TIPS ABOUT SPANNERS.
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Little Jobs Carried out by our Driver and Mechanic Readers with Special Tools.
AMONO!. THOSE who have sent us ideas about making special spanners we place " H.J.O.," of Southend, first, and to him we award the chief prize of the week. • He says that portions of broken footprints should not be thrown away, as the pieces can be made suitable for a variety of purposes, and mainly for that of making special spanners. In the accompanying group of sketches (Fig. 1) three tools of this kind made from such pieces are illustrated.
The first shows a tool which has evidently been made from a footprint of which the outer jaw has broken. It will be noticed that the shank has been bent over into a half-circle and the broken end trued up so that it faces the outer edge of the surface of the inner and unbroken jaw. Our correspondent tells us that this improvised tool is quite
as useful, in its way, as any ordinary pair of pipe grips... The outer end, being bent, does not tend to slip off the rounded surface of the pipe as sometimes happens with an ordinary wrench. This same tool is also useful on occasion as a spanner, as with it it is sometimes possible to get a grip on a nut which no ordinary spanner can be made to approach.
Apparently the second sketch shows what can be done where both jaws of the footprint have broken. What, remained of the serrated edges of the footprint has been ground off, and the ends have been forged to the peculiar shape shown, making a most effective C-spanner, which again, in the opinion of "114.0.," is an improvement on the ordinary tool of this type, inasmuch as the ends of the C positively grip the nut instead of, as is usually the case, merely engaging the slots of its circumference. It has the advantage, too, that it is adjustable for various sizes of nut.
The idea for the spanner which is shown in the third sketch came about in this way. He was trying on one occasion to remove the hub cap from a Ford. The flats were so worn that the ordinary hub-cap spanner was of no use on the other hand, footprints, when applied, tended to distort the hub cap rather than turn it. Eventually the outer jaw of the footprint was removed. The pin coupling the two parts of the tool together was replaced and a piece of wire wound round it, then round the huh cap two or three times and again round the pin on the other side of the portion of footprints. Another use for this third tool was also discovered in an emergency. It happened that on one occasion when new pistons were being fitted to an engine, one of them, which happened to herather tight, became fast in the cylinder and could not be removed by hand. It was thought that to attempt to get it out by means of a rod pushed into the cylinder from the top .was dangerous, as there was a risk that Pie rod might go through the crown of the piston. This combined spanner and wire was applied to that portion of the piston which still projected from the mouth of the cylinder, a piece of fibre being placed between the jaws of the footprint under the surface of the piston to prevent the tatter being damaged; the piston was then turned to and fro and gradua,Ily withdrawn.
THE difficulty of access to the lower union nut on the oil pipe which is shown in Fig. 2 will be apparent to everyone. Neither ordinary spanner nor box spanner is of any use. " of Worthing, managed to overcome this difficulty by making a special box spanner of substantial • material, cut, away on one side, as shown in the sketch, so that it could be got past the oil pipe. In the special circumstances of this case it was also found advisable to bend the tommy bar near the end.
A USEFUL pair of spanners for use in connection with wing or butterfly
• nuts are shown in Fig. 3 and described in a letter from " A.E.," of Manchester. Neither the method of their manufacture nor of their application needs any description. Mild steel is a suitable material, and it should preferably be case hardened when the spanners are finished.
NUTS which hold the slide valves of a Foden wagon on to their spindles are, according to " E. AB.," of Rotherham, inaccessible to an ordinary spanner owing to the nuts being partly hidden by the valve casing. It is necessary, he says, that spanners for two of them are required) should be made exactly to the dimensions which arc given in Fig. 4, particular careis being taken to ensure that the jaws are set at 45 degrees to the shank, as the ,sketch shows them.
OF a different order is the hint which
comes to us from " J.L.E.," of Preston. It, frequently happens or' the road that a piece of round shafting or a pipe or some other cylindrical part needs to be partially or completely rotated, either for screwing or unscrewing or some similar purpose. Often enough this happens on the road when the footprints or pipe wrenches are not available. In such circumstances it is useful to know that an ordinary spanner can be made use of in the way indicated by Fig. 5, in which B is a spanner, C is the part which it. is required to turn, and A is a. piece of round file.
A word of warning is necessary in con
nection with this tip. Care must be taken when making use of this method in connection with pipes of thin material, since, as the whole of the turning effort is being transmitted through the piece of file, there is a tendency to crushthe part.