A whatsis
Something I used to carry in my kit for a very very very long time. And as I no longer use it, it was relegated to the basement. I might just put it on ebay.
Someone who knows will know right away.
Someone who doesn’t will never figure it out.
31 comments Og | Uncategorized
What are you doing with C3PO’s genitals?
Not a clue, and that is unusual.
Nice alignment jig for a …..
WTF is that for?
That bank of 5×5 plastic caps reminds me of an analog computer breadboard. Is this an analyzer for some electronic widgit?
Reminds me of a fixture for assembling the terminals/contacts for an aircraft connector. Not, but that did bring back memories.
Admittedly, the angle I used was designed to confuse. And I put a piece of tape over the name, which would have given it away.
No idea … looks like some old charger or some medical device
Well, don’t know what it is exactly but sure looks like a module test jig similar to what we used to get post readouts from z80 or 8080 vintage computer boards that went into the old Heathkit H89 series computers.
Paperweight.
/I got nuthin’.
Some sort of splicer?
It does look like some kind of film splicer but not one I ever used.
The machine shop I worked in many years back had a CNC mill that ran on a paper tape that looked like it would fit that whatsit for splicing. I don’t recall them ever splicing a tape, they’d usually just punch a fresh one.
Tape splicer for cassette tapes and VHS/Beta tapes…
My best flash in the dark guess is a simple gas sampling and detection device.
Looks like something my husband would fabricate for an obscure, rare purpose. And he doesn’t know what it is, so I sure don’t.
Punched-tape puncher, the hard way version.
And Roberta in one, FTW.
it also cuts and splices, btw.
This same puncher could be used to write code for a CNC machine, and lacking a handheld ASR33 device, you could reproduce the cryptographic tape that went through your KOI-18 to plug the key into your encryption system.
Painfully, I’ve been told, some agencies still do this.
I was going to say a paper -tape punch/splicer. Worked on a whole lot of the old TTY machines and the Merganthale(sp?) type-setters they fed.
Is it a stacker for punch cards?
So… kinda like a belt loader. I used tapes before, but they were always burned after use, and no splicing was ever done.
Of course, I remember punch cards, too.
Good one in the best of Castle Argghhh! tradition, Og.
Well, except that you didn’t drag it out by using scanning electron microscopy pics to bamboozle ’em on scale… at least that’s pretty much what I’m accused of!
Og,
Do you mind if I steal that picture? As an old-school nerd, I’d like to see if any of my older-school nerds recognize it.
Go right ahead! Want me to send you more?
John, he didn’t include any cat hair for scale. You may use electron microscopy, but at least you do give us some idea of scale.
Og,
Sure, the more the merrier!
I have an XKCD cartoon of a robot counting sheep to try to go to sleep, the count went from 32,767 to -32,768, it’s depressing how few of my co-workers GOT it.
Check your mail. Would you like to have it? We could make a deal im sure.
I can just hear my wife now: “What IS that thing, and what are you going to do with it?” I’d risk her displeasure for a gun or a model train, but don’t think having that would be worth the “discussion” that would ensue. I’m sure most married men can relate.
LOL! I used to be a teletype operator. The old ASR28/td I never saw anything like this gadget. (Talk about your obsolete jobs…)
It doesn’t count if you can’t hurt yourself with it.
Given sufficient time to become complacent in its presence, JoA will find some novel way to lacerate himself with it.
Then he’ll do a post on it which will land him at Numbah One in Google for “I bayoneted myself with a paper-tape punch”…
Gawd, I used to program in RPG and use a teletype to run the assembly line at Cats D-10 factory.
[W/DEC relay logic].
I am so old.
It figures that Miss X would be the first to get it. She is my favorite Nerd Girl, even though she thinks I am an evil drunken racist.
The “evil” part of that is a malicious lie, I being a benevolent drunken racist.