Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 23
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TEN SHILLINGS WEEKLY for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Lute of ten words for any thing else published.
Drivers of commercial-motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Workshop tips and smart repairs ; long and successful runs ; interesting photographs : all are suitable subjects. Send a post-card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no matter how short, or how written, or how worded. We will "knock it into shape" and prepare sketches, where necessary, before publication. The absence of a sketch does not disqualify for a prize. When writing use one side of the paper only and mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides. Neither your own nor your employer's name will be disclosed. Payment will be made immediately after publication. Address your letters to The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, 7-15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.
For Trimming Valve Stems.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the 10s. prize this week.
[TO l] " A.L. (Notting Hill) writes :. -"I submit a sketch [We have had this redrawn.—En.1 of a special tool for your approval, in the hope that it will prove suitable for publication in the columns of the drivers' and mechanics' page of the 'C.M.' It is a cutter and holder which I made for facing up the ends of valve-stems, tappets, distance pieces, etc., all of which have to be nice and true on the ends. Any mechanic, who has a lot of valve setting to do, will find this little scheme a great time saver. The walk to the lathe for every cut, and the filing of the ends is not a very-satisfactory job. Another advantage is that this tool may be used right on the job, without the aid of a vice. The tool should be held with a lathe carrier or a spanner, and the cutter must be worked with a tap wrench. It can be used on any valve-stem, etc., under
in. diameter, as the setscrew will take up any slight slackness, but any job of much-smaller diameter can he made to fit by winding a piece of copper wire round it.
I made the whole thing out of in. round mild steel, and brazed a lug on to this to take the thread for the setscrew. A piece of brass should be placed under the setscrew, so as to save damaging the valve sterns. I used a in. gas thread for the critter feed. The teeth on the cutter should be filed out of centre; this enables it to cut the end of the work clean, without leaving a centre. The cutter should he a nice working fit in the holder, and the feed nut, should be on the tight side, so that a spanner will have to be used to put the cut on. This prevents the cutter's feeding itself when it is being turned with a wrench, or other suitable tool."
Our correspondent might, with advantage, arrange to hold the valve stem by means of a cutter passing through the holder.—Ee.] A Clip for Piston Rings.
[705] " J.S.I." (Coventry) writes : -" Please receive the enclosed sketch [We have had this redrawn.—ED.] showing a useful form of clip which I have frequently employed for fastening the piston rings on to the pistons of an internal-combustion engine while they are being entered into the cylinders. Only those fitters who have had this job frequently to do, know what a lot of trouble can be caused sometimes by the difficulty of getting stiff rings to enter the cylinders at all comfortably. I fasten this broad clip round the piston after the rings have been carefully placed in position, and I tighten it down, just so much that, as the cylinder is pressed on to. the piston, the clip may easily be made to slide downwards. Of course, when all the rings are then in position inside the cylinder, it is a simple thing to undo the flynut and retrieve the clip. It is unnecessary to describe how to make this fitting."