What is this pan for?

[browne92]

No answer, but a few observations.

If the top doesn't come off, I think that rules out any kind of work with food. No way to clean it. In fact, all openings are away from the edge, so there is really no way to empty it completely. Which makes me think it wasn't used to hold water, because if you couldn't get all the water out, it would rust out pretty quickly.

I think there is a part missing for the single larger hole. Or it was used to hold something.

Maybe a oil change pan with the hole to hold the filter and the roller to apply oil to the seal of the new filter

Or maybe it was used for food and the design was so bad, they gave up on it after the prototype which explains why nobody knows what the hell it is

[lugnut]

I think we are getting close. If my memory serves me correct, back in the early days of "Packing Tape" the paper tape had a glue on it that had to be moistened before applied. If this pan was full of water and the tape drawn across the roller, the wet roller would moisten the tape, the excess water would return to the pan through the small holes. The large hole for viewing water level and refilling. Beat the heck out of licking 20 ft. of nasty tasting tape.

[Dr Stan]

They did put allot of asbestos tape on heat vent pipes back in the day - it had to be wetted before application, maybe steam helped

Sounds like you're on to something. I would have guessed wetting drywall tape, but that has not been around that long.

Neither my wife nor I recognize the pan. My Mom was a farm girl and the oldest of eleven. She also helped prepare meals for the threshers during harvest. She canned and dried all sorts of vegetables, fruit & meat but I never saw her use anything like that pot.

[Grind Hard]

Are we SURE it's a pan and not part of (say) a boiler or a furnace or perhaps some kind of obscure blacksmith tool?


Just throwing that out there, we could be assuming the wrong things about it.

[A.K. Boomer]

No - pretty sure it's a pan,, But could be used like you said - in conjunction with something else, - all this talk of tape and such has made me wonder if it's not one part of a two part system --- Like you set it (and kind of align it) under a few rollers on a stand that the tape or whatever is in and you just pull the tape and it guides it over the pan and single pan roller

maybe...

[Mike Burdick]

Yeah, probably used for moistening those nasty single rows of S&H Green Stamps that one got when your grocery purchase wasn't very large! I imagine the price would have been 1-3/4 books.

Note: Anyone under 40 probably will not understand this post!

.

[aboard_epsilon]

it's an air filter cover .off a small engine

all the best.markj

sospan fach !

[Arcane]

I think we are getting close. If my memory serves me correct, back in the early days of "Packing Tape" the paper tape had a glue on it that had to be moistened before applied. If this pan was full of water and the tape drawn across the roller, the wet roller would moisten the tape, the excess water would return to the pan through the small holes. The large hole for viewing water level and refilling. Beat the heck out of licking 20 ft. of nasty tasting tape.

I remember years ago, back in the mid seventies, our "Apparatus Repair Shop" as it was called had a water activated (gummed) tape dispenser. Due to the design, it was quite easy to pull about a foot of tape out which automatically wet it and then reel it back in, leaving the wetted tape to glue itself to the dispenser. Because of the construction of the unit, two layers of tape wouldn't slide on each other worth a hoot so the stuck piece had to be removed before it could be used again which was apparently a bit of a PITA to do. Let me tell you, those guys had no sense of humour about it!


The pan makes me think it was an applicator for something that would be melted which was added through the large hole. Once melted, running your paddle (or whatever) back and forth on the roller would automatically apply the stuff to it and the excess would fall to the pan and drain back into the bottom through the small holes. Having a "top" like that on it would give some protection to keeping the melted product from slopping out and give it some protection from junk falling directly into it plus having the top solidly joined to the bottom would eliminate any chance of it getting lost. One possibility...could it have been used to apply tallow to paddles used for shaping lead body panel filler back in the old days before "Bondo"?

[topct]

it's an air filter cover .off a small engine

all the best.masrkj

Yes. And the round thing is a vacuum motor to open and close a door in the snout. It would allow for circulating warm air from an exhaust manifold.

[Dr Stan]

You need to buy it and take it to the next Antiques Road Show. Probably worth tens of thousands of dollars.

[The Artful Bodger]

Count me in among the 'tape/stamp licker' crowd except I suggest it was intended to apply hot water for the old 'horse foot' glues.

The might have been a sponge in the round hole for 'licking' single stamps rather than getting them stuck to the roller.

[A.K. Boomer]

Yes. And the round thing is a vacuum motor to open and close a door in the snout. It would allow for circulating warm air from an exhaust manifold.

No -------- it's an oil bath filter - but kinda like the scarecrow its just missing its straw,,, (or brains or something like that)
the roller is indeed a float - it's to tell you when the filters running low on oil...


Your cruel dude ----- and u made me waste some very high dollar IPA out of my snout

[alanganes]

No good guesses, but you may want to try sending a few photos to this guy:

http://55tools.blogspot.com/

He post tons of stuff like this and gets lots of responses. You can waste a considerable amount of time looking through the stuff he posts.

[sasquatch]

Awww, now maybe we will get an answer, that's what we need for this , someone who is up on antiques.

[Grind Hard]

We're all way way off... it's going to be something on the order of a shoe-sole bitumen-application unit, or a specialized Kentucky Hot Brown broiler or even a peroxide-fueled rocket-torpedo impact fuze adjusting wrench.