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WORKSHOP TOOLS FROM SCRAP.

25th September 1923
Page 29
Page 29, 25th September 1923 — WORKSHOP TOOLS FROM SCRAP.
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How Our Driver and Mechanic Readers Have Turned Spare Time to Account.

A N INTERESTING and useful letter

from " A.M.D.," of Lanark, for which we this week award him the 15s. prize, contains many helpful suggestions which, if carried into effect, will provide the driver or mechanic whose tool equip. ment is somewhat meagre with many useful additions to his kit.

The first tool which he describes is a hack-saw frame. This is made from a length of tool steel, bent to a shape very nearly that shown in the sketch. We say very nearly, because, as a matter of fact., the distance AB, before the blade is fitted, is 1 in. longer than that from eye to eye of the blade. By making it so sufficient spring is assured to maintain the blade at a correct tension. For the same reason, it is important that the distance DE should be as shown., somewhat less than AB, as in that case the natural tendency will be to

tighten the blade all the time the saw is in use, owing to the spreading action brought about by the weight. which the operator will put upon it. For all ordinary jobs this frame will be found as efficient as any of those which can be bought, except, of course, that it will accommodate only one size of blade.

The same material (it is not exactly scrap, but is very cheap and tomes in for a good many odd jobs) makes a good screwdriver for getting to those otherwise inaccessible screw heads which are so familiar a feature of many automobile chassis. Take a piece about 14 ins. long; fashion it at one end as a screwdriver, and square the other like the tang of a file. Fit it with a large-size file handle, which may be flattened on two sides so as to afford the necessary grip, and the tool is completed. Old files can be made to do an infinite number of duties, when their days as files are over. A half-round one, properly ground up, makes an ideal scraper for automobile bearings, as most readers know, es,abio does a three-tornered.file. The round 'files, such as the .in' round, are excellent material from which to make punches of all kinds for which purpose they must first be softened, then trimmed to shape, and finally hardened or tempered, according to the use for which they are required.

An excellent set of spanners, of all the sizes generally used in automobile work, can be made from the leaves of broken springs, the material being ideal for the purpose. The tempering of these spanners is rather important, and it will be found best to bring them to a red heat, subsequently allowing them to cool slowly. Greater heat, or too rapid cooling, renders them hard and brittle, instead of their being tough, which is the essential condition. Tempered in this manner, they will stand up to any job, se much se that in the case of a nut which is really immovable, it will be the bolt

which will break, and not the spanner which will give.

Another tip of the same kind comes from "S.V.M.," of Bristol, who tells us how a miniataire tenon-saw can be made from old hack-saw blades and a piece of copper piping -Fin. outside diameter. The latter should be about 7 ins. long, and be cut away for about 4 ins., as shown, half of the pipe being removed, and the other part bent over and squeezed in the vice, to take the form of the back of a tenon-saw. The rest of the pipe-should be bent over on itself, to give a circuity handle or grip.

As "E.J.," of West Sandbach, correctly observes, one of the driver's troubles is that of selecting the tools which he must carry. To take one instance of this, there is the choice of hammers. Most drivers like to confine themselves to one—a useful shorthandled ball-pane one. On the othee hand, for repair work, a soft-headed tool is generally desirable, and is certainly most useful. He explains how one hammer may be made to do for both, by

the simple expedient of fitting it with a detachable brass head.

The accompanying sketch is almost self-explanatory. A round piece of brass is needed, and it must be bored to fit the ball-pane of the hammer. It -is held in place by means of grub screws, which should not be so long as to project outside the brass head.

" W.H.," of Glasgow, also refers to the utility of a scraper made from a

three-cornered file. In the making of this tool, he says, no tempering or other treatment is required, provided that the mechanic, -when he is making it, which he does by grinding off the file teeth, does not allow the file to get too hot.

He always carries in his pocket, he tells us, the little tool which is illustrated by one of the accompanying sketches, and which he designetes by the somewhat gruesome, but oertainly descriptive, title of "shark's jaw." It is merely a piece of mild steel, cut to the shape shown, and hardened or tempered. It has a variety of uses ; for example, it converts an ordinary spanner into a useful pipe wrench, if it be slipped inside the jaws of the spanners, between it and the pipe, with the teeth towards the latter. It is only necessary to remark that it should be so placed in the spanner that, as the latter is turned, the tool, under the pressure, tends to be driven farther into the spanner.

The sketch of a half bosh, sent by this reader, does not illustrate any tool, but exemplifies his ideas as to 'how tools should be used on a bearing, when the latter is being bedded on to lie journal. Never, he cautions use emery paper, or even a file on a bearing, but always a scraper, and that most carefully. Do not, for example, use the scraper twice consecutively' in the same direction; do not move it in a circular direction at right angles tothe bearing, but diagonally, as shown in the sketch—first one way, and then the other.

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Locations: Bristol, Glasgow

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