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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Amherst, Mass.
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    ID this mysterious small metal part?

    I've had one of these sitting around for maybe about a year now.
    Our inquisitive little daughter is always asking me what it is -- I have no idea!
    And no recollection of where I found it either.

    But then this weekend, after unpacking from a race, inside my duffel bag I found another one!

    At first I was worrying it might be from my ski boots.
    But I can find any part from which it could have detached.
    Plus one of the boots would have already fallen apart this season if it was from the boot!

    Other sources I've ruled out:
    • Definitely wasn't my race bindings, since those were never near the bag.
    • Can't be from the bag, since it's a cheap thing that doesn't have any metal parts inside.
    • Race skins don't have any rivets, since I just sewed on the tip attachments.
    • Couldn't have fallen off any donated prizes from our sponsors, since those were in a separate pack.
    • Definitely not my helmet.
    • Gloves don't have any metal.
    • Not from the ski attachment of my pack.


    I also had a cheap briefcase (conference giveaway) inside the duffel bag, but the briefcase doesn't have any metal, and all the registration materials for the race inside the briefcase don't have anything that matches up with this mystery part.

    Thanks in advance for any suggestions -- I'm totally baffled...
    (Hmm, maybe in the meantime I should keep both in these inside my backcountry emergency kit if I ever find out the hard way what they used to be holding together!)

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    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    12,612
    Titanium Butt Plug

    or could it be the button for a push button locking adjustable ski pole or shovel?
    Last edited by shredgnar; 03-14-2017 at 10:54 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Oakland
    Posts
    150
    Are you running a back-linking service or something?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Amherst, Mass.
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    4,684
    Quote Originally Posted by shredgnar View Post
    Titanium Butt Plug

    or could it be the button for a push button locking adjustable ski pole or shovel?
    For the former, unfortunately we lost our sponsor for that from prior years.

    For the latter, too small to be the button on the shovel that was a prize.
    And wasn't using adjustable poles.

    Quote Originally Posted by wakefield View Post
    Are you running a back-linking service or something?
    I was just trying to be specific with the gear to rule out any possible "what if it was a metal such & such" part of some piece of gear.
    (I've been going through everything I used that day, and can't find anything so far that would fit.
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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    11,704
    Looks like either a pin for something adjustable or maybe a friction fit cap over a screw on some piece of gear?

    Something that small could have been floating around in your bag for a long time before you noticed it, so don't discount the fact that it may not have fallen off last weekend.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Seattle
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    33,546
    Quote Originally Posted by flowing alpy View Post
    Surveillance Tool
    Try microwaving it?
    Quote Originally Posted by Downbound Train View Post
    And there will come a day when our ancestors look back...........

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    3,582
    Looks like one of the push buttons for adjusting a crutch, or something along those lines.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Boulder
    Posts
    1,351
    Internal frame rivet from your gear bag?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Amherst, Mass.
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    4,684
    Quote Originally Posted by flowing alpy View Post
    Surveillance Tool
    Quote Originally Posted by Counselor to the President
    [...] so we know that that is just a fact of modern life.
    Quote Originally Posted by ski-wpk View Post
    Internal frame rivet from your gear bag?
    I was thinking about that, but the bag is too cheap to include such a feature.

    Quote Originally Posted by Phildo_Baggins View Post
    Looks like either a pin for something adjustable or maybe a friction fit cap over a screw on some piece of gear?
    It's solid, so not a cap over something.

    Quote Originally Posted by Phildo_Baggins View Post
    Something that small could have been floating around in your bag for a long time before you noticed it, so don't discount the fact that it may not have fallen off last weekend.
    I was about to write that I sure checked carefully after the prior time I used it last month...
    ... but then I started thinking about what had been packed in it back then, and -- ah hah:
    https://dryguy.com/product/Travel_Dry_DX

    While packed in the bag, the end of this car plug totally fell apart:
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    I reassembled it, and it now works, although sometimes doesn't maintain contact.
    The reason must be that at the time I didn't find all the loose parts, so I think the mystery part is the tip that belongs in the far right of the picture.

    Now as for how I have two of these, the dryer I originally bought fell apart in exactly the same way.
    The company replaced it under warranty, but I probably didn't include the little tip when I returned the broken dryer, since it was rattling around somewhere separately.

    Thanks for the feedback everyone!
    Now to move onto the mystery of how much snow we're receiving from this storm?
    (Well, okay, that's easy: a whole lot, pretty much everywhere.)
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    3,582
    Good detective work! Maybe use a drop of Loctite red to keep this from happening again.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Quote Originally Posted by billyk View Post
    Good detective work! Maybe use a drop of Loctite red to keep this from happening again.
    Unfortunately I now have the opposite problem: I sealed up that cheapo pressfit collar with G/Flex epoxy to prevent the entire assembly from falling apart again, but now I want to disassemble it to insert the little metal tip...
    Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    I bet there should be a spring that goes behind the tip.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
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    10,909
    Riveting thread.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    Not Brooklyn
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    8,320
    Heel pins from a Salomon tech binding that fell off when the glue melted in the sun.

  15. #15
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    Nov 2004
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    YetiMan
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    13,370

  16. #16
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    Oct 2011
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    Inside the Circle
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    Quote Originally Posted by AK47bp View Post
    Riveting thread.
    Well played

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    Among Greatness All Around
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    6,631
    Quote Originally Posted by billyk View Post
    I bet there should be a spring that goes behind the tip.
    Yes usually some sort of spring behind it, so the red locktite would keep it from moving like it was designed

    You could just purchase a new cig. Iighter plug and cut the wire off and reattach to the new. Used to be able to get the lighter plug from Radio Shacks, but no more since most have closed or will close and their inventory has changed to cell phone stuff mostly.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    3,582
    Quote Originally Posted by RShea View Post
    Yes usually some sort of spring behind it, so the red locktite would keep it from moving like it was designed

    .
    Looked like there was a knurled nut of some kind holding it all together in the picture. At least, that's how I saw it. Maybe, maybe not. The red loctite would go on the threads of that. The pin would still be free to move. But epoxy on the outside would work. Or just get a replacement plug.

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