More of a what's it for...

[pritch]

It seems obvious what it is-some kind of miniature press. I just can't imagine what it would be good for. Mfgr is Morgan & Wilcox.



It seems really well built. The threads are such that the top plate can be pulled up to where the work is and missing is the bar that one would use to turn the screw, but the holes don't go all the way thru so said bar can only go in about a quarter-inch.



The female portion of the threads are spring-loaded, so when squeezed together the top plate falls down.
The thing I can't figure is despite it's obvious quality, it's never going to be able to put very much pressure on whatever it's pressing.

Any ideas?

[bill300d]

It is a quick adjust machinist jack.

[Bill Houghton]

Useful when your machinist gets a flat tire.

[Northwoods]

Useful when your machinist gets a flat tire.

A flat tire on a lawn mower....

[rustyfordgarage]

I agree on the machinist set up/support jack.

[Catch22!]

yep.   Use them when setting up stock on the mill.  That one is a bit different then the single post ones I use.

[bill300d]

 I was wrong. They are Job Press Locks used in printing. Patent #683,249 by R. Cochran from September 24, 1901.Hope you can see this catalog page to see how they are used.

[Plyerman]

Good detective work Bill.

Wow, we pretty much take printing for granted nowadays. It's hard to imagine how labor-intensive it was not all that long ago.

[bill300d]

Believe it or not I had the same thought when I researched this. Most printer tools are so task specific that they don't seem to overlap with other tool uses. If the tools and equipment did maybe we would recognize them and not forget so quickly.

[pritch]

Wow, that's pretty wild. Thanks, guys. Jr high printing class was a loooong time ago, so I probably forgot.

[mikeswrenches]

Bill, thanks for the great detective work. I have one also but had no clue what it was used for. Mine came in an auction box lot.

Mike