What is it? CLI

[R.H.]

Just posted another set this morning:

[Stuart Pearson]

868: Is a foil cutter for cutting the foil off wine bottles.

I havent a clue about the rest, keep up the good work.

Stuart Pearson

[Christian Stü]

hi all, here my silly guesses

867 for canceling railroad tickets

all others are, umph, funny things used in itchy and scratchy moovies

greetings from germany chris

[Dave Baker]

even going to try and guess.

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

Camp USA engineer minces about for high performance specialist (4,4,7)

[Alec McKenzie]

I have one of these. It is such a bad design that it hardly ever works.

[Stuart Pearson]

I have a foil cutterwhich is similar but has two cutting wheels instead of the blades, it works ok but I tend to use a knife.

Stuart Pearson

[Leon]

Typically these are pretty cheaply made. I have several like it and they work great until after a few bottles are opened and the cutting edge dulls.

[J. Clarke]

I find that a Swiss Army Knife works fine for that particular purpose. And when it dulls it is easily sharpened.

[Denominator]

869 could be a a vent valve for aging whiskey in oak barrels. You use a mallet to drive the tapered end down into a hole, and the ball keeps air from getting in.

[Ivan Vegvary]

# 870 is definitely an early version of a tampon extractor.

Ivan Vegvary

[glen2pat]

I think it is an early crimper fo round duct work to crimp the end so it slides into the next piece

[Ivan Vegvary]

Glen2pat, are you sure you weren't refering to 866? It does look like a crimper, I agree. I was thinking of 870. Ivan

[tg]

and such

[humunculus]

866: is a mechanical version of item 156 in your archives. :-) 867: Hmm, another mystery. 868: A seriously hoidy-toidy wine bottle foil cutter. Like you really need one of THOSE... 869: A 'ball check' type breather valve. "G&C" is a valve manufacturing company, according to google. 870: hmm 871: Hmmm

--riverman

[DanG]

I'm feeling extra dumb this time. I usually get one or two, I didn't even get the wine foil thing.My wine tasting budget usually doesn't require owning one of those foil cutters. For that matter it often doesn't require a corkscrew.

Box wine and screw off lids. One wino to his mate: "It's a good wine, but not a great wine." "What vintage is it?", says his mate. "It says .......................... Wednesday."

[Fred R]

Hmmmm ... maybe. My first guess was a urology or proctology tool.

[Christian Stü]

hey, that´s not fair. you had nearly the same idea like me. but not for xmas tinsel, the tool is much too heavy for paper stuff. maybee to produce some "distance keeper" out of metal tape? or in general, to fold metal tapes in this \/\/\/\/ way?

greetings from germany chris

[RicodJour]

boat. It has that whale-tail thingy at the end, the other handle is hooked so you wouldn't lose your grip and the business end can be used as a pliers to grasp the fish, or jammed in its mouth and spread apart to grip it from the inside. I don't fish, so it's just a guess, but if that's what it is they probably sold four of them in total - two to the guy's parents. ;)

R

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

my news provider had a major problem with an upgrade.

And the first temptation is to say that a "CLI" (from the "Subject: " header) is a "Command Line Interpreter". :-)

866) Are the two gears driven together by other gears below the level of vision? It looks as though the excess diameter at the bottom of the gears will retain mesh no matter what the separation is (within the range of the tool).

I would suggest that this is for putting a zigzag into something. If it were a *lot* wider and supported at both ends of the gears, I would think that it was for folding cardboard to make accordion bellows.

As it is -- I suspect that it will do something like sealing some hollow tubing by crimping it with multiple folds.

Does the upper handle advance the gears, or does it close them together? I *think* that it does the former, and if there is any adjustment for the spacing between the gears, it is not visible from this angle.

I think that the "duck bills" are to flatten the tubing before it is run through the gears to crimp it sealed.

867) This one -- the larger opening is the only one which closes with the pliers action. That particular design of pliers causes the jaws to remain parallel to each other as it opens and closes.

The ratchet tends to hold it closed until specific action is taken to disengage the ratchet.

The knurled knob *may* adjust a point to leave a depression in whatever is gripped.

I'm not sure what purpose the slot in the thicker jaw serves.

868) Finally -- an easy one. This is a screw-cap bottle opener, designed to give a better grip for a weak hand. 869) Assuming that the end with the stamped logo is the other end of the screw-on cap, I would say that this is designed to act as a whistle when pressure is applied from the tapered end.

The ball will vibrate back and forth in the larger cylindrical hole, switching on and off air through the smaller hole in the side, and driven by pressure (air, steam, or whatever) through the smaller parallel hole.

I would like to play with this. I would have expected it to have a threaded fitting instead of the taper -- but it may be that it is designed to pop out when over-pressure is detected for safety -- and when it starts singing, you should take steps to reduce the pressure *before* it pops out. :-)

870) I just don't want it used on *me*. :-) 871) Hmm -- perhaps for breaking ice? You place the point where you want to start the break, and then hit the ball with the heel of your hand -- or with a mallet of some sort?

Oh -- I see an "Answers" link after the images. I'll send this off, and then see what the answers are.

Enjoy, DoN.