For DRIVERS, MECHANICS & FOREMEN,
Page 39
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TEN SHILLINGS 1,s paid to the sender of any letter which we publish on, this page, and an EXTRA FIVE SHILLINGS to the sender of the one which we select asbeing the best each week. All notes are edited before being publrished. Mention your employer's name, in confidence, as evidence of good faith. Address, D., M. and F., "The Commercial Motor," 7-15, Bosebery Avenue, London, E.C. 1.
Lamps Alight.
On Saturday, September 25th, light your lamps at 7.21 in London, 7,32 in Edinburgh, 7.26 in Newcastle, '7.33 in Liveivool, 7.28 in Birmingham, 7.31 in Bristol, and 8.16 in Dublin.
Making Loose Cams.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the extra payment of Sc. this week.
[2137] " A.L." (Brighton) writes :—" It is the mechanic in the repair shop who gets the 'out of the way' job and 'who 'has to do it without the assistance of any 'out of the way' machinery. Generally, as a matter of fact, he has little more than a small lathe and a sensitive drill to help him. Most of his troubles arise in connection with old-type vehicles, which, for obvious reasons, most frequently give
trouble, and for which it is rarely possible to obtain spare parts. On one occasion recently, in just 'such a chassis, one of the valve cams wore very badly, mainly, I think, owing to the fact that the tappet roller stuck fast and ceased to revolve, thus rubbing on the cam instead of rolling over it. When I examined the shaft T found the cams were not solid with the shaft, and I therefore decided -to make a new cam to replace the worn one. As I surmised that to make such a cam by hand would be a long, arduous, and somewhat ticklish job, I decided to see what I could do in the way of machining it.
"I commenced by turning a cam -disc of suitable steel, boring it 'eccentrically to fit the shaft. I removed, from the shaft, another cam which was precisely similar in outline to the one required and placed them both securely on a mandrel about 8 ins. long, putting the cam disc at one end of the mandrel and the finished cam at the other. I mounted the mandrel between the centres of the lathe, removed the lead screw from the cross-traversing table, and fitted aspring between it and the lathe bed so that the tool was continuously being pressed into contact with the work. I mounted the tool in the rest, opposite the disc that had to be shaped, and opposite the cam I mounted a stop, fitting into that end of the stop nearest the cam an adjusting screw and lock-nut. The accompanying sketch will illustrate my meaning. The rest, it will be gathered, was drawn by the spring until the stop came in contact with the finished cam. The tool travelled.to and fro against the' cam disc just as the existing cam and stop would allow. By simple manipulation of the adjusting screw in the step I was able to control the feed, and eventually to reproduce the cam to exactly the same shape as the old one."
A Makeshift Universal -joint Pin.
[2138] " A.S.H." (Nottingham) writes :—" All the little difficulties and troubles of commercial motor drivers seem to happen to us when we are five miles from anywhere. I had just such an experience as falls to the 1at of all of us from time to time the other day, when, on Sunday, and in the middle of the open country, a pin of the foremost universal joint broke. 'Well, I do not know how other drivers go on, but so -far as I am concerned, I do not carry round a set of universal joint pins in case of accident. On this occasion I had not even a bolt which would do duty, even, temporarily, in place of the broken pin. However, Sunday morning is not the time for standing by in the middle of a country road hoping for the best, so I took out my pocket-knife, approached the nearest hedge, and cut from it a stout branch from which I fashioned a wooden pin. This I drove into place, and was able to proceed home quite satisfactorily, and without further delay."
Temporary Repair to Leaking Boiler Tubes.
[2139] " Leyland " (Reading) writes :—" There are I am sure, very few drivers of steam wagons who have not euffered, from time to time, from leaking boiler tubes. Even the most careful and expert of drivers appears unable to escape trouble from that source, and, therefore, although I do not presume to rank myself amongst the best of drivers, nevertheless I am not =duly' crestfallen at having had occasional difficulties of that kind myself. There is one thing -which I have discovered, however, which is not .so universally familiar to drivers, and that is a method of effecting a temporary repair, so that undue delay on the road, through such an occurrence as a few leaky tubes, may not happen.
"The incident to which I primarily refer ovurred while I was in cbarge of a Clayton `. ex-service' wagon. Two of the bottom rows of tubes started leaking, and of them five which happened to be un ferruled, appeared to the worst offenders. It oecurred to me that if I could only put some ferrules on to the five I might effect an improvement.
" A search throughthe tool box happily brought to light enough ferrules for my purpose. I threaded them on to the poker, and then, placing the chieel end of that tool through the firebox door, I pushed it -up into one of the five tubes and slid one of the ferrules along it until it, too, entered the tube. With the aid of the ringed end of the safety-plug spanner I was able to hammer that ferrule home, and, subsequently, I served the five tubes all alike, and effected a complete cure, the other tubes drying up so soon as I got the fire again into a, state of incandescence. The whole job, after I had found the ferrules; did not take more than ten minutes. It will be noted that I did not find it necessary to draw the fire, and it has since occurred tosme that the presence of the fire may have been advantageous, since the ferrules, going in cold would immediately be expanded, and, 'therefore, serve their purpose better than they otherwise might have done.