Old 1 inch drive 2 inch square adapter?

[Jacobs976]

This popped up on eBay and I'm curious if anybody knows what it's about. My thought was it's an old 1 inch drive socket for 2 inch square head bolts, actually have a 2 inch square head bolt (sheared shaft) sitting somewhere in my back lot that a railyard worker tossed in front of my building awhile back. Only thing off on the socket is the holes on socket end walls, maybe rusted out but doesn't look like the thing has too much penetrating rust and more a load of surface rust. Otherwise looks like it'd be a deep well square socket. And of course if the listing doesn't jump I'm most likely buying it, no use of course but why not have a giant paper weight that doubles as a ratchet holder.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264934935895

 

[ssdave]

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[Farmer J.]

I don't think it's a socket. I think it's a square shaft adapter from a piece of farm machinery.

Yea. It looks like the end from the seed metering roll in a seed drill, or fertiliser distributor, or something like that.

 

[3baygarage]

It could be a socket. Detent holes, and flats on the side for a wrench. The cross drilled hole through the large end is odd though.

 

[fl18guy]

Just looked now and link is broken or missing. Item is not showing. Weird. Even in completed listings

 

[Farmer J.]

The link worked for me! Here's a couple of the pics from eBay.
I went outside across my yard, after checking our mailbox, in the rain and gale today and looked at an old seed drill I have . There is a very similar piece on it, although slightly smaller. I suppose that's because, as they say, 'everything's big in America' and mine is a small, old, English seed drill.
Maybe I could take a few pics tomorrow when the rain blows over.
Maybe I am wrong, and this is some kind of giant cast iron socket for American railroad bolts, or from some machine from a quarry. It would make a good paper weight anyway.

 

[ssdave]

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[Jacobs976]

The offset pin hole really says it's not a socket, that's not a detent for the retaining ball. It's a pin hole to hold the adapter onto a shaft. Offset so that the pin rides in a slot/groove cut in the side of the shaft, to account for flexing and movement in the machine, the shaft can slide a bit and not bind. Old machinery is full of stuff like this for non-precision, slow speed turning shafts. Such as a wheel drive to a potato digger chain linkage or a manure spreader drag chain, or as farmerJ said, a seed drill. I worked on a lot of it 50 years ago. Now mostly it's all gone to the scrap yard.

Thanks for the info! Plus all the others saying the same but I don't want to quote everyone and make a huge chain. Didn't think about farm equipment but it makes sense. Assuming seller found it somewhere and assumed it was a socket for same reason I did and ignored the offset pin holes. Have some old equipment sitting for scrap at my shop I might have to check and see if I can get one for free plus how ever long it'd take to pull it out. Don't know if the 1 inch square will still link up with a ratchet anvil but now I won't be bidding on the ebay one because of the possiblity of that.

 

[Jacobs976]

The link worked for me! Here's a couple of the pics from eBay.
I went outside across my yard, after checking our mailbox, in the rain and gale today and looked at an old seed drill I have . There is a very similar piece on it, although slightly smaller. I suppose that's because, as they say, 'everything's big in America' and mine is a small, old, English seed drill.
Maybe I could take a few pics tomorrow when the rain blows over.
Maybe I am wrong, and this is some kind of giant cast iron socket for American railroad bolts, or from some machine from a quarry. It would make a good paper weight anyway.

Appreciate the effort to check your seed drill. Looks like it's pretty much confirmed it's the same part, maybe for a bigger unit or for one of the other oldie machines with similar parts.

 

[3baygarage]

Thank you for the explanation as well Dave. I wouldn't mind seeing how such things operate.

 

[ssdave]

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