What is it

[sqyards]

anyone know what it is was in my pops work box he brought home when he retired then sadly he passed away I've been slowly going threw all the draws. My pops was working in the tool room before he retired he repaired anything and everything. Guess they didn't want the old man crawling and the plane anymore. Lol

 

[DOUGD]

That is a microstop adjustable countersink used for drilling accurate depth countersink holes in aircraft skin for countersunk fasteners. There are countersink bits with various size pilots that thread into the center. Sorry for your loss of your father.

 

[sqyards]

Thank you very much I couldn't figure it out to save my life, my pops was a A&P guy his whole life there are so many hand made tools and this and that's, his little junk drawer in his roller has a amazing collection of what nots going back to the 60's and thank you again I miss him so very much.

 

[tre873]

Randy Richard in the Shop posted a video on YouTube about repairing a rivet gun and it shows the same tool in use when he demonstrates the tool afterwards.

 

[DOUGD]

The "Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award" is a huge accomplishment , congratulations to your father! If you haven't already ,look it up and see who Charles Taylor was and how long it takes to earn this award.

 

[macgee]

I believe that microstop is made by Craig. It has a 3/8-24 shaft thread, 1/2" of travel and can take up to 1" dia cutter size.

Look in your dad's tool box, in the small drawers for some of these (usually in a Kennedy, if he has one). They screw into the microstop. I've come across them several different times in some pill bottles.

The microstop has a sealed bearing inside that may need a shot of Tri-Flow to loosen up. You can feel well the bearing is when pushing down the shaft and turning when fully down.


With your dad being a such top rated machinist, I'm betting he has all kinds of super nice custom made reference tooling he put away somewhere safe that he's accumulated over the years.

 

[cvairwerks]

For those that don't know, to be eligible for the Taylor Award, he has to have been a working mechanic for a minimum of 50 years to even be nominated. There are other requirements that go with that.

 

[Milton Shaw]

Those are great countersinks. I have one I bought 50 years ago and still use whenever I need an accurate countersink. It locates off the top surface to accurately mill the hole. where any other countersink used in drill press locates off the thickness and will vary depth. I found some on Ebay with a cigar box full of cutters and sold them for a little profit at local woodworking club several years ago. One of the largest mfgs. is Zepher and you can find them used on Ebay looking for microstop countersinks or aircraft tools.