WAYS AND MEANS.
Page 65
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Some Useful Contributions from Ou Driver and Mechanic Readers.
Making Springs for Repair Work.. WHEN drivers and mechanics are repairing the component parts of vehicles connected with their business it is sometimes neeessaiy to replace a broken spring, and although a good stock of springs may be kept, the pertieular spring suitable for the job in hand is usually not to be found, so the repairer has to make one.
The making of flat springs suett as these used for brake-lever triggers. etc., is a simple matter, Bays " M.L.C.," of Luton, provided one has the right grade of steel from which to make it and knows how to harden it..
If proper spring steel be not procurable, a very good substitute can be found in any workshop, in the form of broken hacksaw blades. Most of these blades now contain a certain percentage of tungsten, and if brought to a dullred heat and thrown down amongst cold stones to cool will be found to be of a very suitable temper for making springs. Those blades that are intended for use in a machine are thicker and wider than those for hand sawing, consequently ttee make better springs. Should a spring made in this way be found too weak it can be strengthened by adding several leaves.
A very good steel of which to make springs can be bought at any tool shop in the form of a cabinet maker's scraper. These scrapers are pieces of flat steel hardened and tempered, they can, however, be cut with a cold chisel, and drilled if the drill be ran at a slow speed. Should it he necessary to bend the spring into any particular shape, the scraper steel can be annealed, cut and bent to an shape and rehardeneil.
The hardening of springs, whether helical or Oat, is done by heating them evenly all over until they are a rather doll red and quenching them in raw linseed oil; when cool they are lifted from the oil, bringing with them as much oil as they will carry. They are then held in a smokeless flame and moved about so as to heat them as evenly as possible all over. The oil will be seen to take fire and flash in places. When they no longer show signs of flashing they should be -cooled off again in the oil, and they are then ready for use.
Small ,coil springs can be made from piano wire that can be bought at most inusicaldnstrument shops, and for very fine springs, mandoline wire up to very fine gauges can be bought. Both the wires are of the right temper without hardening and can he made into very neat springs by anyone if the following method be followsd.
A block of hardwood is drilled to fit a wire of the right diameter to form the spring, allowing for the reeoil, and a piece of rod bent to form a handle, and slotted with a hacksaw to receive the wire, as shown. A stout wood screw is placed so that it arrests the wire and when the handle is turned one will be surprised to see a perfectly regular spring formed. The ends are then turned to form the necessary loops for a
tension spring, but if anI open-coil compression spring is needed all that is necessary is to stretch the spring until its coils open to the desired degree. On no account try to cut I this wire with ordinary wire cutters, as it is too hard and will dent the cutters ; it is best cut by filing a nick and breaking it. Dimming Acetylene-gas Headlights.
IN the accompanying sketch "G.W.," of Walker, h,is outlined an arrangement for dimming acetylene-gas headlights on motor lorries.
All the gear required is a length of I-in, brass gas tubing, one .fin. gas cock with a lever-operated ping, one length of fin. diameter wire and a suitable hendie.
Lead the pipe or tubing from the generator and arrange the cock to come under the driver's seat a little to the right and below the footboard.
Bring the fin, diameter wire through a hole (previously drilled in the footboard) up to the controlling J lever. It will be easily observed from the sketch that when raising the handle of the lever the cock will be closing.
To get the lever, therefore, lift the handle of the control lever until the lights are dimmed to the driver's satisfaction, then screw into the seat an ordinary wood screw or stop and this part of the arrangement is complete.
When pushing the handle down into the full-gas position care must be taken not to force it down too hard, otherwise the connecting rod will be bent and will necessitate moving the stop screw again. As a preventive or such trouble one maid easily screw in a second strrt, as shown, to prevent the lever going dOwn too far and so closing the cock when lifted up again.
This device hits been fixed to a lorry and it gives complete satisfaction; in fact, it hag been in operation for two years and has caused no trouble at all.
A low pressure of gas should not be maintained for more than a moment or two or the burners will clog.
A Chain Lubricator.
wall all the up-to-date oiling
arrangements on steam uragone very few makers fit a good serviceable chain lubricator, and "F.E.," of Sheffield, thinks that all should have one. The wagon he drives had no such lubricator, so he set out to find some method of getting one. Looking around •the scrap-heap he noticed an old broken shaft bracket with a drip-feed lubricator hanging from a bent piece of tubing. Taking it off and giving it a good cleaning he found it would just suit his purpose.
From a piece of 'barrel hoop iron he cut a piece 34, ins, long and at one end drilled a I-in, hole to take the threaded part at the bottom. At the other end he drilled three 342-in. holes, tea that it could be screwed to the upright at the back of the cab ; he then bent the iron at right angles and fastened it to the side of the upright with three wood screws.
A nut off an old Commodore steam velve , happened to be the same thread as that at the bottom of the lubricator, so a piece of fin. brags piping with a collar soldered on was made to serve as a conduit, the .711ole device making a very serviceable job.