Mystery object identification.

Likely to be related to vintage aircraft or possibly, vehicles.

Any ideas hive mind?

Looks like some kinds of caliper. Appears to be measuring degrees left or right.

How do the parts fit together?

I don’t have access to it at the moment. Box has ‘BL 5463’ on a label.

Possibly British Leyland then. Some kind of tracking checker? but why such a huge movement? And why only in one direction, not two ways from a centre zero? And why are both identical?
In short: I have no idea. 🙂

Maybe checking maximum flap deflection on a plane. I so want to know now.

Possibly British Leyland then. Some kind of tracking checker? but why such a huge movement?

You answered the second question with your opening line.

I was hoping this would be about UFOS.

A steering tracking checker/installation tool would be my guess.

It’s a cat aid. (back legs)

but why such a huge movement?

I would guess that it’s not measuring a huge movement, it’s mechanically multiplying small deflections to make them easier to to read

Possibly British Leyland then. Some kind of tracking checker? but why such a huge movement?

You answered the second question with your opening line.

🤣🤣👍

My guess it’s for doing up nuts that are torqued to ‘N Newton metres + NN degrees’ so the pointers go over the nuts and the gauges sit on the tool to measure the angle of rotation past the assigned torque setting.

I never knew that was a thing.

I never knew that was a thing.

off the internet:

Angle Controlled Tightening
This method, also known as turn of the nut method, was introduced for manual assembly shortly after the second World War when a certain tightening angle was specified. The method has been applied for use with power wrenches, the bolt being tightened to a predetermined angle beyond the elastic range and results in a small variation in the preload due, in part, to the yield stress tolerance. The main disadvantages of this method lie in the necessity for precise, and, if possible, experimental determination of the angle; also the fastener can only sustain a limited number of re-applications before it fails.

so the torque wrench is set to a figure coinciding the likely elastic range and the angle turn then sets the pre-load very consistently.

I have an angle gauge for torquing bolts, this is much fancier.

I like idea of a vehicle camber gauge, could go over a fly off centre nut stub axle, but yeh, that’s a LOT of adjustment, even for an MG…

Every day is a school day.

The two round items clamp around the black metal object, the knurled screws tighten them on so they don’t slip.

Obvious Louise joke is obvious

I a similar vein (although there’s a give away as to function inside the lid!), cleared my Dad’s stuff out last year and this was hidden away;

Tension gauge for aircraft control wires.

The owner was heavily into Tiger Moth aircraft so it’s likely that it could be from that world.

You could use that cable tensionometer for building bike wheels. I’ve got a Park spoke tool that’s very similar.

it’s a bit larger than the park tool one I have (rollers are about 6″ apart) but I did consider it 🙂

You answered the second question with your opening line

Must admit, even compared to Dracs usual dry wit, this was good.

It’s a Political Compass. An ophthalmological instrumental for measuring just how Swivel-Eyed someone has become on any given issue.

@wwaswas That’s almost identical to a Park Tool spoke tension meter!

I had something similar for checking yacht rigging tension.

Looks like a trimming set. The yoke/stick is fixed in the centre of the cockpit, the trimmer is attached to the control surfaces (or trim tabs) and their position recorded at the neutral stick position, the plane is then flown and the yaw/roll/pitch noted at centre stick, then when back on the ground, the adjustments can be accurately made in degrees to provide a true neutral control position.

or, i’ve just made all that up……. #callmybluff

Bluff. Surely for control surfaces it would have a centre zero and a scale off to either side…

Lovely prose but I’m calling nonsense. 😂

It’s a device for measuring the angle of the dangle.

It’s for measuring how flat the earth is obviously.