This is another antique store find, apparently a device to measure rim width on a car. It appears to be a complicated device with several scales, the importance of which is unclear. I could understand a bit of difficulty measuring a rim with a tire in place, but a large caliper would do just fine, I would think- if it was important. Unfortunately, the directions on the back have faded, but one feature seems to be the ability to measure tire wall thickness, another possibly the rim material thickness. Searching unsuccessfully online for info, the former Canadian tech giant Rim (Research in Motion) gets in the way!All in all, a tool that I did not feel I needed to buy.
That's an interesting find. My head is hurting from trying to figure out how it would be used and what kind of useful measurements it would yield, but I imagine it all has something to do with fitting a tire to a rim ensuring the bead sets properly? But I don't even see a scale that would read the tire wall thickness when used as directed, unless there's a scale on the "mic" part I can't see.
ReplyDeleteYou see the guys balancing your car wheels using a cheap plastic rim width caliper
ReplyDeletebecause it's a parameter the machine needs, but this is definitely more exciting !
And the newer machines use laser and sonar to determine rim width automagically (until the inside of the hood gets dirty because nobody ever cleans the thing so they revert back to the plastic caliper).
ReplyDeleteif its from the teens or 20s I can see where it would be very useful.
ReplyDeleteespecially on the old wooden wheels