# Tool Talk >  Mystery manufacturing processes - GIFs

## Jon

Mystery pipe wiggling mechanism. Anyone know what's going on here?



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Previously:

Pipe trench digger - GIF
Large pipe beveler - GIF
Six-way copper pipe joint - photo
Cutting a glass pipe - GIF
Pneumatic pipe chamfering tool - GIF
Drill-powered pipe wrapper - GIF
Laying miles of pipe in a ditch at once - GIF

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baja (Dec 11, 2020),

EnginePaul (Dec 12, 2020),

nova_robotics (Dec 10, 2020),

Philip Davies (Dec 11, 2020),

Scotty1 (Dec 12, 2020),

Tonyg (Dec 11, 2020)

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## Crusty

It's a fancy jet for a water fountain display.

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baja (Dec 11, 2020),

Christophe Mineau (Dec 11, 2020),

EnginePaul (Dec 12, 2020),

Jon (Dec 8, 2020),

Moby Duck (Dec 13, 2020),

NortonDommi (Jan 4, 2021),

nova_robotics (Dec 10, 2020),

Tonyg (Dec 11, 2020)

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## Jon

That makes sense. Damn, 14 minutes and it's solved.  :Hat Tip:  These mystery posts are always too easy for this crowd.

OK, how about this? Found with the title "Swizzle spinner".



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## machining 4 all

That was very easy! Send another challenge!

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baja (Dec 11, 2020),

jimfols (Dec 10, 2020),

Jon (Dec 8, 2020),

Scotty1 (Dec 12, 2020),

Tonyg (Dec 11, 2020)

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## Jon

Good one. OK, what about this:



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## machining 4 all

I researched something similar and it could be:

- High Reliability RFID Coil Antenna;
- Flat Copper Wire Coil Stable Performance;
- Flat Copper Wire Air Core Coil Inductor.

If someone found something different, help to solve this mystery!

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## jdurand

transformer core, E plates put in later

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EnginePaul (Dec 12, 2020),

Scotty1 (Dec 12, 2020)

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## Jon

OK, that one was too easy. How about these?



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## Frank S

post #8 making pipe flanges

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## Jon

Same as #8 . These grooves they're machining make me think it might not be a flange.



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## TheElderBrother

> It's a fancy jet for a water fountain display.



We have a winner!

Nice work.

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## fool injector

Making, or fitting, steam locomotive tires.

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## old kodger

Piston rings?

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## Jon

> Piston rings?



I think that's probably the best guess. Massive piston rings.

OK, anyone know what's being built in this one?



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EnginePaul (Dec 23, 2020),

jimfols (Dec 12, 2020),

mwmkravchenko (Dec 11, 2020),

Priemsy (Dec 11, 2020),

Rangi (Dec 11, 2020),

rlm98253 (Dec 12, 2020)

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## jdurand

cheese storage?

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Priemsy (Dec 11, 2020)

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## Ralphxyz

The waste yard beyond the wall has a lot of product, wasted money?

Ralph

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## jdurand

Maybe that's waste concrete columns removed from someplace and they decided to make a building out of some of them. Or a big chimney, or something.

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## madokie

> Good one. OK, what about this:
> 
> <video controls loop>
> <source src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/hmt-forum/mystery_copper_bender.mp4" type="video/mp4">
> Your browser does not support the video tag.
> </video>



i have removed smaller versions from GM 1 ton diesel truck starters..

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## IAMSatisfied

The one's with two holes are obviously giant buttons.

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## old kodger

> The one's with two holes are obviously giant buttons.



I dread to think where the button holes are.

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## FEM2008

Could have been Bank vault door frame on the last one.

