Brown & Sharpe mystery lathe tool

[Mr. Inquisitive]

When I saw this odd bugger at the flea market for $1, I remarked to myself that you might be able to stick a small, round india stone into this odd, spring-loaded swiveling contraption to put a nice finish on a turned piece. But I've never seen something like this, have any of you? It resembles a fire fighter's monitor. Is there a name for this? The up/down swiveling action is free, the left/right is constrained by the knurled tightening nut. The body of the lathe tool appears to be case hardened (but I haven't cleaned the rust yet) and measures 1 x 5 x 3/8 presumably for a standard Armstrong-type holder. Any insights or suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

[ianmoss]

Perhaps a holder for a "wiggler" rod used to determine if a center punch hole is on center?

 

[benmychree]

This is a wiggler for picking up center punch marks on lathe faceplate work and indicating holes and diameters; the long pointed spindle is missing; it is made in three pieces, jointed by turned down and threaded connections; the front section is either a bent finger or a 60 deg. tapered end, the former for indicating the ID of holes or ODs, the latter for registering center punch marks; the rear section is made with a long taper, about 2 1/4" tapering to a fine point, it is about 8" long overall' the other sections are about the same length. The rear section is adjusted to align with the tailstock center so as to make it's relative motion moreobvious to the eye; the two sections are locared on the clamp so as to have a short projection on the headstock end so as to magnify the relative motion.
Starrett made a similar item, their #65. There is no part number on the B&S tool or it's box, but in looking at a 1920 catalog, it islisted as Lathe Test Indicator No. 736, and they state that "it is new in design" and cost $3.75

 

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Here is my Brown & Sharpe, it's a little different than yours, but works the same.

 

[Mr. Inquisitive]

Wow that was fast, and comprehensive. Thanks for the info. After reading the descriptions and puzzling over the thing, it reminds me of one of those really old lever-type dial indicators you see now and again. Since it's spring loaded only along the axis, how do you keep the point or ball affixed to the work when aligning the ID or OD of a tube? Hate to say it but it seems like the Starrett 65 with the spring loading may have been a better design. I'll have to clean this up and see if I can assemble the necessary parts to get it into working order. Seems like it might be useful for indicating deep inside some work, or a situation where you don't need it till you need it, and then it's the only thing that will do. Also like the idea of centering a punch mark on eccentric or rectangular work.

 

[mick-h]

Yeah as already mentioned, it is a centre finder. Just by coincidence, Tubalcain has just done a video on youtube (guess the tool) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfRAACoj_Aw) and he is using a Brown & Sharpe model to demonstrate how it is used.

 

[Eremius]

Coincidently, this youtube video was made just recently.

[video=youtube;wfRAACoj_Aw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfRAACoj_Aw[/video]