this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2024
102 points (99.0% liked)

What is this thing?

5596 readers
1 users here now

Let us help you identify that mysterious object you’ve found.

Currently in CHALLENGE mode: If you've got something obscure knocking about, post a picture, and let's see how we do. Please prefix such posts with "CHALLENGE:" so we know we've got a fighting chance.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Location: Sydney, Australia. Found it during bushcare.

The brass barb fitting and the powdery filling suggest some sort of kiln burner to me, but the dark green paint on the outside of the tube looks rather ordinary and not like it has been through high temperatures.

The soft, powdery cemetitious filling has a copper-green tint. Only one end has a hole.

If it were not for the brass barb and coppery fill colour I would assume this is just a bit of structural steel from someone's carport (or similar) that has filled with cement and now been cut to pieces for disposal. But a carport with a barb fitting? WTH?

We find all sorts of garbage in this bushland because it's sandwiched in suburbia. Traditionally it was a dumping ground (mattresses, furniture, asbestos, whole cars) and today still people use it illegally as a dump (mainly building materials and soil). Lots of random materials get deposited by or uncovered by stormwater runoff & floods too. There is no limit to the craziness of what you find here.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I suspect that the metal tube with the fitting could be part of a hydraulic cylinder from a piece of heavy construction or farm equipment, from the part that would lift/lower/tilt something? Not sure what the tube is filled with, but it looks like a lot of corrosion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] lurch 2 points 1 week ago

Decades ago, I smoked a swimming pool, so I'd say this can definately also be used as a bong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was going to reply with "you can't use barbed fittings at high pressures", but I looked it up and found some claiming 150psi (10 atmospheres). Huh. Perhaps this did start life as a hydraulic cylinder that has had some parts lopped off.

Not sure what the tube is filled with, but it looks like a lot of corrosion.

I don't think it's built up corrosion. The pipe is steel and corrodes to red/brown iron oxide, as visible around the circumference at the end. The green colour in the filling is not an iron oxide. It might be a copper oxide, or some dye in the white material.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

That type of fitting is definitely low pressure because it is barbed.