What is this?
 

What is this thing?

I have taken many (many) pictures since I quit using film cameras, since electrons are so much less expensive than film stock. Some of those pictures have been interesting to look at, partly because they were unusual subjects, or extreme close ups, or had the context removed from the frame, any other reason. I'm sure you've all seen such pictures. I have fun looking at them and guessing what they are. Maybe you'll have fun guessing what these are.

Here's a repeat from a while back that neatly fits into this thread.

Big, I don't need to know what you and your wife do with that first thing. :D

Another one.

The last one is some sort of sparkler?

Ha.

You're close, though. One pumps and the other squeezes. Care to guess?

I bet xoB would know. busterb, zippyt and BrianR are other likely candidates. The picture is of my first time using the device.

No, but you're getting warm (!), because it *is* fire.

The first looks like a tripod or some type of catapult mechanism.

The second looks like the inside of a paper lantern.

The third looks like an actual paper lantern.

This is almost like a Rorschach test. :)

Is the last one a lit cigarette?

The first one, some kind of wood clamp for woodworking?

First one looks like old aircraft center console controls. Flaps, throttle, etc.

What it is -- Post #1
 

Good guesses all!

This is a steel strapping machine. Here are a couple more shots, the first from a different angle and the second of the finished product.

It works by taking a length of strap steel (like what a tape measure is made from, but flat) and running it around the bundle and through the machine. Then each movement of the handle ratchets the strap tighter and tighter. When it's tight enough, then a clip is placed onto a section of the straps where they overlap and the second machine with the opposing handles is placed over the clip and it's crimped into place. Then you slide the ratchet tightener out and your strapped bundle is complete. You may trim the excess strap past the crimp.

I should have figured that out. I read about a high-profile engineering firm that interviews applicants by presenting them with a briefcase full of various mechanical and electronic objects. The applicant has to guess what these things do, to the best of their ability, based on their experience and raw reasoning power. Wish I had a link, this was a print article. Pop Sci, or Discover, or Scientific American.

Anyway, please don't reveal the green thing. That one has stumped us for a good long while, now.

Are you serious about the green thing? It was posted before, and revealed too. I don't mind waiting, but it's more about the interesting pictures and conversation than it is about playing stump the chumps. Perhaps I should post the "answer" in invisible spoiler text or something.

Regardless, I'll wait a while. Anybody dying to know may pm me for the answer right away.

Plus, I'd love to see other's interesting and unusual pictures. I'll have more of my own posted soon. Keep guessing!

I never saw the answer.

"interesting and unusual pictures" ...I've been saving a few personal WTFs... on my drive at home.

That steel strapping has been replaced with the saran wrap looking stuff that only sticks to itself. The green button is easy but that red blob is too vague for anything but a wild guess. I'll guess a campfire.

I was going to guess #2 was the end of a CFL, but then it would be a spiral instead of concentric circles.

WELL?:eyebrow:

What it is -- Post #4
 

Fire, a handful of fire.

Here are a couple more shots taken very shortly after the one in post #4. In the first picture, you can see the silhouette of his fingers. In the second picture, the light is enough to see his profile and his hand and the ball of fuzz which contains the glowing ember.

Watch what happens on the next breath in the next post!

What it is -- Post #4, part two.
 

In the next breath, the ball of untwisted sisal rope bursts into flame! Now's a good time to get it away from your face, don't you think?!

These were started with flint and steel. The flint scrapes off a little sliver of steel and the energy of that scraping heats the minute sliver to incandescence, a spark. When this spark lands on a piece of charcloth, it glows like the coal on the end of a lit cigarette. The coal is enfolded in the nest of sisal fibers and blown into life, like you see here.

Was this last Sunday near Angora Ridge, California?

No sir. Last summer at camp, north of CA.

I was going to guess the first pic was a governor of some kind.

I see the resemblance to Schwarzeneggar too.

A reloading press?

I have a straping deal in shop. No crimper. You bend it over and tap closed with hammer. But I really did know what it was. Bah.