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## IAMSatisfied

As the camera pans over the wall, stop the video at about the 8 second mark and you'll notice cross-hatch marks engraved in the nearer stones... which leads me to believe they might be grain grinding stones. You can also see in the wall construction that these discs are of varying thicknesses... some have no hole, some one and others two. In the pile to the left of the wall you'll see stone cylinders, which may have been used to grind grain in this manner:



Here's another photo that may indicate surplus/worn/defective wheels are in abundance in China:

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Moby Duck (Dec 13, 2020)

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## old kodger

> As the camera pans over the wall, stop the video at about the 8 second mark and you'll notice cross-hatch marks engraved in the nearer stones... which leads me to believe they might be grain grinding stones. You can also see in the wall construction that these discs are of varying thicknesses... some have no hole, some one and others two. In the pile to the left of the wall you'll see stone cylinders, which may have been used to grind grain in this manner:
> 
> 
> 
> Here's another photo that may indicate surplus/worn/defective wheels are in abundance in China:



So what you're suggesting is that the "buttons" are worn out grinding wheels? What they're building is still a mystery.

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## old kodger

A thought, a New Mexico guy known as The Garbage Warrior (Michael Reynolds I think), builds houses called Earth Ships out of old tires, maybe this is the Chinese equivalent.

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## IAMSatisfied

My wife & I ran in to Mike Reynolds several years back at a grocery store in Taos & struck up a conversation with him (this was after the 2007 "Garbage Warrior" documentary was made on his work, both building earthships and his work a the NM legislature lobbying for more lenient laws allowing flexibility for folks to experiment with different building materials & techniques in their own homes). In that conversation he expressed his dislike for the term "Garbage Warrior", which the media pinned on him without his consent. 

BTW, the aforementioned documentary is available to be watched "free" for Amazon Prime members here: https://www.amazon.com/Garbage-Warri...p;qid=&amp;sr=

Back to the stone discs: the mystery about these to me is "why have these discs been collected together? If I were to wager an educated guess, it would be that in the 1950's, when the Communists in China initiated their theft of private property from farmers and the collectivization of farmland in what they called the "Great Leap Forward", they also confiscated tools used to farm the land. If these are indeed millstones, I'm thinking they were confiscated/stolen from family farms and stored in this location for future use. I've reached out to a Chinese American author (whose great-grandfather's farm was taken by the Communists) to see if she can shed light on the "boneyard" in this video, and await her reply.

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## Jon

Alright, finally a mystery  :Smile:  Here are some more of the stone building ones. These might give us a hint as to the provenance of the stones.



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I like this cart. Fun fact: Mesoamerican pyramids and stone structures built by cultures such as the Aztecs and Incas were done without carts. They were aware of some of the utility of the wheel (like a pottery wheel), and the wheel exists in some of their artifacts (like children's toys), but they did not use wheels for transport. This means no draft vehicles, and no wheelbarrows. They also had little to no metalworking (mostly ornamental precious metals, and a little copper working), and thus their construction methods did not employ nails. Two of the most valuable things that the Spanish conquistadors brought to the Americas in the 1500s were knives (historian Hugh Thomas says that a good Spanish knife could be traded for two Mesoamerican daughters) and nails.



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These China GIF sets often include a clip of the workers dancing:


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Is this the Chinese version of Bolognese Umarell - retired men who stand around construction sites and offer usually unwanted advice?


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Rangi (Dec 25, 2020)

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## old kodger

I wouldn't mind getting one of the "buttons" I recon they'd make a great wet stone sharpening wheel.

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## Jon

I renamed this thread "Mystery manufacturing processes". Anyone know this one?



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Scotsman Hosie (Dec 18, 2020)

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## old kodger

well, clearly it's a mechanical cornet duet, (shame there's no sound, I would have liked to hear the music)

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## IntheGroove

Whatever it does, it does it gently...

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## Jon

This one reminded me of our "peeling feeling" thread from a while back.



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nova_robotics (Dec 26, 2020)

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## machining 4 all

This is simply a conveyor belt. The "core" is used and the cover is remade ...

To amend, it is not necessary to have such a long stretch ...

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## Nitrous

or they're getting it ready for splicing...  :Wink:

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## marksbug

reconditioned toilet paper :Evil:

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## Jon

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jimfols (Dec 26, 2020),

Philip Davies (Dec 25, 2020),

Rangi (Dec 25, 2020),

rlm98253 (Dec 25, 2020)

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## IntheGroove

Like a big player piano...

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## old kodger

Hell of a way to crack macadamia nuts

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## jdurand

Obviously intended to annoy the neighbors!

