Another Whatizit

[MrWhoopee]

Saw this in an ad for a toolbox full of tools. It brought back memories. Can anybody identify it?

I will reveal the answer a little later.

 

[LWSTech]

cotton gin spindle. I think surveyors sometimes use these as way points or markers.

 

[MrWhoopee]

cotton gin spindle. I think surveyors sometimes use these as way points or markers.

Ding Ding Ding!

Cotton harvester spindle. The spindle is rotated by the bevel gear, the "teeth" on the taper snag the cotton fibers.

In my youth, my mother married a man she met in a mental institution (note to self: NEVER marry somebody you meet in a mental institution). His family farmed cotton in the Maricopa area of Kern county. These things were common around the farm. I tried to cut one with a hacksaw one time. Couldn't even scratch it. I believe, that in additon to being hardened, they are hard-chrome plated.

 

[mmcmdl]

A very long #6 Jacobs chuck key ! Oh , never mind .

 

[C-Bag]

The rice ranch I worked on in the 70’s did some cotton and had drawers full of those spindles. They were used for everything, punches, through hasps on gates, you name it.