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What IS this thing I found in my home???

4K views 34 replies 25 participants last post by  Randy_ATX 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi, woodworking people; I just joined to try to figure out what this item is in my house…I found out this is the #1 woodworkers' forum on the 'net.

I'm not a woodworker, I'm a mechanical engineer. My wife and I bought this house about a year and a half ago, and found a former woodworking shop in one room in the basement.

Along one wall were very nicely built racks holding vast, vast amounts of various hardwoods (I could tell they were hardwoods somehow), some cabinetry and many power outlets all over the room. Turns out our new neighbor said, yes, one of the former owners was a serious, big time woodworker.

Well, I know a guy who is also a sometime woodworker and he came and went crazy over all the hardwood boards and trim and blocks, etc. I said it's yours of you take it so I can reclaim this room for firearms maintenance, a cartridge reloading bench, etc.

On one of the benches there was this "fixture", which, given the context of the former use of the shop, must be some kind of wood-working device or fixture. My friend didn't recognize it; neither did family members to whom I sent a pic.

Does anybody here know what this is???

Pic attached…notice a "shadow" on the bench where there might have been a different part at one time, that kept it unworn and clean.

Hand tool Wood Door Hardwood Font


Sorry the pic came in sideways…the keys are in there for scale. The thing is screwed to the bench top.

What is this?

-Kevin in Catonsville, MD
 

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#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
A lot of woodworkers build strange, specialized fixtures for specific tasks they perform repeatedly and that one could be one of them. It's not any of the normal jigs I'm used to seeing.

Offhand, it could be a depth gauge of sorts. Maybe it's a weird sort of stop for hand-planing boards. Most telling is the pale spot between the two wood blocks on one side of the dowel. It looks like something spent a lot of time in that location which kept the top from aging as badly in that one spot.

Any chance of finding whatever used to sit there?
 
#9 ·
You probably lost a few month's worth of mortgage payments by giving that wood away. The least you could do is guilt the guy you gave it to and have him make at least one piece of furniture in a style you like, including finishing. I, however, am shameless. I bought ONE board from my neighbor who recently moved. It is oak, 8' long and 22" wide, and I paid $50. If you wanted to make a panel that wide from smaller pieces, it would cost about $300, less labor.
 
#17 ·
Remove it from the bench and throw it away.
You gave up a treasure trove of hardwood stock, why place any value on this mystery fixture?

- poopiekat
Why not give it away? He had no interest and no use for the material.

Generosity is a good thing. A number of my hand tools have come to me this way, from friends with a windfall in which they had no interest. I got my Stanley 78 and and a handled scraper this way, from a millwright with boundless interest in steel but none at all in wood. Another pal brought me a set of classic turning tools fond at an estate sale. That buddy was grinning when he said " I have no idea what they are but I'm sure they're for wood and they were only 50-cents each."

And I've paid it forward. I once got a brand new set of very high-end illustrator's pens in a box of hand tools for almost nothing on the last day of a garage sale. Worth a couple of hundred I was told, but I gave them to one of the artists at work who was ecstatic and has put them to very good use.

Pass stuff to those who appreciate and will use the cast-offs I say.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
Wow, what a snarky crowd…I gave away the wood because if I kept it, it would just sit there forever, unused.

I place no value in the fixture piece, I just wanted to know what it WAS.
In my best attempt to not be 'snarky'.. I just have to ask.. did you join this site just to ask what that thing was? I mean, this is a woodworkers forum, with an emphasis on the 'wood' part. Coming in and telling everyone that you gave away a treasure trove of hardwood so you could play with guns and ammo isn't exactly going to get a warm and fuzzy response in this environment!

Cheers,
Brad
 
#21 ·
Yeah, actually, I did join just to find that out….I'm a mechanical engineer and so I am quite curious as to what this bit of "tooling" was. Sometimes I design fixtures for machine shops, and other times the guys do it themselves.

Since I don't know a joiner planer from a dado blade I thought I'd ask the experts. My intro story was just about this particular room in my house. Sorry if the wood was so f-ing valuable but I went college so I could afford my toys. So should others if they want to play, and not whine. Nuff said.

I am just really, really curious as to what it was for.

Also, the guy who got the wood is a real stand-up guy and his family has been very important to my wife and I for a long time. Thanks. I didn't just list it on Craigslist as a giveaway. I mean I know nice wood when I see it. Some of it was that kind of briar that pipes are made of, for instance. And some was like a cross section of tree trunk for tables and stools.

To a1Jim: what's a 'dead man'?

To MrRon: I did note that a single sheet of 20-lb bond paper could not be inserted between the bench top and the round part. It had occurred to me that maybe it was for pulling some sheets of stuff through to laminate or something. With the fingers only, the rod could be turned against the bench top using a lot of effort.
 
#22 ·
You know curiosity is always good , and we all need that and if we give something away so be it I can not tell of how much I have given away . to somebody that I knew could or would use it that includes tool . When I retired I gave hundreds of dollars worth of tools that I was planning on never using again . So that I could be more focused on wood working .So my hat is off to you for giving that wood away . I know some of us would have liked being the one receiving it . But I,m sure it will be put to good use . I am giving away pieces that I have made all the time , you just did it before hours of labor and design where put into it .
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
I do not know what it is and I am sorry that some of the responses offended you, but now that you are here why not take a look around. You will find a lot of mechanical engineers here - working in wood either as a hobby or as a professional choice. We also have artists and architects, builders and dreamers, crafters and construction workers, doctors, lawyers, librarians and yes gunsmiths. Give woodworking a try - install a shelf, design and build a book case, carve a lamp base, you might like it, you might get hooked, or you might not.
Have a great weekend.
 
#26 ·
I remember long ago in another life I started on a completely different kind of on-line forum and was soon offended by the comments of one - and regretted going there.

Please don't take one remark to represent the general tenor of this place.

Poopiekat is a (self-professed) hoarder (of hand planes), so might be offended just that you gave away a hoard. Actually, in every other post I've read of his, he's seemed like a nice guy, really!

Whoever left the hoard hehind must have died - or he would not have left it. Or perhaps your friend was being overly effusive in praising your gift.
 
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