What Is It Pliers?

[DadsTools]

Anybody know what kind of pliers these are? Made by a Douglass Auto Appliance Corp of Minneapolis, pressed steel construction. Only found three reference in trade publications dating 1919 to 1923. The vintage section might be better for tracking down the company, but here in the General section seemed like the best place where folks might know what this was used for.

 

[dwasifar]

Anybody know what kind of pliers these are? Made by a Douglass Auto Appliance Corp of Minneapolis, pressed steel construction. Only found three reference in trade publications dating 1919 to 1923. The vintage section might be better for tracking down the company, but here in the General section seemed like the best place where folks might know what this was used for.

I don't know for sure what they were actually intended for, but they look like they'd be handy for hose clamps.

 

[LXCam]

I think they might have been external E or C clip pliers considering the inside relief cut and obvious radius. .

 

[DadsTools]

A little more info I found if it helps.....the company was involved with making heaters and other car parts. Found two references for a turn signal holder. Model T era.

 

[ddawg16]

Actually, I believe those are for small peckers....for the guys who have graduated from tweezers

 

[MikeF2316]

I doubt this is what they are designed for, but I can think of a couple of situations where they would have been ideal to place a washer on a stud where my fat fingers wouldn't fit.

 

[DadsTools]

With the fulcrum pivot so far from the jaw tips (which doesn't deliver much force at the jaws), and with the pressed steel construction, I doubt they were designed for anything that would require a lot of force like hose clamps. They certainly don't look like your typical C/E clip pliers, all which have a pivot close to the jaws for maximum leverage force. Seems they were designed to reach into something to insert or remove a part where hands may not fit.

I'm really surprised that one of our members hasn't run into a tool like this before. But I think MikeF2316 may be thinking in the right direction.

From what I could find, Douglass was exclusively parts and accessories mfr for the auto industry, including after-market items that car owners might buy and install on their cars.

Could they have something to do with valve work on early engines, which might be why we today don't recognize it? Like for the same reason old tappet wrenches are so long?

 

[JRC3]

My proctologist has a pair of those.

 

[DadsTools]

Solved! With help from the Vintage Section gang.

It is a tool for installing and removing piston rings, patented in the 1920s. It apparently had a set of tips that are missing. Here's the patent info:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US1681662A/en?inventor=Roy+D+Douglass

 

[MShaw]

I don't think so. The pliers in the patent expand when you squeeze the the handles. The op's pliers close when you squeeze the handles. I was thinking maybe to hold the keepers while the valve spring was released.

 

[4xdog]

That's true, MShaw. We're wrong in exactly which Roy D. Douglass patent. Here's the right one:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US1740591A/en?oq=1740591

 

[MShaw]

You've got it. Sorry for doubting.

 

[4xdog]

Yes, and note that Douglass wasn't the inventor of this one -- he was the assignee.

 

[DadsTools]

Amazing! I thought that MikeF2316 was thinking in the right direction, and my own speculation it may have had something to do with valve work. It also struck me it might be good for cotter pins, as the patent description mentions. 4xdog hit this right out of the park!

Thanks so much, guys! A true team effort on this one.

It's apparently a very rare survivor, and the patent pending suggests this was made before the 1929 patent was issued. Like I said in the Vintage thread, now I have to figure out what I'm going to use it for. I have no need for the couple of medical suggestions that have been offered. At least, not yet!

 

[5ktq]

They look like they might work good for hog rings in hard to access areas, if they're strong enough anyway.