Making something into fine powder.

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## IntheGroove

Gunpowder perhaps?

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## Philip Davies

I suppose that this is a metallic ore being crushed prior to flotation and smelting. Digging out the crushed powder doesn’t look easy.

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Big Sexy (Dec 26, 2020)

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## Elizabeth Greene

I've seen people use crushers like these as part of processing clay for porcelain pottery.

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## toeless joe

I think somebody told him to go pound sand.

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## hemmjo

I vote with Elizabeth, has something to do with ceramics...

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## marksbug

eye wood think there would be a better setup to do this..although we probably are not seeing all the proses of what ever is being done.it may just be a washing machine or for dying clothes what ever color dirt/media you out in there.

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## ricku

I believe the device is called a "monjolo" and this could be a clay processing plant.

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## machining 4 all

The name is correct! In some regions of the world it is called "monjolo" or "pilão" (pestle). It is used to grind grains (corn, peanuts, coffee, etc.), and can be activated by electrical energy or by the force of water.

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## marksbug

I would think a watter wheel pounding multiple times for faster production would be the way to go....especially as hungry as I am.

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## jimfols

Number 35
We don't need no stinkin' prisoners.

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## marksbug

drats foiled again.

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## radmanaa

This is a "stamp mill" for crushing ore. We used ones like this 100 years ago!

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## desbromilow

> or they're getting it ready for splicing...



splices (at least where I work) are typically only 2-3m long - if I had to guess I'd say it's being stripped back to the core for "retreading" with a new top cover.

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## Nick79

In America we just call it - "The Wave"

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## Jon

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jimfols (Dec 28, 2020),

nova_robotics (Jan 2, 2021),

Philip Davies (Jan 3, 2021),

rlm98253 (Dec 28, 2020),

Sleykin (Jan 2, 2021)

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## IntheGroove

I can name that tune in three notes...

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jimfols (Dec 28, 2020),

Jon (Dec 28, 2020),

rlm98253 (Dec 28, 2020)

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## hemmjo

It's "The Workin' Man's Blues"

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## old kodger

I hope that the metal is cast iron, cause if it's not, that "tune" is going to last a long time.
Or maybe this is the Chinese version of hard labour

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## marksbug

trying top make a new sword in the stone story....

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## Inner

A mystery de-manufacturing process? Given the large electromagnet and pile of scrap (and apparently more items similar to what they're working on back by the wall) I'd bet it's cast iron and they're counting on its brittle nature to split the metal apart after running an angle grinder around the outside. Nevertheless: "Silver Bells" is my song title  :Smile: 

Edit: It may not sound exactly like Silver Bells, but hey, it's in Chinese.

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## Elizabeth Greene

I'm sorry I don't know the correct term for this... is the thing they are breaking the ass-weight for a forklift or loader?

It looks like they are trying to split it, from context I assume their processor won't take anything that big. It's bigger than a cubic meter, so >~15,000 pounds easy.

Recycling is a weird business.

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FEM2008 (Dec 28, 2020),

Scotty1 (Jan 2, 2021)

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## Haroun

It's a modern Noh ensemble

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## IAMSatisfied

I'd like to see the clip where it finally yields to the pressure and pops.

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## marksbug

dominion workers at play....I wood think they wood need a big band saw for cutting some stuff...or at least a 2 man push me pull you saw.
on another note( the one thats missing :Lol: ) Ill never get this tune out of my head!!!!Im in jeopardy!!!

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## tlnixon

Wondering if it is the steel vault from Al Capone and if Geraldo Rivera is standing just out of the view of the camera...

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## marksbug

hopefully somebody will shove geraldiddo in there and lock it for a few hundred years. :Popcorn:

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toeless joe (Jan 4, 2021)

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## marksbug

for instance... a good fart may be stress releasing, make you feel better...can be fun to do...usualy stinks...kind of like geraldildo's voice&opinions you really dont want anybody to hear it.nor do they want to hear it.

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## old kodger

Forgive me folks, I'm obviously missing something important here. Who is Geraldo Rivera? And what is his claim to infamy?

