.

All my 'formal" nuke training came two years after HS granulation. Whilst Don was still in Collitch. Warshots. Whiskey-31. AIM-1 "Genie". BOMARC. Then "ADM" platoon. And dealing with the aftermath. Ours OR the other guys.

Same pay as any other job in the Army, same rank. BFD.
Not as if I was the ONLY guy so trained, Army, Navy, Air Force. Marines for-sure.
And US Coast Guard "probably". CG's are seriously good at "jack of all trades". Small force, small hulls, ever' body HAS to know a dozen jobs, same as sub krews do. And they do, good on 'em.

Tens of thousands of veterans over many years have dealt with the arsenals we hope we never again use in anger..

BFD. It was our job.

Ivan KNEW how good we were. Russians never made the same mistake ONCE.
I'm good with that.

So was Dr. Don Dei with his nuke powerplants pushing our subs around under the ocean all these years just endlessly patrolling and practicing. No nuke warshots yet fired in anger, either. That we have ever admitted to, anyway.

New generations followed. Did their job, too.

And I'm STILL "good with that".

No nuke shots fired in anger since a W-31 MIM-14b ARADCOM Mach 5 vacuum-tube aimed brute-force and bloody Neutron flux ICBM-buster 20 KT yeild match .. but way smaller and more reliable .. took out ......Nagasaki, Japan.

Kinda brutal for a ground to air missile? Well..... it was run by the Army Air Defense ARTILLERY .. because it was also a ground-to-ground or ground-to-space capable animal. Turks and South Koreans loved their ones, even without the W-31 warshots. Massive HE warshot with house-sized target accuracy at 130-plus miles? Damned straight they loved 'em!

And that was back THEN. 1940's and 1950's "hollow state" technology already obsolete at the dawn of the 1960's. "Standard" missile and Patriot variants do that NOW. In their own obsolescence of course.

Hard on incoming ICBM's, 20 KT of enhanced neutron flux off a 40 KT warhead, dialed-down for that very purpose can be.

Not exactly "gentle" on New Jersey - the US State. Not the Battleship - ever we had to use them, even way high up, either.

War can be a right bitch.

But it ain't the cautious Rooshins that are worrisome, these days.

You think all this work ended a while back?
Whatever gave you THAT idea?

Never wondered why ground artillery max tube size has been getting ever smaller since I offered to crawl up the barrel of a brand-new Mike-65 280 mm "Atomic Cannon" on display next to the house as a skinny kid. And was forbidden by the Deputy Commander of the arsenal as had just built it? You'd have to know Dad's who have to keep an eye on rambunctious kids?



Or maybe just guess.. that the tubes do not need to be as large to heave a tactical nuke projectile as keeps getting smaller and smarter?