Whatsit?

[Feltwell]

We have code 8 lead in use here right now. Also known as 'kin heavy!

 

[malcolm]

The holes are there to allow some inaccuracy when making the slots. It's the slots you would use to gauge wire (or whatever else you might want to gauge). Could well be lead - the spike is probably intended to secure the item in a tool belt with the weight and taper of the handle preventing it from falling out so whoever was doing the gauging may have been working at heights and have needed to gauge while up there.

Having said that there is no taper on the outside of the slots to allow something to be measured from that side so it could be a gauge for round things.

 

[Keithj]

Father-in-law was a waterworks engineer, so I doubt that was to do with the "day job". I inherited his toolbox after he died, with no initiation into what the strange items were. That one had me baffled and still does, but the fact that he kept it must be significant.

Some, I worked out all by myself - one was a stethoscope for listening to water pipes to hear if there was a leak. It worked, too! Imagine a long rod in a tube, with a spike at one end and the diaphragm of an earphone at the other.

 

[Feltwell]

but the fact that he kept it must be significant.

Oh No. No no no no no.

He may have had no use for it whatsoever, and no idea what it was. But it might come in useful one day. This applies to most "might be useful" items for most men, but to *at least* the power of 10 as far as tools are concerned.

You can never have too many tools. After all, they might come in useful one day :wink:

 

[Flyfisher]

We have code 8 lead in use here right now. Also known as 'kin heavy!

I should think so, and 'kin expensive no doubt!

Is there a special reason for using such a heavy gauge?

My brief guide to lead working booklet only seems to mention code 4 & 5 lead in all its examples. I can imagine specialised gauges being used in ornate leadwork applications, but for general roof flashings etc ??

Also, I've done a little bit of lead work around this time of year and found code 5 lead hard enough to work, so goodness knows what code 8 must be like.

We'll be expecting photos you know :wink:

 

[Flyfisher]

He may have had no use for it whatsoever, and no idea what it was. But it might come in useful one day.

This is so, so true. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Feltwell]

The code 8 is for the gutter at the back of my new bay roof - apparently the gauge means we can get away without any sort of expansion joint, therefore not introducing a potential weak spot or a step into the gutter. I'm not the one working it, someone who knows what they're doing is !

So far the job is looking very neat. Pics when complete!

 

[Penners]

s a stethoscope for listening to water pipes to hear if there was a leak. It worked, too! Imagine a long rod in a tube, with a spike at one end and the diaphragm of an earphone at the other.

A similar device was (is still?) used for listening to the inner goings-on of engines, back in the days when big ends, small ends, crankshaft journals and suchlike used to wear out and be replaced with monotonous regularity.

 

[atticman]

s a stethoscope for listening to water pipes to hear if there was a leak. It worked, too! Imagine a long rod in a tube, with a spike at one end and the diaphragm of an earphone at the other.

A similar device was (is still?) used for listening to the inner goings-on of engines, back in the days when big ends, small ends, crankshaft journals and suchlike used to wear out be replaced with monotonous regularity.

My Dad used to use a long, heavy, wooden handled screwdriver held to his ear (handle end) for the same thing.

All I could ever hear was tapocka, tapocka, tapocka........

 

[Penners]

All I could ever hear was tapocka, tapocka, tapocka........

Then you were undoubtedly listening to the diesel pump of a Fordson tractor engine on tickover. The most pleasingly musical of mechanical sounds.

 

[Flyfisher]

Not sure what sort of tractor this is, but it's quite musical . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ThSi1wbqU

It also very pleasingly just concentrates on maintaining a solid rhythm without insisting on inserting gratuitous fills and cymbal crashes all the time - unlike some drummers I know!

 

[Me!]

There is a lot of 'art' in machinery that is completely overlooked by most people, the sound of the steady rhythm of a diesel engine at idle being one of them. The sight of watching the meshing and movement of slowly rotating gears in either a gearbox or differential is another. And the smell of wet mud on a hot Land Rover exhaust pipe, ... heaven

 

[DJH]

No, no, no Me...the smell of new mown grass by a tractor running on TVO...bliss...

Doug

 

[Me!]

Ah, now I did consider putting the new mown grass smell on my list, but decided that one was too well known.
However, your addition of TVO and indeed the smell of the hot tractor engine itself into the mix certainly takes the grass smell to a whole new level. If you've got some nicely warmed hypoid gear oil in there somewhere as well then you are really onto something

 

[Flyfisher]

Really? I find gear oil (I'm thinking EP90) pretty bad for the nose. Something to do with all the sulphurous additives I believe.

 

[Feltwell]

Castrol R. Need I say more.

In my student days I was living with a girl who really, *really* liked the smell of WD40. I'd come in after fixing my motorbike or her car ( a common event given how worn out they both were!) and erm, yes, what can I say.......

 

[Flyfisher]

Castrol R. Need I say more.

Not for me, nor Mrs FF who spent a number of her younger years burning up gallons of the stuff (mixed with methanol). A very evocative smell!

 

[Penners]

Not sure what sort of tractor this is

My money is on it being a Bolinder Munktell Swedish tractor - possibly a T25. BM were later bought out by Volvo and became the company's construction machinery division, called BM Volvo, later Volvo BM, later (and now) Volvo Construction Equipment.

I worked for them in the 1970s.

 

[Penners]

Mrs FF who spent a number of her younger years burning up gallons of the stuff (mixed with methanol).

It's worth adding that FF is being very understated about Mrs FF's considerable achievements in that field (er... lake).

 

[Me!]

Really? I find gear oil (I'm thinking EP90) pretty bad for the nose. Something to do with all the sulphurous additives I believe.

Yes, EP90, but not just the cold oil in a bottle. It was the warm, old, slightly leaking gearbox smell I was thinking of, but it needs to be just as a subtle addition to the hot diesel engine (or TVO) and the freshly mown grass. Although I really do urge any of you who have never experienced the smell of wet mud on a Land Rover exhaust system to try it at least once. Almost as good as Castrol R