Know your antiques, eh?

[speedog]

Okay, there's some smart cookies on here and as such, here's a couple of pictures of something that was handed down to me from my father. It would have been used in the 1930-50's and would have been in used in both Canada and the United States as well as other parts of the world as well. The metal ring/plate fits over the concave sleeve section and slides along the length of the sleeve so as to move any contents that might be placed within the sleeve but the ring/plate can not be removed.

Have a look see and post up your best guesses...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5040260/pics/20131118_220500.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5040260/pics/20131118_220541.jpg

[e31]

I'm 98% sure those were used in the artificial insemination of cattle during the turn of the century. Their curious shape also lent itself in the assistance of rolling big fatties to smoke with the local native population. People had to be inventive back then, many uses for one object...

http://www.canadianpickers.com/wp-content/themes/canadian-pickers-2013/images/header/headshots.png
These guys will buy the inseminator for $100; btw premium prices for weathered old oil cans.

[FixedGear]

Maybe a corer of some kind? Apples or something?

[roll_over]

Coring apples?

[speedog]

Amusing e31 but way off target.

Not used for apples either or fruit of any kind.

[spikerS]

Measuring spoon?

[speedog]

Nope, isn't a measuring device.

[spikerS]

sausage maker?

[speedog]

Not a sausage maker, not used for any type of meat product.

[Dalking]

Coring dirt for planting vegetables?

[speedog]

Not used for planting anything.

[RX-7_TWINTURBO]

http://www.leftcoastroast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bluebeard_052c.jpg

[Dalking]

Originally posted by RX-7_TWINTURBO
http://www.leftcoastroast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bluebeard_052c.jpg :rofl: soooo close but it doesn't have that ring on it anywhere??? looks similar.

[Nufy]

Grain Sampler ?

[TomcoPDR]

An uncircumciser

[Supa Dexta]

Looks like a Lathe gouge, For making bowls and removing inner material. But it seems light

[speedog]

Nufy nailed it - how'd you know?

[Supa Dexta]

Really? I just google'd grain sampler and it doesnt turn up much of anything that looks like that. Where as my guess does.. Are YOU sure of what you have and not just what your dad used it for? :rofl:

http://i01.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/266/142/464/464142266_978.jpg

[speedog]

Considering my Dad worked for the Alberta Wheat Pool for 26+ years and that's where this old grain sampler came from, I would suspect I know what I have. I also worked for the Alberta Wheat Pool back in the 70's and remember using a slightly updated version of these that we could order from the head office in Calgary - longer versions (5-6 feet long) were used to get grain samples from boxcars and the sample was then mixed with other samples taken from other locations of the same boxcar (or truck) to determine the overall moisture content of the grain.

Now I suppose you could've used it on a lathe like you're proposing, but trust me when I say it would not be an effective lathe tool in any form or fashion as the metal sleeve section is made of rolled sheet metal and not high speed steel like the lathe tools in your picture above.

[ExtraSlow]

Yeah Supe, that tool is way too light to use on a lathe.

[FixedGear]

I'm pretty sure it could be argued that a grain sampler is a "corer of some kind." :D

[speedog]

For coring a truck load of grain?

Doesn't coring an item usually result in the cored area not collapsing in on itself or at least that's what I know of coring when it comes to coring an apple or coring a concrete wall. Even the core samples from the abandoned gold mine our family drove into in B.C. the last few summers wouldn't have seen a collapse of the left behind holes as they were core samples from a solid rocky area within the mountain.

Worthy of debate - would this tool be considered a corer of some kind? What does a corer do and what should it leave behind in the space from which the core sample was taken? Never the less in the grain handling world, no one would have ever called this a grain corer - it was a grain sampler and was more commonly known as a grain probe in the industry.

[Nufy]

Originally posted by speedog
Nufy nailed it - how'd you know?

Don't know really...

Might have seen it in an old movie / documentary etc...

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by speedog
For coring a truck load of grain?

Doesn't coring an item usually result in the cored area not collapsing in on itself or at least that's what I know of coring when it comes to coring an apple or coring a concrete wall. Even the core samples from the abandoned gold mine our family drove into in B.C. the last few summers wouldn't have seen a collapse of the left behind holes as they were core samples from a solid rocky area within the mountain.

Worthy of debate - would this tool be considered a corer of some kind? What does a corer do and what should it leave behind in the space from which the core sample was taken? Never the less in the grain handling world, no one would have ever called this a grain corer - it was a grain sampler and was more commonly known as a grain probe in the industry.


Originally posted by speedog
Nope, isn't a measuring device.

Im more of the opinion that it IS a measuring device, since it measures out a specific amount of grain...

[flipstah]

Neat! A corer should be fully enclosed to grab the whole thing.

So what's one measurement of grain? A 'ladle'? It's not a 'cup'.

"This grain sampler holds a ____ of grain."

[FixedGear]

Originally posted by speedog
For coring a truck load of grain?

