What is it? CXLIII

[Dave Baker]

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

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

[Don Young]

817: Somehow I think this is not a cardboard creaser, since it is so short. I remember a tool like this in the 1940's for expanding the skirts of aluminum automobile pistons. You ran the small radius wheel up and down inside the skirt under heavy tension. This caused the metal to flow out from under the narrow wheel and thus slightly expanded the skirt. This permitted reuse of a loose piston when they were in short supply.

Don Young

[R.H.]

This answer is correct. You must have a good memory, it is indeed a piston expander.

Other answers for this week:

818. I'll give a hint for this one, it's a display for use in a particular type of store for a specific product.

819. Fencing mask close-up

820. Glass insulator bracket that mounts onto a pole or building

821. Hay harpoon, for lifting large bales of hay into a loft

822. Don't yet know about this item, some type of bumper sounds like it might be the right answer. Could be for boats but it seems like it would be a little small for that. I'm still asking around about this piece.

It has been a busy week and I haven't had time to make an answer page, I should have it finished tomorrow.

Rob

[Dave Baker]

Cheese. Wedges of Brie perhaps.

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

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

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

817) Looks like a hand-held miniature version of a tool known as an "English wheel" -- used for forming three-dimensional curves into sheet metal. 818) A lazy Susan for something like mail at a guess. 819) Hmm ... a fencer's face guard? It looks a bit too complex to be a flour sifter, and too empty to be a windscreen for a microphone. 820) A framework to support a pair of glass insulators for running low-voltage power wiring along the side of a row of poles. I'm not sure why it has been painted red -- I somehow doubt that was the original color. 821) Some sort of gaff for large fish? 822) A bumper of some sort. Not likely to be for boats, with the leather exterior. Perhaps for where the bumper of a delivery truck hits the concrete of a loading dock?

Now to see what all the other answers already posted say.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Barbara Bailey]

Hmm. It strongly resembles a rack for skeins of embroidery floss, so I'll broaden the subject just a bit and say yarn or floss skeins?

[R.H.]

It wasn't for either yarn or cheese. I'll give another hint, it was used in a hardware store.

Rob

[woodworker88]

Rotating axe head display? I'm lost on this one.

[R.H.]

That's it! Good guess on that. It was marked "axe display for a hardware store", there were scratches on the wood in the compartments as you would expect to see on something that would hold a sharp axe.

I'll have the answer page complete later on today.

Rob

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

In which case various sizes of bolts or screws seems rather likely.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Sonny]

Rob, may I email you some pics of a handtool someone presented to me recently. I have no idea what it is, nor what it may have been used for.

Sonny

[R.H.]

Yes, anyone is welcome to send photos to me of their unidentified tools.

Rob