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## hemmjo

> Forgive me folks, I'm obviously missing something important here. Who is Geraldo Rivera? And what is his claim to infamy?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldo_Rivera

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## marksbug

a wanna bee news man for the distant past thats rareing his head again after claiming to of found the safe with al copone or jimmy hoffa inside it...on live tv and it was empty many years ago on a live special I think he was exiled somewhere for 20 years or more. he is back to quacking again....

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## old kodger

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldo_Rivera



AH. I thought that he might be of some importance, clearly I was mistaken,...just another has been trying to claw back an income.

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## hemmjo

> AH. I thought that he might be of some importance, clearly I was mistaken,...just another has been trying to claw back an income.



That is not quite right. In order to be a has been you have to first be a "have been" at some point. He was always just a "wannabe". But he did make a lot of money doing it.

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marksbug (Jan 5, 2021)

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## old kodger

I stand corrected

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## hemmjo

You were correct with the first part!!, I just wanted to clarify that last little part.

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## marksbug

I agree. he musta squandered his $$ and now back to trying to get somebody to listen.

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## Jon

Your browser does not support the video tag.

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## hemmjo

I believe that is just an internal grinding process.

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## darkoford

Metal Spray?

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## marksbug

looks like bearing race being ground.

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## old kodger

A ball hone.........balls of carbarundum on long lengths of nylon. The rotor is deliberately set off center so that not the same face of the ball contacts the job.

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## Jon

Your browser does not support the video tag.

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## marksbug

making butter...creamy butter....

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## FEM2008

> making butter...creamy butter....



Gosh, I hope not!

It appears to be some sort of part tumbler or washer.

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## old kodger

And in the words of an old rugby ditty
"Round and round went the bloody great wheel , ah hum"

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## marksbug

I know it's not butter. but a vibratory cleaner,deburrer, tumbler thingy is a good answer.I hope it dont have any aluminum in there....it may get pulverized to dust...of coarse they may be making aluminum dust. :Head Scratch:

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## Jon

Your browser does not support the video tag.

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jimfols (Jan 13, 2021)

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## marksbug

biscut maker

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## FEM2008

Grease trap

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## hemmjo

Looks like a big heat exchanger to me. It is really clean inside except for that nasty looking sludge.

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## marksbug

I was joking about the biscuit maker...it does look like a heat exchanger of some sort, possiably to chill the gressee in the trap so they could pull it out and put it in the tubes for the gresse guns.. :Idea:  :Headshake:  :Gunfire:  :Smash:

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## FEM2008

> I was joking about the biscuit maker...it does look like a heat exchanger of some sort, possiably to chill the gressee in the trap so they could pull it out and put it in the tubes for the gresse guns..



 :Thumbs Up:

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## jdurand

I thought the grease went to USA fast food places.

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## marksbug

no to ford & gm for their chassis's

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## jimirwin

Surely is a heat exchanger with tubes being cleaned & polished by extrude-hone process. Something like Silly-Putty with abrasive grains.
Really slick technology!

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Ralphxyz (Jan 14, 2021)

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## FEM2008

I must have misunderstood the rules for this thread, or perhaps there aren't any. I thought the idea was to correctly guess the process. But, I like where Marksbug has been going with this: come up with the most laughable, madcap, or absurd answer.

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## IntheGroove

Well I don't know what it is but I can relate to it first thing in the morning...

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marksbug (Jan 14, 2021)

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## old kodger

> Well I don't know what it is but I can relate to it first thing in the morning...



complete with what appears to be metal fragments?

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marksbug (Jan 14, 2021)

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## IntheGroove

That's probably why it hurts...

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marksbug (Jan 14, 2021)

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## Hoosiersmoker

Looks more like a chemical cleaning process for an exchanger. Cleaning agent goes in, dissolves the crud, solidifies and pulls out with the junk attached.

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Ralphxyz (Jan 14, 2021)

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## Ralphxyz

Jimirvin and Hoosiersmoker, thank you that makes sense, I was really lost with what was going on.

Ralph

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## marksbug

I think inethegroovy guy has too much iron in his diet and not enough water....you need more water. I do miss playing on the water.

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## IntheGroove

60% of what I drink is water...

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