According to R.H. :
A quick magnet test on the screws themselves could settle that. Anything which would rust to the color of those threads would be ferrous, and thus would respond to magnets.
Perhaps while staples were affixed to hold them in place, and the fixture was moved down the beam (or whatever) for the next row of staples? (Though the opening seems a bit small for a normal beam.)
Enjoy, DoN.
I tried that with a neodymium magnet and there was no attraction at all. The screws are a lighter weight than metal and the middle 1/3 of them are not threaded. They appear to be made of some type of dark red colored wood.
Rob
According to R.H. :
O.K. Thanks! I'll accept that they are not metal, then.
Dark red-colored? Could the screws be Bakelite? I keep thinking that it would be difficult to cut that fine a thread on wood.
Enjoy, DoN.
According to R.H. :
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DoN.
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I could have done so -- but distrusted the accuracy, since it is a angular projection rather than a square on photo. But 0.41" is enough to say that it is *not* a 1/4" splice block.
I suspect that it is closer to 0.490" than to 0.410".
Thanks, DoN.
With the "handle" notch, this isn't a clamp per se, I'm thinking as it would be clamping anything like just a wire...
I have no real idea what it actually was, but the conjectures so far aren't convincing to me, anyway...
--
The guy who sold it to me had said it was all wood, so I didn't look very closely at it, and I could tell by the weight that it wasn't metal. But after looking at it through a magnifying glass I believe you're right, the nuts and the threaded pieces are all bakelite! Thanks for pointing that out, I should have looked closer at them earlier.
Rob
According to R.H. :
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Thanks for the double-check. This feels better than plain wood with such find threads.
Enjoy, DoN.
So will some untreated woods (e.g. lignum vitae, and some flavours of ebony).
Close examination under a magnifying glass should do it. A Bakelite suitable for threading should be the fabric reenforced style, and the cross-section of a cut will show the pattern of the woven fibers. So will any angle of cut, for that matter.
Enjoy, DoN.
Yes, you can clearly see the fiber pattern on the nut in this photo:
Something that I didn't point out about this clamp, the two nuts that sit on the shoulders are chamfered along one edge, as seen here:
Rob
According to R.H. :
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I think that it was in case the notch towards which it faces was not cut fully square -- which suggests that both the wood parts and the Bakelite ones were mass produced -- at least somewhat.
BTW My spelling checker insists that Bakelite be capitalized.
Enjoy, DoN.
Bakelite is a proper noun.
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