What the Hell Is It?

Just for amusement. Everyone (I think) has stuff around the house which is alien to most other people. Something you use in your occupation, hobbies, whatever. Almost everything is fair game. You cannot, for example, post a picture of a resistor and expect the crew to guess what piece of electronic equipment it came from. Bits and pieces are okay, as long as they are unique to a single item, but are not encouraged.

Post a picture, with a hint if desired (and I would hope that the items are difficult enough to require a hint). It MUST BE a picture you take of the item you have. No internet photos allowed.

It is not necessary to wait for an item to be identified before you post your own item.


This may not work worth a damn, but Hey! It's Free!

Be advised that I have a lot of weird shit around the house, some of which I would expect to result in complete failure, but I'll try to avoid those.

Along with the picture, indicate how many points you think the winning guess should receive. I suggest a range from ten to one million points


I will start it off with an item which should be easily identifiable. I think.

For THIRTY points:



"Tubular," the surfer said.

Copper pipe cutter

Fuck me. I can't get Photobucket, Flickr or DropBox to work tonite. What service are you using for hosting photos?

Close enough. It's a cutter for copper and steel tubing.

You would have received bonus points for noting that the small size of the cutter is to allow it to be used on tubing in situ.


I use Photobucket. It has gotten really slow.

Here's a couple more. They are connected in a manner. The real hint is in the pictures.

Two pictures of the same item, which is about 1-3/4" in diameter.

Worth 10,000 points.

As mentioned, this item has a relationship to the previous.

This thing is 6-inches square. 50,000 points for this one.

Waiting anxiously for NoCoPilot's entry.

Oik.  They look like maybe some kind of maintenance tools for a sauna?  A drain plug and a glass door cleaner?  Really no earthly idea.

Here's my first entry (an easy one):

Maybe easy for you!

If it was hanging on the wall, I would say a sconce. But it looks as though it's lying on the floor and I have no idea.

Providing the size of an object is encouraged. It may help.
Got any hints for me?

You are way off on my last posts. Keep in mind that I used to be a mechanic and I wasted my youth (and much of my old age) playing pool. Some of that info may be helpful. The hint is in the color. Examine the first item closely for that.

First item is about 1" wide and 6" long.

Pool queue stuff huh?  Out of my league. Still no clue.

This one may be familiar to you, but perhaps not.

Another one.

I may be mistaken, but I think the second item is a grinder for stained glass. It happens that my brother-in-law is a stained glass artist. Even got featured on PBS' American Masters series once.

Still working on the others.

Correctimundo.  Easy if you've ever done stained glass work.

I'm going to need some hints on the outstanding items.  The first item has traces of blue -- blue chalk from a cue? -- so maybe it's part of a cue stick rack?  Second item, no freaking idea.

Another:

_Howard wrote:

Got any hints for me?

First item was chosen specifically as something you probably aren't familiar with -- although the category is common (I'll bet you have two or three).

The first one is an Apple remote control. Yes, I have 2 or 3 - or 12.

The third one appears to be a battery pack, or possibly a light.

All I can figure out for the last one is that it's a container of some sort.



You're on the right track with my last two items. The blue on both items it cue tip chalk. Consider that there is only one place where you want chalk: on the cue tip. Ignoring the floor and your fingers, there are only two places where the chalk can be found, one of which is the cue tip. Those two places are the sources for the chalk on these items. Hope this helps.

Meh okay it's a holder for the little cake of cue stick chalk.  No idea where or how it mounts to what.  The other piece, the square thing with the bars on the top, I initially thought it was a guide rail for putting cue sticks through to hold them to the wall (which would make the other dealy the pad the cue stick tip rests on) -- but on second thought the only cue rack I've ever seen is much less elaborate so never mind.

Is there such a thing as a pool table felt cover conditioner?  That's just OCD enough to be something you'd own.

Yes, my first item is an Apple remote control, specifically Apple TV, specifically the back side.  The front would have given it away.

Third item is indeed a light -- a goofy wireless flip-up fluorescent that never turns off reliably.  It's a dumb design.

Last item is not a container.

If Photobucket ever wakes up I'll have some more items for you.

Ah, here we go. Easy one.

The first item is a tool for shaping and scuffing the cue tip. Note the concave center with the abrasive material. Funny, I thought that one was really easy. I guess that comes from being so familiar with pool that I just assume everyone is.

You've gotten close enough on the square item. When you hit the cue ball, a bit of chalk falls off the cue tip onto the cloth.  This tool  is for cleaning chalk from the cloth. After using horse hair brushes for about three hundred years to push the chalk around, someone finally invented a device that actually picks up the chalk. Of course, vacuum cleaners will do that, but they are bad for the cloth.

As an aside, the cloth on a pool table is not felt. No one seems to know how that erroneous bit of lore came about, although cheap fabrics not much better than felt have been used. The cloth on my table is the most popular cloth today; it is a worsted cloth which is ninety-percent wool, and costs as much as good quality carpet.

Guess I'd better have another look at that last item.

Richard may have an advantage with this one.

The spring loaded pressure cap and gauge make me think something to do with brewing beer perhaps.

Not even close. That is not a pressure cap.

Why would I say that Richard may have an advantage?

What the hell is a "carburetor synchronizer"?

You're right, of course. How did you figure it out?

I could just make out "UNI-SYN MOD. A" on the casting. Google knew what that was.

I hadn't looked that closely at the picture. Glad you could make it out.

The last item you posted is a check valve.

I have no idea what the previous thing is. How about a hint.

Right, 2" check valve for my sump pump.

As to the other item my hint is I'm using it right now.

Here's a gimme to make you feel better.

The one in my toolbox I call a gear puller.