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Guess the part — Parallax Forums

Guess the part

VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,450
edited 2018-01-22 14:43 in General Discussion
Bit of Monday fun!

Have been doing a major clear-up in the office, and came across a box of these.... (Clue- can't imagine why!)

Anyone recognise ?

WIN_20180122_15_28_27_Pro.jpg

If I don't see the right answer by Wednesday, I'll zoom the photo out a bit :)
WIN_20180122_15_28_27_Pro.jpg
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Comments

  • rosco_pcrosco_pc Posts: 464
    mmm that looks like a wheel/reel from a cassette tape
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    rosco_pc wrote: »
    mmm that looks like a wheel/reel from a cassette tape

    +1

    It's also very nearly a rubber Hot Wheels booster wheel of my own design. :)

  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    Pencil output shaft converter.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    xanadu wrote: »
    Pencil output shaft converter.

    Best Answer Ever!!!

  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    Pencil output shaft converter is the best answer. Philips cassette tape hub is the correct answer. The six nubs give it away, even though the picture is cleverly chopped off to hide the clip for anchoring the tape.
  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,450
    edited 2018-01-22 20:12
    Well that didn't take long, you sharp-eyed bunch :)

    Gordon correctly noted why the image was cropped where it was.

    But the pencils.... I thought I used to wind these by pencil too, but all the hexagon shaped pencils found at my desk right now fall straight through the middle.

    Perhaps pencils were a bit wider back in the day !

    WIN_20180122_15_30_55_Pro.jpg
    WIN_20180122_15_30_55_Pro.jpg
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  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    The big unanswered question, though, is, "What possible use were you saving them for?" :)

    -Phil
  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,450
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »
    The big unanswered question, though, is, "What possible use were you saving them for?" :)

    -Phil

    Hence the clue in post 1 !!!

    Although your question must also be a challenge! :)


    - Actually, I do recall the source. Many moons ago I funded trips to the discotheque by working after school in a tape making factory. As I recall, the job entailed loading/unloading blank tapes to a large machine that recorded them in batches, whilst trying not to inhale too deeply the sweet alluring scent of cherry pipe tobacco smoke puffing almost constantly from the bosses office. Low run stuff, like church and local bands. What I can't imagine or recall is what these sprocket wheels where doing outside the tape cases, as the blank tapes arrived pre-assembled. Perhaps "other" students were very thorough with quality control examinations!!

  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2018-01-22 21:04
    In my hording days I probably would have kept a box of these, too. They make for nice small wheels (with some kind of tread added). Be design the clips should be flush with the outer hub, though I seem to recall if you took out the end of the tape it was no longer a tight fit.

    I used to keep a box of 8-track tapes for the rubber rollers. Eventually even tossed my cherished Best of Burt Bacharach into the box when it became unplayable. Speaking of good ol' Burt, who remembers Nikki, which became the ABC Movie of the Week theme -- with cool slit-scan graphics by Douglas Trumbull (you know, of 2001 fame)?

    Anyway, goes to show you old skool gave us cool parts to reuse. What can you reuse out of an MP3 file?
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    Somewhere in my garage, I have a 14" square SKF Bearing box (my father in law replaced very large bearings when he rebuilt traction motors for Souther Pacific at the old downtown Sacramento site) that has some trinkets from my childhood. In it, I have my Radio Shack cassette tape splicing kit which probably has a few of these wheels as well. To be unique, I used to mix and match front and back shells on my tapes so it was very obvious that they were mine. I also made my own colored inserts for clear cases.

    I also recall in the early 90's that Tower Records here in Sacramento had a machine that would let you pick up to 8 or 10 songs and would put them on a tape for you. I think my wife still has a "mix tape" I made for her on it.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Cassette reels & pinch rollers as wheels. Sounds like work! :) Reminds me a bit of Jameco's "Coasterbot" contest where we had to use a CD or DVD as the chassis. No other rules. A dreadful requirement, that polycarbonate disk cracks if you drill it, crazes & cracks if you superglue it. Can't win. Only foam stick tape works reliably.
  • DigitalBobDigitalBob Posts: 1,513
    Its a muffler bearing
  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754
    Smoke isn't only bad for people but magnetic heads also.
    How often did the machines fail?
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    Genetix wrote: »
    Smoke isn't only bad for people but magnetic heads also.?

    There are worse things than cherry (Captain Black maybe?) pipe tobacco. In the 70s I had a job in a small photo studio, and for hours every day I was cooped up in a small darkroom with heavy cigarette smokers. Everyone knew the smoke settled on the glass lenses in the enlargers; they didn't care. I used to get splitting headaches, and looked forward to working in the E-6 color slide processor room -- somehow the scent of formaldehyde didn't seem quite as bad.

    I don't smoke, but if I have to be around smokers, a pipe (and not the weed-filled kind) is fairly innocuous.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    My daughter found an old cassette player in the drawer today. She mad me drop everything and find her a tape to record on. Terrible audio, low volume. Surely a combination of degraded recorder and 25 year old tape. How did we survive?

    Related, who wants to go through my old box of treasured tapes to listen to each & every one to see if there's anything worth saving? Only a couple hundred hours of listening. Apply within.
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