✅ SOLVED Test your skills on this one! Spent years trying to ID this.

[musclecar]

I found this in Alaska about 10 years ago, and have never been able to ID it. It is an aluminum piece, about 3 inches square. It has 15 teeth and is numbered 1-15. There is a stop preventing it from spinning freely. The back has two tabs that may have been used to mount it. ANY GUESSES?

Thanks,

MC

PS The quarter used for size was found yesterday! 1935S Yeah!

 

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[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Earlier I sent out several e-mail inquiries to various slot car experts/collectors ...

Here's a reply from one of them that I just received.



SBB

~ * ~

Bob

"I have no idea what it is. I never saw anything like it. Best of luck. Keith"

Gasoline Alley Antiques : http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com

 

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[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Well, now ... here's an interesting one!

I suppose I could horde this for myself, but since I'm such a generous guy, I will make it available to anyone and everyone who wants to look into it. Good Luck !!!

Please note the operative words in his message are ... "guess" and "guts."

SODABOB

... by the way cowboy357 ... you need to change your real first name ... LOL

~ * ~
Bob

"My guess is that it is the guts from an old Aurora lap counter from the 60's."

John Ford
Scale Auto Racing News - Since 1979

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

I give up! (Well, not entirely).

But I just spent over an hour looking through this link, (but only got about half way through it), which includes 83 pages, and 4104 individual items, many-many of which are Aurora Slot Car accessories, etc. Some of you may already have seen it or something similar. But please take a look and see if you can manage your way through all of it and see if there is something I missed, or haven't gotten to yet.

Thank you 4104 times ...

SOBUMMEDBOB

http://www.mrconey.com/buythisnowitems.php?pg=1&query=30

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through the site I posted, and so far have only found ...

The photo below is described as "Vintage 1960s Lionel Ho Lap Counting Wheels."

But I will continue to search until ...

SBB

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Well, now ... here's an interesting one!

I suppose I could horde this for myself, but since I'm such a generous guy, I will make it available to anyone and everyone who wants to look into it. Good Luck !!!



SODABOB

Bob

"My guess is that it is the guts from an old Aurora lap counter from the 60's."

John Ford
Scale Auto Racing News - Since 1979

Heres the 60's HO Aurora lap counter. I believe I had one. As far as I recall the HO cars had a pin on the bottom that rode in the slot. It would trip the sprocket as it drove by. I guess its theoretically possible. It think this would derail the car at lap 15 but then again the race is over and as far as I recall they were always running off the track anyway.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Aurora-9-in-tra...mdZViewItemQQptZSlot_Cars?hash=item53ddaedbde

​

 

[Silver Surfer]

The lap counter is a great idea, but I dont think that is what it is.... Why?
In the one photo, it has "tabs" that to me indicate it was hung on something, and the "tabs" would be oriented on the top. The counters on the slot car tracks were oriented on their sides, so those tabs would be useless in that orientation.
Sure would be cool if someone could figure it out..

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

The lap counter is a great idea, but I dont think that is what it is.... Why?
In the one photo, it has "tabs" that to me indicate it was hung on something, and the "tabs" would be oriented on the top. The counters on the slot car tracks were oriented on their sides, so those tabs would be useless in that orientation.
Sure would be cool if someone could figure it out..

Yea I thought about that too. Oh well.

 

[cowboy357]

Sorry Bob & Folks if I threw everyone off in my thinking . But I guess we know what it aint now . I went through all the pages as well Bob just in case you went crosseyed & missed something .

I also went through all 50 pages of Googles images using ( counter wheel ) as the subject , Allthough I found some interesting things , nothing close . I cant think of what I haven,t searched for so far as I,m sure everyone else has as well . But I,ll keep looking . Best of luck . CB

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

cowboy357 ~

No apologies necessary. Your guess is as good as anyone's.

Personally, I keep getting drawn back to how well it attaches to wire mesh.

So just for the heck of it here's everything I can think of along the lines of Cages/Hutches.

CHICKENS - RABBITS - PIGEONS - HAMSTERS - GUINEA PIGS

MINKS - FERRETS - CHINCHILLAS - RODENTS - PET BIRDS

If not food for thought, then at least a couple of these are food for dinner!

BOBWIREBOB

 

[Bramblefind]

I just sent an email to the editor of the Redoubt Reporter with a link to this thread.

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

More food for thought ...

Rather than my transferring every one BigCy's surperb photos, quick-click back to Page 11 - Post # 1051/52. Notice how well everything seems to fit. Now take a close look at the backside image where you will see those two pressed indentations that look like a couple of small golf clubs. I've been wondering about those and can't recall if they have ever been focused on or discussed? They were intentional when manufactured, and must serve a purpose. I'm thinking along the lines of one of two things, and possibly both.

