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What is it.... the game! Post unknown objects to ID... and to stump others!

Pearl Sutton

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This is a place to post unknown objects, both to find out what they are, as well as to stump others! It's a fun game, with apples for the winners!

I have seen threads about neat stuff we found in the trash, but what about stuff we can't identify? We have threads for identifying unknown plants, I think we need a thread for identifying weird stuff we found and can't identify.

To play this game it's NOT necessary to read the whole thread. Go to the last page and see what we are currently attempting to ID! We have figured out everything before then, come see what we are working on. The last page will be the highest number in the list at the top or bottom of your screen, click on it. We are over 20 pages into this, over several years. The current puzzles will be on the LAST page.

I'll start with the game with a couple of somethings, I think the small one has been identified as a bullet mold, the bigger one though is still mysterious. My feet in the pic for scale.

The pile it came out of contained what looked like office or study clean out of an older man, who has been a Marine, law enforcement, Mason, and Shriner, at least. He also fished and hunted. And for unknown reasons had about 30 pairs of new shoelaces in his office, of all types :) Was a fun pile, lots of neat stuff.
Any guesses?
Any weird things to post for the rest of us to puzzle over?
Let the new game begin!!

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What I am looking for is looking for me too!

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Anne Miller

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posted 6 years ago

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Maybe the "handle looking thing" is off a belt .. I am imaging a cloth belt like I see some military wear. It looks something like a belt buckle.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Tj Jefferson

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posted 6 years ago

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Looks like a pull handle for something. It may be an old parachute rip cor handle.

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Pearl Sutton

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*Ding ding ding!* We have winners!
One spearfishing tip, points to Jd Gonzalez!!
Anne Miller: It's too big for a belt, good guess!
Points to Tj Jefferson! Vintage T 10 Parachute pull!

Points from me are redeemable for absolutely nothing that I am currently aware of, but hey, points!!

Thank you all for playing! I had no guesses. Some of this I can get, some I can't.

One more item I can't guess:

Heavy thick plastic. Threaded on the inside. No hole in the tip. About 8 inches long.
I can think of all kinds of stuff to do with it, but what was it made for?

wayne fajkus

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Flaslhight tip? To guide cars in a parking lot, etc.

Sometimes the answer is nothing

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Peter VanDerWal

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wayne fajkus wrote:Flaslhight tip? To guide cars in a parking lot, etc.

That would be my guess.

My opinions are barely worth the paper they are written on here, but hopefully they can spark some new ideas, or at least a different train of thought

Pearl Sutton

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I'll accept that idea! I don't have a D cell battery flashlight to try it on, but the threads look about right to fit it. Putting it over a little random flashlight does brighten it up well, it glows nicely.
Points for both wayne fajkus and Peter VanDerWal!!
This is a fun game!

Something else that came out of that pile was a wine set, with opener, recorker, and a matching stainless steel ice bucket, which is what I saw in the dumpster first, I was hoping it was one of those countertop compost buckets, I use plastic ice cream tubs from the recycle bins.
The opener looks like this:

My life has very little use for wine in bottles, but lots of uses for hand held drill press type things. I can think of ways to make that do useful things. Violate it's little warranty!!

So what has anyone else found that they can't identify?
This is a fun game!

wayne fajkus

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Saw this in an auction listing. What is it?

showimage-6.jpg

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Pearl Sutton

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I have no clue! I have a headache this morning, couldn't focus on the picture well, so I ran it through photoshop and blew it up, cleaned it up a touch, focused it, still can't ID it. Posting my clean up of it, maybe someone else can ID it easier now.

Edit: A better one was posted, tossed mine, this is the best one off the link

Peter VanDerWal

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posted 6 years ago

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Early Elizabethan TV dinner carrier.

Ok so I got nothing. Obviously has a handle and it looks like it has trays and might unfold somehow, but that's about all I can make out.

The original auction page should have larger photos.

My opinions are barely worth the paper they are written on here, but hopefully they can spark some new ideas, or at least a different train of thought

wayne fajkus

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Trying different way

aR0yxgw0-653155565.jpg

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Pearl Sutton

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posted 6 years ago

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Peter VanDerWal wrote:Early Elizabethan TV dinner carrier.

