What is this strange contraption?

[Auntie Helen]

I wandered out of my study yesterday to discover Uncle James had created a gadget that looks rather like a crossbow. What was it for?

 

[Fnaar]

I'd just have a quick look through your filing cabinet at life insurance, wills, things like that... check in tomorrow so we know you're OK

 

[Auntie Helen]

It was a work of art! But sadly it didn't work (i.e. it didn't achieve what it was constructed to do) so Uncle James did some buying on the Internet today instead.

Anyone else care to guess?

 

[Fnaar]

shooting squirrels
to mount on handlebars for dealing with errant car drivers
some kind of weather-forecasting machine
a time - machine

 

[Fnaar]

a diy car jack

 

[Fnaar]

orgasmotron

 

[Paulus]

orgasmotron

I know Woody Allen is small, but he never would of fitted inside that.

Is it a mechanical device for shooting bird nuts at hungry Sparrows?

 

[Auntie Helen]

Some good guesses there, but none of them are right.

A clue, it's a machine built to effect a repair on something - and that something can be seen, or at least part of it can, in the photos. And it's not to do with cycling.

 

[Eat MY Dust]

Has it got something to do with holding doors up?

 

[ChrisKH]

Is he trying to keep a roof upright or repair a door frame using a car jack put onto an appropriate length of wood? Sort of thing I would do.

 

[snakehips]

The only things I can see clearly are a door and a bloke's ar$e. Let's assume it's not for the later. Is it to do with a repair to the door ?

 

[BigonaBianchi]

it's a a machine designed to remove the green cap from the spray tin?

 

[Paulus]

A door frame straightener?

 

[Auntie Helen]

Nothing to do with a door.

I'll give you a bigger hint - the silver pole sticking up in the middle of the photo, with the thin cables running through it, is the item for which the machine was made.

What is the pole?
What was he doing with it?

 

[gratts]

Is it a contraption for painting?