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Old measuring tool

5db5db Member Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited September 2001 in General Discussion
I picked up a old cast Iron measuring tool today. It has a wheel that is about 8" across being about 3/16 thick with a single cast metal handle. It resembles an oversized Pizza cutter. The edge of the wheel has a "knife edge" and one side is marked in 1/8" increments with inches indicated for a total of 24". It is marked "Wiley Russell Mfg. Co. Greenfield, Mass."Anyone here know about such things? I know this is a Gun Board, but we are a diverse knowledgeable group and I don't know where else to start. Besides, I might want to measure the shooting range and ......
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    NEEDCOLDNEEDCOLD Member Posts: 134 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Must be an old "roll-a-wheel." I use them today to measure distance between two points on a road or airfield. Difference is that mine have a little finger on the side of the wheel that trips an odometer/counter so that at the end of my route, all I have to do is look down and see the numbers. On yours, you will have to paint the 24" mark, be sure that you start at -zero-, and watch the wheel and count how many times the paint mark passes over the distance from A to B. Then do the math. They are not an exact tool, but they're good enuf fo'gummint werk.
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    lugee00lugee00 Member Posts: 34 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have one like you described, it also has a pointer that can be positioned as a reference marker. Also have one hand made from wood. They were used to measure the length of iron strap needed to make the "wheel" for buggy and wagon rims. The tool was rolled around the outside of the wooden rim, the number of turns and fractional turns was then repeated on the iron wheel strap to get the correct length. The strap was formed on a swedge block to get the circle shape then the ends welded. It was made slightly smaller, then heated and applied to the rim while hot, then doused with water, this caused it to shrink and fit tightly.[This message has been edited by lugee00 (edited 09-22-2001).]
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    5db5db Member Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    SaxonPig, I'll let you be the judge of that! LOLNEEDCOLD, I've seen those (even used out of a truck window as he rolled down the parking lot) and that's what got me, I would figure this tool is too small for the work you describe. I have seen an old measuring wheel that was around 6' in diameter, used for measuring land, as in the property lines.lugee00, that makes the most sense. I guess you could measure anything you want with it but one would think it was designed for something in particular. No "pointer" nor is there a place for one. I figured out the knife edge allows you to lay it right on your mark, then stand it up to start rolling towards the desired distance. I wonder how old it is? What kind of craftsmen used it.
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    lugee00lugee00 Member Posts: 34 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    5db, I said the iron band was called a wheel, duh, the finished product was the wheel. The band was called a tire, the ole noggin is fuzzy sometimes. I think the tool was also used by coopers, barrel makers. I went out to my shop and dug mine out, hadnt seen it for years. It is marked to 24" also but no makers name on it. I tried your idea for the knife edge, seems to work.
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    5db5db Member Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    lugee00, mine has numbers on one side, the name on the other side of the wheel, it's fairly hard to see. So what do you guess, 100 years old?
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    lugee00lugee00 Member Posts: 34 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I would think at least 100 years, probably mid to late 1800s. I found mine, both the metal and hand made wooden one in my shop after I bought the place. The shop is an old carriage shed that was added on to. From what I've learned from the older neighbors the original building would date from late 1800s to early 1900s. Found lots of old goodies when I rebuilt it, including a bayonet for an 1873 Springfield rifle.
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    woodsmith42woodsmith42 Member Posts: 63 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have the same story as Lugee except in my shop in NC in addtion to several hundred tools I found an old caplock lock and about 100 lbs of cannister shot, all just ground into the dirt floor of the old carriage/wagon shop that I bought from the wagon right's widow.
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    5db5db Member Posts: 1,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You guys are living right!
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    gunboobgunboob Member Posts: 203 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I retired from the "boiler makin'" business. When I started there 36 yrs. ago, the place was full of them. (Layout dept.) We figured they was made especially for our business, always having to know circumferences of things, complete, sectional, whatever.Didn't take me long though to see that with one little slip,...there went your accuracy.None of us hardly used them at all anymore, because it was plainly seen that a carefully laid fifty, or one hundred foot tape, held in place with common freezer tape, would do a better confident job.Seems like a big one for land measurement would be a nice deal.Bob
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