Gift from a friend- shingle gage?

[calisdad]

It's 48" long, marked at inches, feet and 1/8 inches. Has 3, 1/4" by 9 1/4" adjustable rods held by allen head case hardened (?) set screws.



(sorry- close up photo has failed to load 3 times now )

 

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[AU Seeker]

I think it's a beam compass for drawing/marking, scribing large circles, if it's not, it could be used as such.

Beam Compass by Alvin 961B Beam Compass

 

[calisdad]

AU Seeker my first impression was it was for drawing ellipses, but why the depth gage adjustment? And there is no marking attachments. I may just have to fend off Zombies.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

I've seen a similar tool used by old carpenters like my grandfather to scribe a double arc for making curved trim pieces. I'm not sure it was actually intended for that use though.

 

[AU Seeker]

I still think it's a beam compass, the points that are used on a beam compass are called trammel points, many but not all trammel points are adjustable in depth, as seen in some of these pictures.

trammel points - Bing Images

A beam compass can be use for many different tasks, but they're mostly use for marking a radius/circle.

You can buy the trammel points separately and use a ruler, yard stick or a piece of wood of any length as the beam to make as large of a radius/circle as required.

On most trammel points one of the steel points can be swapped out for a pencil, most are designed so a pencil will fit in place of the point.

 

[calisdad]

Thanks AU Seeker. It didn't occur to me to swap out a point for a pencil. One of the pics on the link showed it being used in boat building.