"Variable stop sign in Illinois"
A: "These are blinders, typically used so the sign can old be read from a narrow angle. They’re also called directional shields. You’ll see them on traffic lights a lot more often."
"Driving past farmland/ranches in the middle of Colorado. These are always parallel to the highway and at least somewhat close."
A: "Snow fence, they keep snow from drifting onto the highway"
"Opened up an old motor I acquired at a garage sale, took this part off the top and there’s a sponge and some wires inside. Why is there a sponge inside?"
A: "The cover is for the start or run capacitor, foam is probably just to stop it from rattling. (cap will be behind the foam, in the tub in your hand)."
"Real life looking eyeball, maybe glass? With 3 holes on the metal piece. Found at a flea market."
A: "I have one of those! It’s a promotional key ring for a company that makes glass eyes for taxidermy. I got it at a hunting convention in the 80s."
"Metal, plastic, and canvas-looking fabric clips. They are a few inches long and some say FLATEX'"
A: "They look a bit like the things attached to a garter belt to hold up stockings…"
"Woodworking or metal shop equipment. Gears, motor and electronic controls inside."
A: "Banding machine %100. Used to wrap poly bands/straps around boxes or products, usually when preparing them for shipping."
"What is this S-shaped metal ornament on this house?"
A: "Anchor plate or wall washer. It’s meant to keep masonry in place. And made esthetic because they are visible. There a bolt going on the other side, in the center. And hold the bricks in place."
"Metal spheres, about 15cm in diameter and weighing 400-500g each. Some are coated in what looks like a clay “shell”. Found in an old barn/stable."
A: "Antique boules"
"My Metals Professor in college does not know what this thing is. We dont either and he has multiple of different sizes. The box has no info besides what is shown in the photo. It is some kind of ceramic material with an inverted dome in the center. Any help?"
A: "It is a slate dish for grinding flux. Back in the day, you put a little water in it and rubbed a borax cone in it to make up the day’s flux."
"A large silver scoop with an attached small scoop in the base."
A: "It’s a sugar scoop."
"Very heavy metal object found in a garden. Top plate in the second picture can spin around. Rest of the object is so rusted nothing can move."
A: "It’s an old ceiling support from a coal mine. This is in the “Titan” style and was introduced in 1948, just after the second world war. It was used in all the state mines and quickly became the standard. It’s one of the last variants before hydraulic supports were used."
"This thing on the stove. It has a burner under it too. The thing can be removed as its own metal piece."
A: "It’s an oven vent!"
"WITT? zip tied to the underneath of my Mountainbike seat. Flimsy plastic and there are 2 of them"
A: "It’s a pad spacer"
"Found this on my front porch today. Two battery packs, some sort of circuit board assembly, and a microcontroller thing. What is this thing?"
A: "We’re looking at multiple parts here. The board at the right of the photo is an Adafruit Feather STM32F405 microcontroller, as you surmise. The board at the left of the photo doesn’t seem have any model number on this side, but it appears to be a radio board — that’s a coax connector for an antenna at the lower left. It also shows the Adafruit logo, so it’s prolly sold as an I/O board for the controller. The foam is likely just scrap being used as a cheap non-conductive mounting surface."
"I found this thing at a garage sale. Its a wooden box. Lots of plastic dials and metal switches. Not sure what it is. Can anyone help?"
A: "The Bristol Company:
By 1915, the company was manufacturing the largest and most complete line of industrial instruments in the world, including instruments to measure and record temperature, electricity, pressure, motion, time, flow, and humidity. These instruments were the first to provide an uninterrupted history of manufacturing plant operations; increasing efficiency, improving quality, and allowing higher rates of productivity.
From that info, it might be part of a ‘chart recorder’ for high temps."
"Huge old wooden hammer. Handle 30” long. Weighs 15lbs. What was this hammer used for?"
A: "It’s a wooden maul, 15# I’d think it was used for pounding large wooden stakes into the ground. Used one decades ago when me and some friends were helping a carnival setup."
"Crank-like object found in a restored old Irish cottage dating back to the 1700’s.'
A: "It’s a tool for twisting ropes."
"Wooden vase thing. Owners didn’t remove it and now its too late. Friend described it as hallow and about an inch and a half in thickness"
A: "It’s a vase/holder/pot made from a tree trunk"
"Metal object with handle like a cane, and some type of thumb wheel. About 10″ long and weighs about a pound."
A: "It’s a Trephine. It’s used to make holes in the skull to relieve pressure."
"Posts with nets on top on side of street in the Netherlands"
A: "My guess is that these are to help bats orientate themselves, until the trees are larger. Did they recently cut down trees along this road? Bats need to hear reflection of their sound to know where they are going. These things will replace the leaves in that."
"Screw plug thing found in wine from 2020 after having a glass"
A: "I’m pretty sure that’s the spray head from the cleaning stage of the bottling process. Wine bottles are cleaned and rinsed by machine just before the bottling. If it’s a US vineyard, I’d send them a pic and see what comes of it."
"Customer came in with this at work. Seems to be 2 or 3 different compounds all encased in unopenable glass."
A: "This is an epoxy capsule used to glue a threaded stud into concrete. A hole of appropriate size (25mm in your case) to a specified depth.. he capsule is put in the hole and the stud is used to break , mash and mix the two part epoxy adhesive in the hole .. the other granules are to roughen the hole and aid in the mixing."
"Brass tube, all parts screw together. Has a scoop and a weighted end."
A: "Fly fishing priest. Weighted end for dispatching fish and Scoop is for checking stomach contents."
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For you younger guys. Dating was much more fun before pantyhose.
It is used to keep the pistons from the disk brake caliper separated when the wheel is removed in case the brake lever is pushed accidentally.
It's from Adafruit, the company famous for their DD8008S and attempted takeover of Apple... so everything else is obvious.