What have I inherited?

[bythelake]

My brother gave me a mountain of machine tooling that he was given by his father-in-law, a retired machinist. I received nearly 100 end mills, taps, and other miscellaneous items, but the items pictured below are foreign to me. What have I inherited? These shafts come in pairs in a rubbery holder and have notches machined at one end. Any idea what these were for?

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I’d need to see the working end to get an idea.

 

[bythelake]

I’d need to see the working end to get an idea.

There isn't much of a "working end" that I can tell. Since they come in pairs, you can see both ends for 2 different pair here.

 

[GeneT45]

Have you measured the diameters of any pair? Are they the same? I'm wondering if they're go/no-go gauges of some sort. Alternately they could be guide pins that worked in pairs on some tool.

 

[bill stupak]

They might be lathe mandrels , check the diameters at both ends. A mandrel will have a slight taper. The square end would be for the lathe dog. Plus there are centers at both ends.

 

[Just for fun]

Interesting, it almost looks as though the smooth end was in a mandrel of some sort by look at where the tarnish is. But on the smaller one it looks like it had been grabbed by a pair of pliers or something.

Hanging out to see what the pros have to say....

 

[bythelake]

I checked ... there are no tapers on any of these parts. Each side has a threaded hole, so I'm leaning toward a mandrel of some sort. Maybe for slitting saws? Hard to say.