Me too, but opened the thread too late for credit.

Ok what is THIS ???

blood

ketchup

Correctumundo UT ,
Here is the bigger pic,

Peas, onions and catsup! damn

Oh I forgot to mention that the Onion is a Vidalia !!!
MMMMMMMMMMM :yum: !!!!!!!!!

I was gonna guess "your colonoscopy".

They call them peas down there, Buster?

Looks like some bacon in there, too...

Ketchup on a good helping of peas seems to be a bad idea, but to each his or her own...

Every thing is better with BACON !!!!!

The catchup is only there because there was no Chow Chow on hand .

I would have called them black-eyed peas, but they're definitely not beans.

That looks gross Bippy!!

They look like yellow eye beans to me.

Well Zip. What are they? Blk-eyes or what.

Purple hull peas from a friends garden

Ducky !!! You say that looks gross when you folks down under eat Vegamite ??????!!!!!!

Bippy, if you dont like Vegemite....you havent had it prepared properly. You have to have hot toast, with melted butter and a light smear of Vegemite.....Yummmo!!!

Or alternatively, fairly thick with cheese on toast.

I, personally, am happy to dip my finger into the jar then lick it off :)

Here's one. Shouldn't be too hard to say what it is, but... well what it is isn't the problem.

insulator that's been heated and dropped in water

...a masturbatory aid ?

Not glass.

Right, it's an old glass insulator. I haven't been able to figure out what happened to it.

Heated, then rapidly cooled, you think? ...But why would somebody do that? ...???

Yea, insulator from an old telephone pole, we have a whole stretch of RR that has miles of them. Mostly green ones.

Maybe it got zapped by lightning?

I think I had these 2 back in the do-dad thread. My Dad told me that someone heated in oven then dropped in water. Why? Not a clue.
Anyway we used them for target pratice when kids along RR tracks.

Yes, this is often done with marbles to get the crackled look. (My grandma had lots of these, and I asked her once)

Some people like the look of it, for using in crafts etc.


BTW, I tried this, and most of my marbles cracked, but fell apart. There is an art to getting just the right temp difference. --No cracks about losing my marbles etc. Too easy!

The clear one on the right got struck by lightening, which heated it/melted part, and the rain cooled it fast enough to get the crackles.

So, y'all think it was done purposefully, for artistic effect... I don't know.

I guess mine are more like "What's Wrong With This Picture?" ... or "What The Hell Happened Here?"

There be two creatures in that there pic that shouldnt be there.

Lizard of some description? after a crickety looking snack?

It's a wasp nest, that's why I took the picture. Only afterwards did I see the lizard. Noteworthy because I just opened the housing to remove that snipped gray wire, which the previous owners had Macgyver'd onto the outdoor floodlight fixture, to get electricity for a pond pump motor in the backyard. The front panel of that box had been screwed down, with enough space to let that gray wire run out the side. Yet... there's a fuckin' menagerie in the damn thing when I open it.

I wish I had pictures of me up on top of the 6" wide hand rail I was standing on, with a broom in one hand and a pokin' stick in the other, stirrin' up those wasps and then takin' swats at 'em, Kung Fu style; but my wife didn't see the humor and made me get down. Then she made some comment about "life insurance" or some such, as I recall...

Anyway... Here's one more I've been saving for The Cellar:

Reminds me of the retired guy across the street who bought a garage sale snowblower about three sizes bigger than his driveway. He was scrawny and not particularly big. The thing drug him around something awful, but once he had it going, everyone in the neighborhood got their driveways blown clear.

This guy looks like he's on a mission.

He better slow down in that school zone!

I recall seeing an episode of Cops, I think, where there was a dude riding his lawnmower down the street. Problem was that he was piss drunk. And apparently you can get a DUI on your John Deere.

Edit:
I love youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-UNSmYmBuI

Looks like he is either cruisin' on the sidewalk, pickin up the leaves or cuttin some really dead grass.