Doesn't coring an item usually result in the cored area not collapsing in on itself or at least that's what I know of coring when it comes to coring an apple or coring a concrete wall. Even the core samples from the abandoned gold mine our family drove into in B.C. the last few summers wouldn't have seen a collapse of the left behind holes as they were core samples from a solid rocky area within the mountain.

Worthy of debate - would this tool be considered a corer of some kind? What does a corer do and what should it leave behind in the space from which the core sample was taken? Never the less in the grain handling world, no one would have ever called this a grain corer - it was a grain sampler and was more commonly known as a grain probe in the industry.

Soil cores from sandy soil collapse on themselves, but you still call it a soil corer. :D


http://www.biconet.com/testing/GIFs/ep2.jpg

http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/images/g09215art02.jpg

[speedog]

Originally posted by GTS4tw
I'm more of the opinion that it IS a measuring device, since it measures out a specific amount of grain...
Not a measuring device because you need to take multiple samples from various areas in a load of grain which are then mixed together and then a measured amount is removed from that mixture and tested for moisture content. This device allows you to get samples without physically touching the sample - physically touching the grain could affect the moisture content of the grain being tested.

[LollerBrader]

I'm sad I showed up to the party late.

We should all post pics of weird shit we've got and challenge others to identify.

[speedog]

Originally posted by LollerBrader
I'm sad I showed up to the party late.

We should all post pics of weird shit we've got and challenge others to identify. There's probably some weird shit we really don't want to see.

What's difficult to judge is the value of something like this - also have a Fairbanks-Morse scale that's about 100 years old that's in almost like new condition - a much fancier version of the one below...
http://shard1.1stdibs.us.com/archivesE/upload/8299/02_13/6K1A6085/6K1A6085_l.JPG.

Best hand me down that my Dad made to one of my brother's - a Fairbanks Morse Z Style D engine from the late 20's early 30's...

xXAGuki2nUI

Such a neat item.

[ga16i]

Very cool! I spent the better part of this past Summer visiting the grain elevators of Alberta. Didn't know they had a device like this to sample grain. I thought they had to run the elevator and use a screen to sample as it came out.

Did you operate an elevator?

[speedog]

Screens (the round hand ones) and the mechanical ones (Kicker machines) were used to determine the amount of non-grain particles (weed seeds, rocks, etc) and cracked grain in a sample which was partially used along with the moisture levels and also the visual appearance of the grain to determine it's grade. Some types of grain also had samples sent away to determine protein levels as well as high protein levels would deem a better grad/price.

And yeah, did operate grain elevators as a teen under my Dad in the 70's - interestingly enough, the grain elevators are gone in almost every town that we lived in and operated them (High River, Manyberries, Turin, Mazeppa), I believe Fort MacLeod is the exception. Also worked on the summer repair crew in the 70's as well and lived in a camp trailer and work in such happening places like Lethbridge, Pincher Station, Cardston, Magrath, Cowley, Mountain View, Raymond, Picture Butte, Glenwood, Hillspring, Spring Coulee and Welling. The dry towns were kind of boring places in the evenings - could go to the pool hall but no alcoholic beverages could be had.

[raceman6135]

I, too, am a farm boy that was raised in a grain farming family, so I recognize the sampler.

Then, the sample had to be tested for moisture content, often in a machine like this:
http://geneq.com/images/made/images/products/Humidim%C3%A8tre_pour_le_grain_330_252.jpg

Except the ones used in the part of Saskatchewan in which I grew up were a little larger and were silver, not black.

[e31]

I could have ended your thread before it even began, but there's no fun in that. About 10 years ago my uncle bought a former Sask wheat Pool grain elevator for additional storage. He's a bigger guy, and the rope lift wasn't "calibrated" for his weight. Guess who had to haul weights to the top so it would balance. I can only imagine how fast an unsuspecting person would be launched if they took the foot brake off.

[speedog]

Originally posted by e31
I could have ended your thread before it even began, but there's no fun in that. About 10 years ago my uncle bought a former Sask wheat Pool grain elevator for additional storage. He's a bigger guy, and the rope lift wasn't "calibrated" for his weight. Guess who had to haul weights to the top so it would balance. I can only imagine how fast an unsuspecting person would be launched if they took the foot brake off.
That's why you always kept one or two empty 5 gallon buckets on the man-lift - the light person could go up quick feathering the brake and then fill the buckets up top for a safe ride down.

[speedog]

For the Alberta farm boys - an old CPR subdivision chart, link (http://railways.library.ualberta.ca/Maps-7-1-7/). Places like Pulteney and Peacock on the CPR lines that went to Fort Macleod and Lethbridge - both long gone.

[Supa Dexta]

Its a crazy amount of work that went into rail lines that are now long gone, one cuts thru my farm in NS... Made long before modern machines were around, and some serious amount of land moved, gullys and swamps filled for miles, hills and mountains levelled. Unreal.