Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 16
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Ten Shillings Weekly for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for anything else published.
Drivers of commercial motors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, who are engaged in any branch of the industry, are invited to contribute short, personal experiences, opinions, or suggestions, on subjects which are likely to prove of interest to our readers. We shall be glad to hear of anything interesting that has come under any driver's or mechanic's notice, either in the shops or on the road. Long and successful runs ; services with no " lost journeys" ; workshop tips and smart repairs : 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" before Publication. When writing, it is as well to mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides (not for publication), and to slate whether you wish your own name, or initials only to be published. Payment will be made immediately after publication. Address your letters to The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR," 7-75, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.
Excessive Speed.
[422] " TWENTY 1.7EARS A DRIVER writes as follows :— " I have recently been deprived of my right to drive a publicservice motorbus in London, owing to the fact that I happened to be one of the unlucky ones who were recently caught in a police trap on one of our London streets. I am too old to drive at excessive speed : I am too old to get anything else to do. Why on earth are we motorbus drivers made the scapegoats? Can you tell me whether any of the uniformed scorchers who drive the L.C.C. tramcars have lost their licenses for driving above the limit ? "
[We are at a loss to understand why the police apparently overlook the excessive H pee ds of the tramcars, and we know of no Such result as that about which this correspondent encluires.—Er.1 Tool for Withdrawing Broken Tap.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the tos. prize this week :—
[423j A simple and effective method of withdrawing the broken piece of a tap is described below by " J.B.W." (Cardiff) :—" I submit for publication a short description and sketch of a simple device for extracting the broken piece of a tap from a screwed hole. The idea occurred to me when I was quite a lad—in fact, in the first year of my apprenticeship; I have frequently found it Lo be of use, and I trust its publication will be of assistance to others.
"Anyone who has occasion to handle engineers' bads will know how annoying it is to have a tap break inside a hole in the piece of work which is under operation. If the broken part cannot be withdrawn by a pair of pliers, the usual method is to attempt to heat up the tap by some means or another, and thus to soften it. A blow-lamp is, as a rule, brought into service for this operation. At the best, however, this is a tiresome and inconvenient job, and there is always the attendant danger, when this means is employed, of damage to the work by the overheating of some delicate and easily-harmed portion.
" I was engaged on a tricky piece of work, on the occasion when the idea which I am about to describe occurred to me. I was using a .1-inch Lap, when it unaccountably sheared off flush with the edge of the hole, and remained firmly fixed. The piece of work upon which I was engaged was required in a great hurry, and, youngster that I was, and dreading the anger of the ' boss,' I set my wits to work to devise some scheme to draw the tap before he should become aware of what had happened. I obtained a piece of steel tube About 3 inches long and half-an-inch outside diameter. I then cut three slots in one end of it, as shown in the drawing [We reproduce this herewith.—ED.1, and I filed the projections in such a way that they fitted into the three flutings of the tap. I drilled a hole in the other end of the tube, and was thus enabled by the insertion of a small tommy bar, and by means of a little careful manipulation
of the tool, easily to withdraw the broken portion of the tap. I saved myself from receiving something far more impressive than words, for, in those days, it was no uncommon practice for the foremen to ' boot If youngsters 'rcond, just to wacken 'ern cop a bit.' "
A Patched Fibre Magneto Wheel.
[424] " A.G." (Cardiff) describes, in the letter which we reproduce below, a repair which he effected Lo a fibre, magneto, gear wheel, which had lost some of its teeth :— " Three or four weeks ago, we had our four-ton lorry tern. !warily stranded on a country road about 22 miles from home, owing to the stripping of six teeth from the drivinggear wheel of the low-tension magneto. The engine was a 4oh.p. Aster, and the gear wheel, which had given out, was made in two parts, with a steel-bossed flange which held the key securing the wheel to the shaft, and a fibre, toothed, gear ring which was riveted to the flange. " I could not get another wheel without waiting for one from London-17o miles away, and that meant our waiting at least from the Saturday until the following Monday, before we should be able to proceed with the replacement. I, therefore, decided to try and effect a repair in the following manner :—I found another partially-damaged fibre wheel, of the same pattern as the damaged one, which still had a number of its consecutive teeth in good order, and cut out from the older wheel a strip of the fibre rim with six teeth on it, and dovetailed the ends. I then fitted this prepared piece into a gap, which I had cut in the rim of the damaged wheel, and riveted it into position. The gear wheel, repaired in this way, has been in use ever since, and has, at the time of writing, covered nearly soo miles since the breakdown."
How a "Threepenny Bit" Maintained a Service.
1425] We have received another account of the way in which a coin may sometimes ingeniously be used to effect a temporary repair on a motor vehicle. A description of the occurrence is contained in a letter from " E.C." (Eastbourne) :—" I am sending you an account of how a threepenny piece enabled me to avoid losing a journey and to keep a service going, in the hope that it may prove of use to some of the other readers of your Drivers' and Mechanics" page. About two and a half years ago, I was driving a motorbus, which belonged to the Corporation of Eastbourne. During a busy evening, one of the machines had broken down on service, and I was instructed to take up its running; we were about 15 minutes late when I started from the yard. half-way up a steep hill, the engine of my machine stooped, so that I called to the conductor to scotch the wheels, while I got down to see what was the matter. I discovered, without much trouble, that the small pipe, which leads from the hand-pressure pump, had broken off close up to the union on the main pipe. I looked round for something to bind round the pipe and so to stop the hole, hut I" could not lay my hand on anything suitable. You must remember that I was in a great hurry, as I was, by this time,. about 20 minutes late on a half-hour service. As luck would have it, I suddenly remembered that I had a threepenny-piece stowed away in a corner of one of •MY pockets, so I turned it out and, to my satisfaction, I found that it fitted into she union exactly. With a piece of rag behind it, I was enabled to make such a tight joint, that completed the rest of the day's work without any further trouble, as the engine maintained its pressure quite well.