Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
Page 17
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
TEN SHILLINGS WEEKLY for the Best Communication Received, and One Penny a Line of ten words for any thing else published.
Drivers of commercial motor vehicles and tractors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short contributions on any subject wh-ch is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Workshop tips and smart repairs; long and successful runs ; interesting photograi : all are suitable subjects. Send a post-card, or a letter, OY a sketch to us—no matter how short, or how written, or how worded. We will "knock it into shape" and prepare sketches, where necessary, before publication. The absence of a sketch does not disqualify for a prise. When writing use one side of the paper only and mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona files. Neither your own aLr your employer's name will be disclosed. Payment will be made immediately after pub' c,4ion. Address your letters to 7 he Editor, Tim COMMERCIAL MOTOR, 7 15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.
We Acknowledge Receipt.
Selected from a number of communications intended for these columns, and which we are unable to acknowledge individually, we have letters from the following correspondents under consideration with a view to publication : " W.B." (Sutton), " J.P." (Bath), " W.H.D." (Bath), " S.W." (Dartford), " S.B.B.L." (Norwich), " BAP." (Clapton), " N.M.E." (Aberavon), and " F.L." (Rosyth).
Candle Grease as Insulation.
[609] " W.S." (Leyland) asks us to insert the following " tip "in these columns :—" The other day, I was sent out to attend to a petrol wagon which had struck work. The driver informed me that it was ignition trouble, so, after glancing over the timing gear and the ignition tappets—it was a low-tension ignition gear—I took the magneto off and tested it with a four-volt lamp. I found that there was no current being generated. Upon examining the armature, I discovered that three or four wires of the winding were quite bare for about half an inch, so I sent the driver to the nearest shop where he could purchase a wax candle, and then dropped some melted wax over the bare wires. I next replaced the magneto, and the engine started up at first turn. I consider this to be a very quick way of getting over the difficulty and of bringing a wagon home, in spite of the breakdown."
A Useful Vice Clamp.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the 10s. prize this week.
[610] " FLIT.S." (Luton) sends us a description of two very simple and useful devices which he habitually uses during the course of his work at the bench.—" Frequently titter finds that it is necessary to cut something off the length of a stud, and, more often than not, he makes a clumsy job of holding it while he is chipping or sawing at the end. To hold a stud in the jaws of an ordinary vice, without lead or copper clamps, is impossible without damaging the threads. The majority of men, I believe, use a split nut, but this necessitates the keeping of a stock of such specially-prepared nuts, one for each size. I got over this, in a very simple manner, by making a plate as shown in my sketch [We have had this redrawn.—ED.]. took a piece of mild-steel plate about 4 in. long and
in. thick and drilled and tapped it with a row of suitablesized holes, and I then took a hacksaw and made a cut right through the lot of them, to within in. of the further end of the plate. It will be seen that this simple little device enables me always to hold a stud of any of the aisual sizes without damaging its thread. It is only necessary to grip the plate edgewise in the vice jaws. My second scheme was suggested to me as the result of the trouble sometimes occasioned by the attempts to bolt up an awkward job on to the face-plate of a lathe while it is in position. All I did was to turn a substantial pillar stud, which, at one end was screwed to take a Whitworth nut, and, at the other end, had a. thread of suitable length and pitch to take the face-plate bodily. The pillar stud I then bolted firmly down to my bench, and I was thus able to fix the face-plate horizontally, and at my leisure, and with the utmost convenience, I was able to set and bolt up any part to the face-plate without any of the parts slipping out of place while they were being bolted up. Approximate placing could be done in this way and 'truing up' subsequently could be effected on the lathe after the face-plate had been replaced."
One Way to Start an Engine.
[611] " H.F.G." (Clerkenwell) sends the letter which we reproduce below :—" While I was in the employ of one of the smaller London companies running motorbuses, I was, one day, driving a bus up a steep hill, when the engine suddenly stopped, and, to add to my discomfiture, I found that the starting-handle sleeve had broken off close to the end of the crankshaft. The stopping of the engine was due to my own fault while changing speed on the hill ; there was nothing amiss with the motor itself. I had no kit of tools with me, I am sorry to admit, but, when I began to look round, I found that the fitters had left a jack and a tommy-bar inside the. i. as. What I did, therefore, was to jack up one back wheel and then put in top speed. Two of us then managed to turn the wheel sufficiently fast to pull the engine round, and, after about two revolutions, the engine fired. We were then able to change into neutral and to lower the wheel down again on to the road surface. It would, probably, have been easier to have pushed or towed the machine, but it must be remembered that it was 2.30 in the morning, and it would have been difficult to have obtained the assistance of a passing vehicle at that time of day. It is as well to note that the broken sleeve in no way interfered with the proper working of the engine."