MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

You need a clue for the latest pic I think. Count the number of flutes.....

[Bradders Bluesinger]

At least two ! ....what's it for ?

[Stanley]

It's a three flute drill with no cutting point. It puzzled me for a while until a mate told me it was specifically designed for cleaning up and sizing long bores like the barrel on a pistol. The three flutes ensured it followed the original bore. Never used it.....
Thinking cap on.

[Stanley]

[Bodger]

I dont wish to "talk" about it

[chinatyke]

I dont wish to "talk" about it

At first I wondered what you meant, Bodger, but then it clicked.

Never thought of them as talking tools before.

[Tizer]

Oh, go on, Bodger, I know it'll be a wrench for you but I'm sure you can manage it!

[Stanley]

I like it.... Go on Bodge, tell them while I think up the next one. I used to have a bigger one for the larger sizes but gave it away at some point. Expensive tackle in their time, this one is a Britool. Forty years old and just like new, you've got to admit I have looked after it!

[Bodger]

Now we know its a Britool torque wrench, as you say Stanley a good make, my first socket set was a Britool one, bought through the company on a two bob deduction from my 37/6d a week wages as an apprentice early 1950s

[Stanley]

The thing about Britool stuff in the 70s was that there was a long waiting list for some of the more esoteric items in their catalogue. I had to wait six months for these pinch bars but very useful and made of wonderful steel.


The two Britool bars that took so long to arrive. They were so useful because they were so small and yet could stand all the pressure you put on them. You'll notice that the lower bar has some kinks in the shaft. My mate Dennis Sterricker was in trouble one day as he tried to line up the holes in the firebox, wrapper and foundation ring on a traction engine so he could get location bolts in before it was riveted, about 4" thick. I lent him the bar and he used it as a drift and you can see how hard it had to work! It did the job. The lower bar is the American equivalent, a Gorilla Bar. A good tool but they made it a lot heavier, mustn't have had the confidence in their steel that the Britool designers had!
How about this one....

[Pluggy]

A pressure relief valve and a non-return valve of some description. Compressed air ?

[Tizer]

Does the reverse thread on the non-return valve indicate its use with inflammable gas?

[Bradders Bluesinger]

With you on that one Peter....I suspect welding/cutting is involved.
(Flash-back arrester ? )

[Stanley]

Bodge, you must have been doing the same things as me! Good observations the rest of you but Bodge has it. They are flame arrestors for use in the gas lines to a gas welding/cutting head. They did just what it says on the tin, stopped any flash back from the burner to the regulator on the gas cylinder. Very rare but not nice when it happens. Dangerous things gas cylinders. The big no-no was oil contamination on the threads where the regulator screwed into the cylinder. It could spontaneously combust and the result was an oxygen fuelled jet out of the cylinder. My dad once saw one fly down one of the shops at General Gas and punch it's way out through the end wall. Not recommended!

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Hey ,not being picky ........but it was ME (Bradders) what said "Flash Back arrester" (Bodger probably knew as well, though !)...
I worked for Air Products Equipment Division in Bracknell between 1964 and '67....They were continuing to manufacture the old BGT** equipment at the time ...Mk III (?)Regulators (Marked in the castings of Oxy regs with " NO OIL" )and Scimitar cutters etc...
...Machine shop full of Ward Capstain lathes ....couldn't walk through without getting brass swarfe in your socks...uncomfortable.
They also did some very fancy stuff for Electric TIG and MIG welding ...... They were the original UK importers of Oerlikon aluminium welding gear....
Happy Days !

** "British Gas and Tool Co". had previousely been manufacturing in Windlesham (about 12 miles away) and a lot of the old machinists sort of "came with the business" when APL bought it ....

[Bradders Bluesinger]

PS ....So I'm holding back on the next picture....

[chinatyke]

Hey ,not being picky ...

Is that a clue, Bradders?

Could they be lock picks?

[Stanley]

Sorry Brad, early in the morning. Not lock picks China.... Brad knew as soon as he saw them.....

[Stanley]

They are of course a set of serrated prickers for cleaning the jets on oxy/gas burner tips. Now I'll have to think up another one for you!

[Stanley]

[Bodger]

If i was in America, i would say hi Jo Blocks

[chinatyke]

I love this topic and I'm learning new things everyday that you engineers take for granted. We only did woodwork at our school and you could insert wedges into mortice and joints to take up the slack, no need for measurements to millionths of a millimeter. Thanks Bodger, I looked it up on Wikipedia.

It makes me wonder where you keep all these things, Stanley, as you seem to have a complete set of everything?

[Stanley]

Bodge, almost dead accurate. You are of course right, they are Johansen slips but made by a British Firm, Matrix. China, I have a well packed treasure chest. The slips are used for setting instruments and items at precise measurements. The slips are so well finished that if you twist them together, called 'wringing', they stick as though they are magnetised. I was given them by a lady who was grateful because I had given her some realistic values for her late husband's shed contents. She also gave me this which goes with them.....



Bodge will I am sure tell you what it is.

[Bodger]

I will leave it to see what height other readers may reach in guaging its use,
re previous, why on this side of the Atlantic were they known as slip guages ?

[Stanley]

I think both terms were used Bodge. On the box they are marked as Coventry Gauge and Tool Co, trade name 'Matrix' and the two protector gauges are marked as 'protector slips'. I always assumed it was due to the fact that you slipped them together. Funny thing is that a used set of blocks/slips is usually dirt cheap because there is no guarantee they are to manufacturer's tolerances. The ones I have are worn but certainly accurate enough for me! Let's put it this way, I once tested them with a new Moore and Wright micrometer and as far as I could see they were spot on.