I fell for that, a WHAT??
It looks to me like each of those two tray things have handles on the side to press something down...
How you can carry it by that handle with the long base, that's a puzzle.
And no clue what the red things are, whatever gets pressed by the handles gets embossed with whatever the red things are?
I DO know that if I saw that at a thrift store for 10.00, I'd drag it home to misuse :) Looks to me like it wants to be a cheese press!

wayne fajkus

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https://mobile.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/photopanel.cgi?listingid=3122997&feed=182&category=0&zip=76539&kwd=&dwt=3&usefeed=1&noval=1

Link to pic

My first thought/glance was turning newspapers into firelogs, but it looks like it presses down , doesn't roll.

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Pearl Sutton

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Oh, much better picture there! I took down my clean up and replaced it with that one. Now I can say the handle (not a carry handle) is to pull down and press something between the plates. What I thought were side handles are hinge points. Still not sure what it presses and embosses or cuts or something.

Now I really want it :) If you can get it for 10.00 and ship it to me for free, I'll take it!

wayne fajkus

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Lol. I love stuff like that too. Its almost art, yet a use can be found for it.

Having the whole auction can put it into context also. Maybe theres a clue!

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wayne fajkus

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Looks like the red plates clip on top and bottom, so it presses into a shape and the shape can change based on the plates.

If it was round i would say tortilla press!

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Peter VanDerWal

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wayne fajkus wrote:https://mobile.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/photopanel.cgi?listingid=3122997&feed=182&category=0&zip=76539&kwd=&dwt=3&usefeed=1&noval=1

Link to pic

My first thought/glance was turning newspapers into firelogs, but it looks like it presses down , doesn't roll.

Ok that makes it much clearer. It's definitely a press and what I thought were trays appear to be removable blocks. My guess is the blocks were removed and heated on a stove and it's some kind of ironing press, perhaps for table linens or something similar.

Either that or it makes grilled cheese sandwiches

Scratch that. It's designed to keep the blocks parallel to the table through the whole motion and that doesn't make any sense for either an ironing press or a printing press, in both cases it would be easier if the blocks rotated as they came down.
Keeping the block parallel only makes sense if you're pressing down on something with variable thickness. Also if it was designed to print or emboss, etc. the auction house would have probably turned one of the plates over so you could see the other side.

Although those plates do look like they have the same ratio as a dollar bill.

My opinions are barely worth the paper they are written on here, but hopefully they can spark some new ideas, or at least a different train of thought

wayne fajkus

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Is it possible that ammunition reloaders can be done in bulk rather than one at a time? If the bottom plate held 100 bullets, and the top plate presses them all down? Ive never reloaded.

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Peter VanDerWal

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wayne fajkus wrote:Is it possible that ammunition reloaders can be done in bulk rather than one at a time? If the bottom plate held 100 bullets, and the top plate presses them all down? Ive never reloaded.

No. When reloading you need to precisely align the bullet with the case, it's easiest to align and seat in one motion, when loading by hand this is done one bullet at a time. I'm pretty sure the automated machines also do it one round at a time, just a lot faster and with multiple presses all running at the same time.

My opinions are barely worth the paper they are written on here, but hopefully they can spark some new ideas, or at least a different train of thought

Anne Miller

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I wonder if it is an antique tabletop letter press:

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Pearl Sutton

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Peter: I'm wondering about cutting something. I know what old linoleum and tile cutters etc look like, it's not one of them, but similar. Love to see the undersides of those red plates. See if it's got sharp edges, or stuff inside. Shaping clay into tiles or bricks? OOH, would make a great one of those if it's not! Handmade terracotta tiles cutter!! :)
Although grilled cheese sandwiches is good too!

Wayne: Awesome puzzle for the morning! Thanks!

Edit: Anne: we were posting at the same time, you might have the closest guess yet. The red plate things look too thick though...? If they held moveable type, seems like they'd hook face up, looks to me like they go face down...?

