About a month ago, I bought a "big box of taps and dies" from the daughter of a machinist who had passed away. At the time, I didn't look too closely because the box was full of tiny files, drill bits, uncovered X-Acto knives and other sharp pokey things. But I like taps and dies and X-Acto knives and the box was pretty heavy, so I bought it all for not a lot of money. Then I put the box down in my basement and kind of forgot about it for a while. Until today, when it was cold and raining too much to do anything better.
In spite of all the pointy objects inside, the box looked fairly innocent...
I really took my time going through it. There were a ton of really long thin drill bits, a bunch of sharpening stones and cutting tools for a lathe.
Then things started getting really good in a hurry...
At this point, I could see the Starrett boxes at the bottom.
So...I can recognize the vises, the micrometers, the dial indicators, and I can probably find part numbers on the Starrett stuff, but I don't know what most of this stuff is called. That's where youse guys come in. What exactly do I have here?
Oh, and I found about a dozen small taps, but no dies or tap handles, which was what I was really hoping to find!
I think picture six is a pile of reamers, but my phone has a small screen.
I think you got some good stuff, but it will cost you a fortune the buy the lathe and mill to make proper use of it...
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I think that this is as big as Photoberkit will let me make the pictures.
java230
SuperDork
12/12/17 4:46 p.m.
I see reamers and micrometers, a couple nice vices! And the rest is ????
I don't know what this thing is, but it looks so cool that alone it was worth the price of admission!
java230
SuperDork
12/12/17 5:00 p.m.
Man you need bigger pics!
Last pic, the thing with the arm will hold a dial indicator (in one of the previous pics)
The two bit looking things in the middle are for chamfering aluminum. (I think! Pretty sure but tiny pic...) I have a couple of those from my grandfather!
Woody said:
I don't know what this thing is, but it looks so cool that alone it was worth the price of admission!
Some form of 1-2-3 block on the right. The piece on the left with the swivel arm is a dial indicator holder to be used on a granite block for ultr precision measuring. Upper middle is a random shop made fixture. Lathe stop perhaps? The clampy thing with threads inside is to set a quick depth limit on the quill of a mill. In the center is countersink/deburrers
The half thou indicator that can work with that stand
Woody said:
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I think that this is as big as Photoberkit will let me make the pictures.
If you click on the picture (twice?) until it's full screen then right click (long press) and choose open image in new tab. That'll give you the large picture address to copy and paste.
Mostly random offcuts that when you have a lathe you will never throw away
In reply to Stampie :
Cool. now I see that the "fixture" is holding a boring bar
java230 said:
Man you need bigger pics!
I think that’s a Photoberkit thing. The pictures are too small when I view them on my laptop, and I don’t think that I can adjust the size, but they are nearly full screen on my phone. Plus with the phone, you can zoom in easily.
Go on and tell us what you paid, so we know how much to hate you 
In reply to Daylan C :
What exactly do you do with a sine bar?
In reply to Woody :
Use it to setup a part on an angle on a mill. It's called a sine bar because you use trigonometry to calculate the stackup of gauge blocks you put under one end of it. to get a certain angle.
Man, that is a LOT of good stuff right there!
I don't think that's a boring bar on the "fixture" thingy, looks like it's some kind of a positive stop for your workpiece so you don't lose your zero when repositioning it or going from one part to the next.
mtn
MegaDork
12/12/17 5:47 p.m.
There are a few sucrets tins and a couple of washers in there.
Glad I could help!
Too bad my dad isn't here. He could identify probably everything.
I have quite a few of his tools.
The 90 degree ground plate with the holes in it is an angle plate. Pretty sure the tool next to it at the top of that picture is a dressing tool for a surface grinder wheel.
