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WELDING AND URGENT TRANSPORT.

30th May 1918, Page 8
30th May 1918
Page 8
Page 9
Page 8, 30th May 1918 — WELDING AND URGENT TRANSPORT.
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How to Effect Your Own Repairs to Simple Fractures.

LOADS MAY come and loads may go. This is only as it should be. It is the procedure that one expects as a matter of course. Comment is needed only when there is any break in the continuity of the comings and goings. During the last decade or more this orderly and essential movement has been considerably accelerated by the commercial motor. For-some time prior to the war, to such a state of perfection had the industrial motor arrived that its service was customarily rendered for long periods w;th delays consequent on, or directly attributable to defects in the machine itself, which were negligible both as regards their number and seriousness. What, however, is rapidly becoming recognised in the individual as " waritis " has its analogy in respect of machinery, including the motor wagon, and it is due to the same cause—fatigue—following upon a plethora

of work and a lack of care. .

The disease is causing sad havoc amongst the

already diminished ranks of available " general service" vehicles, the prominent symptoms being an increase in the number of breakages in the vital components of the chassis. Replacements, the normal remedies for such casualties, are sometimes entrely unobtainable, and even when they are available, delays consequent upon obtaining the necessary permission for these to be acquired seem interminable.

• It has, in consequence, become the invariable practice of most users to cast about and endeavour to discover some alternative mettiod of repair.

To this fact undoubtedly is due the prominence into which welding as a means of repair has sprung. It was a process which by reason of its economy in the repair of complicated parts was bound, sooner or later, to come into its own. The stringency in the supply of new metal has operated'to widen the scope of its use, and to bring within its sphere of operation the repair of smaller • and simpler parts which in normal times would be replaced by new work. The 030

yeoman service which is being rendered by such wellknown firms as Barimar, Ltd., the New Welding Co., and other local and less widely-known firms, is well known, and estimated at its proper and high value to the community. It is perhaps not so well realised that simple clean ,breakages of many of the less complicated parts can readily be repaired by a capable mechanic if he be equipped with a suitable welding apparatus.

During the last twelve months I have, as part of my duty in oaring for the upkeep of a mixed fleet of motor vehicles, carried out many such repairs, and no doubt the following brief description of a few typical examples will be of interest, and will direct attention to this newer field of activity for the garage proprietor and heavy motor agent. It has been stated on several occasions and in various quarters that Much of the present shortage of transport facilities is undoubtedly due to the fact that there is a large number of good machines lying idle owing to the shortage of some small and simple but none-the-less vital component. This article may be the happy means of suggesting, in many cases, a, method of accelerating the return to duty of many of these,derelicts. The small fleet of Gars to which I have referred average in the aggregate upwards of SetiO miles weekly, and none,of the repairs which I describe has ever given any indication that it was ether than well advised and_souiad One of the simplest of repairs, and yet one which nine manufacturers out of ten having an eye to their good name would invariably refuse to entertain, at least, as a welding proposition, is that of a live axle. Yet such a repair was one of the earliest which I carried out. The trouble experienced with the welded shaft has been nil. As the sketch included in the composite shows, the axle was a typical one, squared at one end for the reception of the differential gear, and at the other for the wheel hub. The fracture

occurred in the body of the shaft, and the repair was effected in the following manner :—Three inches were cut from each of the broken pieces, the cut-off ends of the shaft being afterwards trued up, and bored for a depth of about 1 in; or l in., the diameter of the hole being approximately one-third that of the shalt. The holes were then 'tapped out, and a making-up piece the same diameter as the shafting turned down and screwed at each end to fit the bored and tapped holes, was prepared. The edges both of the makingup piece and the broken shaft were bevelled off as shown in the .sketeli, so that when screwed together V-notch ran round at each joint. The three portions were then carefully welded together, the V-notches being suitably. filled with molten metal, which was fused to the rest Of the work. If the screwing and tapping, and the fitting of the parts together before welding, have been carefully carried out, little will require to he done after the welding operation beyond touching upthe welded portions in the lathe. And even if; owing to some inaccuracy or the preparatory operations, the shaft is not quite straight, it can very easily be trued up whilst it is between centre.

The next job calls for a lit-tle more forethought, as rather more accuracy in the setting up of the parts before welding is essential. I refer to the repair of a front axle. The particular one on which I first tried my hand was a tubular one, and this, like the rear axle above, had also broken through the body. The main essential in the case of a repair of this sort was that the hole.s for the. steering pivots should be kept truly parallel and in line. Upon examination I found that the top surfaces of the axle, above the pivots., were truly square with the holes. I therefore decided to use these faces to set the axle tip on a temporary jig while it was being welded. A piece of steel rod was .procured, of such a size that it fittedtightly uLthin the tubular axle. This was carefully driven into place, and the two broken ends of the axle

brought together, the whole then being clamped on to a plain late which • formed the jig referred to above. The V-notch -was then chipped by hand round the point between the two pieces. The weld was carried out and alittle crown of metal left round the joint. It is no uncommon thing where a wheel or the boss of a universal joint is driven and-. keywayed on to a taper end of a shaft for the keys to wear a hole in the shaft, finally to break away, carrying some of the metal of the shaft with them. • This is almost invariably the result of bad fitting of the keys in the keyways. It is therefore interesting to relate that a shaft damaged in this manner is amenable to repair by welding. In one such example I filled up and welded the torn keyways and also put a layer of metal over the whole of the tapered portion of the sha,ft. The whole was afterwards put in the lathe, and the new end turned a good fit in the existing pulley, suitable keyways being cut, and the keys properly fitted. No further trouble was subsequently experienced. • Sufficient has now been said to direct the attention of the thoughtful Mechanic or agent to this useful method of •supplementing other facilities for repair, and the briefest reference to the remaining sketches which accompany this article need only he made, A partially stripped gearwheel is best repaired by filling up solid the space between the two nearest sound teeth. Fresh teeth should then be cut, and the whole wheel re-hardened. An unusual breakage is that of a road wheel hub. If in such a case the two parts are carefully elarnped together in their correct relation one with another in a manner somewhat similar to that indicated by the sketch, no further attention is needful after once the weld has been carried out.

Not only is this process of welding useful in the ease of broken parts. It can also very effectually be applied to renovate those which have become worn; such as the journal etashaft.— • A. FI.H.

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