This woodworking tool was bought at an auction. It has a cutter on handle and an adjustable stop, with a clamp for dowel. What is it for?
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As currently set up it would seem this would allow you to score a groove around a dowel at a set distance from the end, but what purpose this would serve I have no idea. It's possible the tool is not set up correctly though. With some slight changes I can see this might be used for chamferring the ends of the dowel, although it's an awkward way of doing that.– GraphusCommented Jul 13, 2017 at 8:10
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Might it be for cutting threads into the dowel? It seems like dowel might be moving further from the cutting head as the screw is turned, but it is hard to tell from the pictures. ETA: Hmm, except the dowel is clamped in place? Odd; then it would either work as Graphus describes, or the screw would be fighting the clamp, which doesn't make any sense.– Katie KilianCommented Jul 14, 2017 at 20:21
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1 Answer
This is a valve stem face cutter. It is essentially the old time equivalent of a bench mounted valve grinder; used for the repair of valve faces of internal combustion engines.
You can see in the photo how the mechanism is set up. The valve stem is clamped firmly but free to turn with the blade and stop adjusted to the desired depth and angle of cut. The crank (inevitably separated from the unit over time) would hold the small end of the valve stem and the user would turn it with the face (part of the valve that nests in the seat) contacting the blade. Then, the user would adjust the depth stop incrementally until a clean face of the desired dimension is formed.
