File:Topping Tool (48708970187).jpg

Wheel topping tool, Carpano with cutters, in cabinet brass and steel mechanical tool on rectangular wooden base with drawer. Large wheel on right hand side with wooden handle, rotates shaft which then rotates smaller wheel. Various screws and rods extending from tool. Drawer holds 31 cutters of differing gauge, a small spanner, 8 rods, 17 attachments, one mounted on machine. In wooden cabinet with plastic and glass sides, not attached. This tool has been set up with a wheel and cutter mounted in position to show the action. A topping or rounding off tool. These machines were used for slightly reducing the diameter of and/or truing up wheels which were not running true. They were also used for shaping the teeth of wheels which were being made. After radial slots had been cut into the outside of a wheel, leaving square-shaped teeth around the circumference, the topping tool, used with appropriate sized and shaped cutter, shaped the ends of the teeth to the correct curvature. The selected

Part of the Applied Arts and Design collection. 

Credit Line: Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 2004.44.41 

For more details visit <a href="http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/record/am_humanhistory-object-10524" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections</a>