1. To add structural strength to the item?

2. To raise the backside slightly away from whatever it was attached to so as to
allow the rivet to spin freely.

If you look at the one image, you will notice that the "heads" of the golf clubs fall in line right where the wire crosses. Or, if the item happened to be attached to something like a sheet of tin, the golf club impressions would serve the same purpose of keeping the backside slightly away from the tin.

One more thought ...

Regarding the mesh-wire idea again, if the two longer tabs were tucked into the wire first, and the bendable tabs second, the entire thing would be "securely attached" and ready for whatever purpose it served.

Bottom Line _______ ?

Attached to > WIRE or TIN ?

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

I guess you can tell the coffee is kicking in ...

I had forgotten and was just reminded there was an "Oil Rush" of sorts that took place in the Soldotna (Cook Inlet) area in the 1950s. The attached photo and text will help support this.

Is it possible our little dial item is in some way related to the gas and oil industry?

~ * ~

Text :

"In the early 1900's the first attempt at commercial oil exploration in the Cook Inlet took place on the Iniskin Peninsula with the drilling of six exploration wells between 1900 and 1906, but without commercial success. Exploration continued throughout the Cook Inlet Basin for the next 50 years without success until the late 1950's when commercial oil was finally discovered in Alaska."

Map : Green = Oil Red = Gas

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

I'm convinced the final identification of the item will eventually come from one of the "Patient Sites" similar to the link below. I know there is a debate on the 15 vs. 14, but whatever the case, one or both of those numbers may connect us to something. But I have discovered when searching through these patient sites that "the key is in the wording."

For example : Aluminum - Dial - Wheel - Counter - 15 - 14 - etc - etc ...

If someone can just find the right combination of words, perhaps something will turn up. I've discovered I'm not very good when it comes to patient searches, (Maybe it's all that PFD stuff), but I'm hoping there is someone among us who is. In the meantime, I will keep stumbling around and see what I can find. And if someone has a word combination that seems to work best, please share it with the rest of us. There are lots of patient sites, and lots of eager beavers like myself just gnawing at the bit to explore them.

Thanks.

BEAVERBOB

http://www.patentstorm.us/search.html?

 

[IronSpike]

Went back and started to read this thread from the beginning. AOSDC reply#46 suggests milk indicator for an old milk bottle carrier. Many of those old carriers were metal wire carriers. Found a British version of a milk indicator:

http://countryantiquefurniture.co.uk/incedentals.php

I know we need a picture match in order to get green check on this one Whoever finds this pic should get Banner along with the item

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Thanks IronSpike ~

I was looking through your link and saw an old weighing scale. Does anyone recall if this topic has been researched? I'm not sure exactly how it would work in relation to the aluminum thing - but it's another "Maybe."

SBB

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

"Whew!"

Is this the proper word to describe wiping the sweat from your brow after completing a difficult task? Anyway, that's how I feel at the momment now that I'm finished reading through (as IronSpike did earlier) all twelve pages of this thread. Origionally I was going to make a detailed list of each and every idea ... but forget that! Way, way too many suggestions! So instead, I kept track of only repeat suggestions/ideas/guesses as I went along and came up with the following ...

The number one most referred to and repeated suggestion/guess is ...

"Manually operated device for counting/keeping track of ... "

I'm not sure how much this will help, but this is the general "consensus" (popular opinion) according to my findings. Now all we have to figure out is ...... Used for counting "WHAT?"



BACKTOSQUAREONEBOB

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

This is for all of us eager beaver patient site gnawers ...

Try combinations of ...

"COUNTING DEVICE"

manually operated counting device
aluminum counting device
counting device with numbered sprocket
1 thru 15 counting device
Manually operated aluminum counting device with 1 thru 15 sprocket dial
etc., etc., etc.,

I'm getting some interesting hits, but the problem is there are "thousands" of them!



COUNTINGDEVICEBOB

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Went back and started to read this thread from the beginning. AOSDC reply#46 suggests milk indicator for an old milk bottle carrier. Many of those old carriers were metal wire carriers. Found a British version of a milk indicator:

http://countryantiquefurniture.co.uk/incedentals.php

I know we need a picture match in order to get green check on this one Whoever finds this pic should get Banner along with the item

interesting... It may be an indicator, not necessarily a counter. They dont give awards for great IDs or you would have a few. I think it deserves a some more research.

 

[IronSpike]

Green check is all we want in this forum One of these days this will be solved

 

[cowboy357]

Well I thought I was onto something . This came up using aluminum dial counter search

http://archive.bagelturf.com/files/index-2.php.jpg