I realize this is not a machine tool, but I bought it from a machinist, does that count? I picked this up at a yard sale for $10. It weighs about 50#. NIKON 6969 is all that IDs it. I have searched the web with no success.This thing finely adjusts in X,Y,& Z axis. Maybe it's for an X-Ray machine? I had to have it, it was to cool to pass up. Thank you for your help!

The best I can come up with is some kind of camera mount, or something to hold a laser.

For some reason I think that it had to do with microphotography.

But I'm quite probably wrong.

It looks like a stand for some sort of macro camera... could be for an enlarger but it seems too small for that to me.

That looks to me like a stand for a stereo zoom microscope. Nikon makes really fine laboratory equipment. It is missing the microscope section though.

Well the Google search I did -Nikon model 6969 repeatedly comes up as the last 4 digits of their phone number.

Nikon is a big optics company, so it could be for just about anything. I am leaning towards industrial/commercial applications.

Thanks all for your observations, knowledge, and opinions. I guess what it really wants to be, is a lamp.
I know that I will never put it to its intended use, but I'm the only person I know who has one.
Any ideas what to make of it , would be an interesting venture; Anchor ?

I sent a picture to Nikon and the identified it as a...

" ...Type 3 stand for Nikon Autocollimator "

I often wished that i had some sort of device that i could clamp material into that needed to be welded and due to the nature of the shape found conventional vices or clampimg mechanisms having to be doctored in some way. Thats what i would do with it. Looks like a robot without the motors.

I sent a picture to Nikon and the identified it as a...

" ...Type 3 stand for Nikon Autocollimator "

That would, with some mods., make one great omnidirectional part holding device for welding ,brazing or soldering or assembly or.....???? I woudnt mind having one myself......... B)

I sent a picture to Nikon and the identified it as a...

" ...Type 3 stand for Nikon Autocollimator "

Fallow-up:
The only certified dealer of these things in the U.S. is in So, Ca., they offered me $400.00 unseen. Needless to say, I shipped it, and they paid for shipping!
Not a bad return on my investment.

"The check is in the mail"

Fallow-up:
The only certified dealer of these things in the U.S. is in So, Ca., they offered me $400.00 unseen. Needless to say, I shipped it, and they paid for shipping!
Not a bad return on my investment.

"The check is in the mail"

WAY TO GO KENNY!

Now I'm thinking it must've been a 4,000% profit generator! Man oh MAN I've gotta keep my eyes open for one!
Good for you, seriously.

Frosty the Lucky

WAY TO GO KENNY!

Now I'm thinking it must've been a 4,000% profit generator! Man oh MAN I've gotta keep my eyes open for one!
Good for you, seriously.

Frosty the Lucky

Now my wife is not so concerned about my auction, yard sale obsession.


"...what the heck are you going to do with that thing, it weighs a ton?"

It really only weighed 70#s.

(What is an Autocollimator anyway?)

Thanks Frosty


ps
My daughter lives in Anchorage, I am going up for a visit soon. My first visit to Alaska.
She manages a water-park. A strange place for a H20-park.

No kidding? H2Oasis is pretty darned popular, especially in winter. Be sure to let me know when you're going to be here. We're about an hour north of Anchorage. Come out play with fire, hit things with hammers and maybe scratch the little goats. We'll swap tall tales and eat something.

Frosty the Lucky.

Fallow-up:
The only certified dealer of these things in the U.S. is in So, Ca., they offered me $400.00 unseen. Needless to say, I shipped it, and they paid for shipping!
Not a bad return on my investment.

"The check is in the mail"

Darn good thing you hadn't gotten to work modifying it into a lamp. Sometimes procrastination pays off! If the stand cost $400, imagine the price of the collimator itself. Of course you now have to buy drinks for everyone here!

A collimator is an optical device for aligning things to high accuracy.

Of course you now have to buy drinks for everyone here!

KOOL-AID for the house!
(except for your avatar, it looks like she had to much already)

KOOL-AID for the house!
(except for your avatar, it looks like she had to much already)

I'll take the Kool Aid. It's better than what I have been drinking. Congrats on your garage sale windfall.

I realize this is not a machine tool, but I bought it from a machinist, does that count? I picked this up at a yard sale for $10. It weighs about 50#. NIKON 6969 is all that IDs it. I have searched the web with no success.This thing finely adjusts in X,Y,& Z axis. Maybe it's for an X-Ray machine? I had to have it, it was to cool to pass up. Thank you for your help!

I believe that what you have there is what is commonly known as a "Nikon Third-Hand Beer holder," used by many Boeing machinists at baseball games. This very handy (pun intended) device allows you to hold a hot dog and a bag of peanuts while making certain that the scoundrel to your left can't steal your booze unless he has a 5 MM hex wrench. The X, Y, and Z-axis adjustments are useful for making up for whatever state of drunken revelry one might find oneself in- anywhere from your common 3-beer 2-degree X-axis tilt, to a full-case 90 degree tilt on all three axes, though the last time I saw someone with the skill to make that particular adjustment was at Molly's House of Not-so-Good Repute in Index, Washington, back in 1936.

Actually, I think the other guys are right- it's for holding a microscope.

You just lost one of the best beer holders in the world!

The most common example of a "Collimator", is the device used to "bore sight" a rifle scope.

Basically, it projects, ... or focuses, ... a parallax free "point-in-space".

They are also used to adjust the prisms in binoculars, so that both sides of the binocular are focused on the same point.


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