Anne Miller

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Of course, I don't know ... I think Wayne's gadget maybe missing some parts.

The red thing in my picture is a roller that I think is missing from Wayne's pic. I think the missing roller might go on the straight bar at the top under the handle.

In the 50's they used mimeograph in schools instead of letter presses. So this gadget might be a mimeograph instead of a letter press. Uses a stencil rather than type.

Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the first mimeograph copying system. But the true precursor of the technology I knew in grade school (and that businesses used for much of the 20th century) came from Alfred Blake Dick. Dick, whose company licensed Edison’s technology, invented the mimeo stencil and marketed the first commercial mimeograph in 1887. Once text is cut (or typed) into the stencil, the stencil is wrapped and fastened around a cylinder. Rotating the cylinder forces ink through the stencil and onto individual sheets of paper served up from a tray.

https://www.cio.com/article/2441286/infrastructure/a-history-of-the-mimeograph.html

This is probably one from the 50's:

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Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Peter VanDerWal

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Anne Miller wrote:I wonder if it is an antique tabletop letter press:

We have a winner!! Great job Anne.

I found an ad on Ebay that shows a similar press to the one posted by Wayne and describes it as a Hand Operated Tabletop Block Printing Press

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Cast-Iron-Wooden-Hand-Operated-Tabletop-Block-Printing-Press-STEAM-PUNK-/173330411803?rmvSB=true&nma=true&si=1i1RrjK9e4WVJkFm9CN9KRoGUUk%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

"Tabletop" was the clue I needed.

I'll bet they originally had an ink pad mounted on the lower shelf and the the handle was up the block would press against the ink pad

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wayne fajkus

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We need to see the backside of the red plates. One clips to top, one clips to bottom. They squeeze something....into something. Could be pie crusts. Not round , but maybe hand pies? Like two half moons.

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wayne fajkus

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Sweet! Nice job Anne

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Peter VanDerWal

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wayne fajkus wrote:We need to see the backside of the red plates. One clips to top, one clips to bottom. They squeeze something....into something. Could be pie crusts. Not round , but maybe hand pies? Like two half moons.

I don't think both blocks were used at the same time, I think it just comes with a spare so you could have to different setups ready to go.

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Peter VanDerWal

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Doh! I just traced it back to the original auction and it's listed as a "Tabletop Printing Press"

LOL, I should have done that in the first place.

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Pearl Sutton

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Yay Anne! Points for you!! Good call!!
That was a fun game! Challenging!
What's next?

wayne fajkus

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Its part of something. 1 of 3 that makes the whole item

20180729_134205-480x640.jpg

20180729_134210-480x640.jpg

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Anne Miller

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Is it this:

Home Brew Airlock

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

wayne fajkus

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Yep. Airlock. You got one for us Anne?

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Anne Miller

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Here are several:

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Pearl Sutton

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Hm... My guesses:
Some kind of noise maker for sports games
A camera lens
Possibly a sewing machine foot pedal, or something similar, maybe a dental air control pedal, I can't see the connections well.

Peter VanDerWal

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First one is a horn.

Second one is actually a set of three lens adapters for old SLR camera's. They go between the camera and lens. Probably "Barlow" adapters (increases focal length), but they might be telecompressors(decreases).
(edited)Oops, forgot the third option. A simple extension tube (no glass inside) used for macro photography.

Third one looks like a fire alarm pull handle.

My opinions are barely worth the paper they are written on here, but hopefully they can spark some new ideas, or at least a different train of thought

Anne Miller

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Pearl and Peter: great guesses!

1) Three tube soccer fans plastic air horn

2) Meike 3-piece Macro Extension Tube Set for Nikon (Plastic Version)

I will give a hint for #3: Here is another pic

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

wayne fajkus

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I see springs like a pez dispenser would have

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Anne Miller

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#3) It is probably not very permie. This might be a little unfair since a lot of folks here would not have a use for it.

It needs two additional products to make it work. A person might grow one, the other would mostly likely have to be purchased.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

wayne fajkus

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Makes cigarettes?

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Anne Miller

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That's it!

Now who wants to play?

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner