Picked this up last week. Thought it was neat. Remember using them. Anyone know what year it's from?
AL

 

That's awesome! Now days who would bother, regular spark plugs are so cheap anyway. What a cool collectible, I wish I had something like that in my garage...imagine the questions you're gonna get!

Steve

 

Wouldn't use it, as will just rough up the surfaces, inviting more stuff to collect on them.

 

That is a classic! I have not seen a sparkplug cleaner like that in years. My guess is 1950's vintage.

 

I remember one almost identical to yours in the first repair shop I worked in back in 1972 (in the UK). It was definitely old then.
I'd concur that it's '50s vintage but can't go further than that.

It was used to clean up oil fouled plugs and did a fair job on the old fashioned oil burning engines of the day.
The foreman who was in his 60s at the time told me he used to dismantle and clean plugs as a regular part of his work right up to the '50s.
It's a long time since I've seen plugs that can be dismantled, can anyone remember when they were last used?.

I think it would do more harm than good on plugs in a modern engine, it would probably destroy platinum or iridium plugs in a heartbeat.

Roger.

 

Not telling my age, but these were common in every gas station when I was growing up, machines for curving distributors, manual valve grinding machines and bulk oil. Of course this is when gas stations still had mechanics and worked on cars in all of your rural same towns

 

Actually have a local Mobil in my area(non rural) with three bays, doing a stellar repair business. Doubt they're doing any dizzy re-curving or valve grinding, but shows there's still a market for these kinds of local shops.

 

Roger- Interesting story. Thanks for letting me know!
AL