Puzzle yard sale tool

[krisnanj]

That actually looks like an old bottle corker of mine. The cork is placed in the upper cylinder and compressed by tightening the retaining ring. The whole thing is clamped to the lip of the bottle and the screw plunger pushes the cork in the neck. I don't think that yours is a bottle corker because you wouldn't need that kind of force to push a cork in a bottle. However, the general idea is there and there may be a more industrial application requiring the same process.