The sight rod thread

[Noeland]

[Siderio]

You probably have a personal thought on this my question, The side cover where the side road is placed seems, to me, made by die-casting. I don't know if it is a my personal point of view bat the parts seem to be not hand make and some marks on it identify a metal nature. Did someone have an idea where this part could has be taken.I have to say that are more than three years that I am try to find where the side left cover comes out. I made some reserches, could be possible that was a part of a air drill?

Siderio.
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[Anson James]

[Anson James]

I think it's a center punch or a jewellers screw driver...

[andy]

It seems to have elements of all the things mentioned, including a Pin Vise and Mechanical Pencil, of which I have one made of metal that is similar. It also shares some details to a bore cleaner extention, and a plumb bob. The things that all of these seem to have in common is that they were all machined and utilitarian tools. So It could be a more obscure yet unmentioned tool from about the same time period of the mid 20th century.

[olsonspeed]

I did a bit more research and found an item for watch repair called a "spring bar" tool. It is double ended and appears aprox. the correct size. A carbide or diamond engraving scribe also is very colse to the mark. I agree, excellent dective work on "Made In USA". I would have never seen that on my own, I concur that is what it must say. I also think that the company that made the item in question retooled, folded or was outsourced to a third world country long ago so finding one will be next to impossible.

[phase pistol]

Spring bar tool looks promising... but I'd bet that whatever it is that's attached to the gun, must have been pretty antique, even in 1982. So we'd be looking for OLD watch repair tools.



The couple of engraving scribes I saw looked more like writing tools or pin vises.

Another thing worth noting: the rod on the gun, is not symmetrical. It has that knurled grip area, but only on ONE end. If you remove that and imagine another tapered cone like on the other end, the tool WOULD be symmetrical and would resemble a spring bar tool.

So my question is... could the sight rod be a COMPOSITE made from parts of two different things? Both to hide its origin, and possibly to aid in its construction?

Also I ask rhetorically if there are any "gun repair" tools that might resemble this.



On the side facing the gun, the knurled section seems to have a "V" shaped blank area. Could this indicate that it is in fact a chunk of some other object, which has been cut open and slipped over one end of the spring bar tool?


- k

[DeckB26354]

Well done Karl!

BY JOVE! as we say in England. I hadn't spotted the missing V shape in the rear part of the sight.

Considering how easy it is to create that pattern with a tool, it MUST be a missing or removed part which has been deliberately set against the side of the reciever.

Nice one!

[phase pistol]

OK so perhaps the original object was a symmetrical object such as the spring bar tool



OR the original object could have been asymmetrical, such as a screwdriver or engraving tool

[eltee]

If somone could Photoshop the rod from the different angles available, and create a collage of just the rod perhaps we all can show it to our various disciplines (gun making, drafting, art, watchmaking, tool and die, woodworking, medical instruments, dental tools, etc.) and get it identified. When I show photos of the BR gun and ask for info on the rod, the gun becomes too much of a distraction.

Also, if the cleaned up photos could have the green lens removed, it will also help in focusing attention on the base piece. I'd try to Photoshop if I had any talent, but I don't.

[hirohawa]

Maybe we could get someone here or the RPF to machine up some of these and make them hollow for the LEDs and wiring.

[olsonspeed]

Okay, I think we are making progress. Composite of several tools, genius! The knurled part in question I am positive is from a drafting lead holder of the early ‘70’s vintage. I had one of these things in my hand 8 hours a day for many years, so I am familiar with it’s shape and knurled texture. These were the style that held a thick stick of “lead” that had to be sharpened with sandpaper or a lead pointer, these are different from what is available today. Another thought on the barrel would be a tool for detailing sculpture or art modeling, clay, soapstone and wax. Good work, we will crack this mystery soon.

[phase pistol]

These seem to be the best shots I have of the thing.

[Noeland]

Another thought, and I just grabbed a few of these shots from websites:



I grew up with family who played darts in tournaments, and leagues. It never really struck me until last night I was going through my stash of competiton darts, that they can be broken down to pieces.

Some of the shafts of the metal tipped darts are VERY thin. The soft tipped kind need weight, so they are usually bigger, but not always.

I don't really think this is what was done for the hero gun, but as I was going through my old box of darts started to see possible greeblie applications, and I may use one of these for a sight rod on a varient blaster.





Later on tonight I'll take a few pics of the ones I have at home so you can see them broken down.

There are about 100million kinds of shafts for darts, and some of them look much closer to the sight rod than these.

I'm offering it up as another avenue of investigation.



Here is a soft tipped kind.

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[andy]

I took a look at my casting off of a stunt, and it has what looks like "made in the USA" on it too, but still pretty much unreadable to be 100% sure of it. I am wondering if it might be plastic too, because it also reminds me of an axel piece from a car model kit.

Andy

[olsonspeed]

The barrel or the "object" seemed familiar to me I really felt like I have held it in my hands,... I did a bit more research. The groves in the barrel reminded me of a splicing fid I used back in the '70's, to splice a ski rope. Bainbridge needle fid is about as close as I could find to the one I remembered, unfortunately the few pictures on Google are very low res. My best guess now is a knurled tip from a mechanical pencil grafted to a needle fid barrel. They are produced in five different diameters and are hollow allowing for the wiring of the LEDs. The Bainbridge may not be the dead on brand but it looks like the winner so far until I get the time machine fixed.

[DeckB26354]

Hi all


I like all the ideas being discussed here, I think it is good we are starting again with a fresh approach.

One thing though. I think it is pretty certain that what we are looking for is no longer made. So we will probably never find THAT article, only someting that is similar. (unless someone is EXTREMELY lucky!)
When I look at all the different things it could be, the one thing I keep coming back to are the rounded grooves on each side.

I have found nothing else out there with the same shaped grooves as leather punches (please correct me if I'm wrong) and I think it is too much of a coinciedence for it not to be one or something very similar.



Look at the smallest one and that shape of groove .

[olsonspeed]

As I said in my last post, the Bainbridge Needle Fid is the only object that has the two requisite “groves”. I have never seen, nor would it be feasible to have a double ended punch. The other thing we may be missing here is that the groves could have been added to the sight by the prop maker to disguise the original object; if that is the case he has succeeded.

[The Loyalizer]

From the pics I looked at under needle fib, they seem to be mostly hollow, or scooped, but not solid with a hole running through them. However watchmaker's tools seem much closer to the sight rod in shape. If this was already an antique tool when the film was made that could account for why there are few if any pics of the found object.

I did a search under 'pin vise' and this is some of what I came up with:

http://www.watchband.biz/pi1075392924.htm

http://www.execulink.com/~lfoord/95548a.jpg

http://www.profitablehobbiesstore.com/product.sc?categoryId=15&productId=184
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[andy]

Another place to look for these could it be a Spool of some sort (like a film spool)? For some reason this idea made some bells go off in my head, but I have very little time to do the extensive searches I used to do, so good luck to anybody else who might want to use it.

Andy