Rivalry Improves Workshop Equipment
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COM PETITION among makers and suppliers of garage and workshop equipment is to the advantage of fleet engineers. New appliances and improvements to existing models, as reviewed here, indicate makers' efforts to maintain their places in a keen market noted for the discrimination exercised by purchasers.
The Armature Manufacturing CO., Ltd.. Middleton Road, Oldham, have produced a heavy-duty electrical test bench incorporating no belts or pulleys. Maintenance needs are thus reduced and noise is greatly diminished. Priced at £478, the unit requires no transformer and can accommodate a 100-per-cent. overload. The speed range is from 45-6.000 r.p.m.
This concern have also introduced a test bench for axial starter motors. The torque meter reads from 0-130 lb.-ft,
Capable of charging a 6v, or 12v. battery at 25 amp., a new Tungar charger has been made by the Edison Swan Electric Co., Ltd., 155 Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.2. It may also be used rapidly to impart sufficient voltage to an exhausted battery for starting. The trade price is £31 10s.
Costing £92 10s„ the new high-rate charger produced by the concern can deliver up to 40 amp. to two 12v. batteries, or up to 20 amp. to four 12v, batteries. Simple to use, the new headlampalignment gauge made by Crypton Equipment, Ltd., Bridgwater, Somerset, and designed in co-operation with the Road Research Laboratory, consists of a portable pillar with two metal panels which may be adjusted to suitable height. One is in a horizontal plane and is attached to a lamp by a rubber sucker pad. This panel's alignment is checked against a wire indicator fixed by similar means to the other lens.
The shadow of a flange is cast on the panel and the amount of eorrective deflection required by the lamp is shown. The other panel is in a vertical plane and, similarly, the angles of main and dipped beams to the horizontal are indicated by shadow.
This equipment costs £15 I5s. The new Crypton AD40 fast battery charger has been priced at £58 and the heavier AD50 model at £98.
Approved by the appropriate authorities for use in hydrogen and pentane vapours are hand and cap lamps made by Nife Batteries, Redditch, Worcs.
Newton Bros. (Cudworth), Ltd., Pontefract Road Works, Cudworth, now make under licence a set of equipment for wheel and track alignment. It consists of an alignment board, a camber, caster and king-pin inclination gauge and two fully floating turntables.
The board is made so that it is unnecessary to pass the wheel over the exact centre to obtain an accurate reading. There is a scale and pointer at one end to show the number of inches that the wheel is out of true.• The gauge is self-subtracting, and has adjustable legs to suit all types of wheel. A spirit level is incorporated. Turntables are for use for the proper checking of steering geometry.
Tecalemit, Ltd., Plymouth, have produced at £190 a 3-ton hoist of the type which raises a vehicle by its chassis members. Known as the Frame Kontact, the hoist has an H-section rotatable superstructure. Arms to be located with the vehicle chassis are adjustable.
Australian-designed Sagar grease guns are available from C.L. Equipments, Ltd., 32 Cleveland Street, Wolverhampton. Pressures developed by 16-oz. and 24-oz. lever guns are up to 12,000 p.s.i. Loading of the grease cylinder is by spring action.. Pistons are made of Neoprene. Designed for use with _fibrous greases is an air-operated gun requiring a pressure of 50-200 p.s.i.
Retailing at £2 4s. 6d., the Flaco hand-lever grease gun is a new addition to the range of E. F. Allchin and Co., 137 High Street, Birmingham, 6. The barrel is cut with square threads for quick reassembly and the gun is supplied with a rigid delivery tube and hydraulic nozzle. Allchin also offer the Swiss Drumag flexible-nozzle blow gun at 12s. trade price. It is operated merely by bending the rubber nozzle and directing the stream of air as required. When the nozzle is in the normal position the valve is closed.
A spray gun for spring oil which also has. provision for projecting air has been introduced by the Key-Leather Co., Ltd., 5 Urswick Road, London, • E.9. Around the central tube for oil is an annular channel for air. An air jet can be used to clean leaf springs before lubrication. When oil is being sprayed, the surrounding flow of air limits dissipation of the oil irr spray.
The K-L Mistless spray gun, as the product is known, holds about l pt. of oil, different grades of which can be used because jet size is adjustable. Optimum working -pressures are from 80-140 p.s.i.
Priced at £35, the Sprayheat waste sump-oil burner is being sold in improved form by Brown Bros., Ltd., 22-34 Great Eastern Street, London, E.C.2. A dual suction and spray valve is operated by compressed air, thus affording control of oil-flow and flame.
Armstrong Patents Co., Ltd., Eastgate, Beverley, Yorks, now make Heli-Coil thread inserts for the repair of 14-mm. sparking-plug threads. A damaged thread in a cylinder head may be tapped and a Heli-Coil easily, inserted. A kit containing two taps, an inserting tool and 20_ inserts for plugs of Fin, and t-in, reach costs 18 13s.
Stenor, Ltd., Richmond, Surrey, offer at £15 15s. a tank for the inspection for leaks in tubeless tyres. It measures 3 ft. square by 1 ft. deep and the wheel can be submerged by treadle action, allowing the operator to rotate the tyre with both hands.
Thermostatic control is a feature of the Lectoseal vulcanizer for tubeless tyres made by Automotive Parts and Accessories, Hailsharn, Sussex. he heater head is reversible and permits heat to be applied from the outside or inside of the tyre. New A.P.A. Bowes Seal-Fast materials are made of nylon..
A counter-balance block specifically designed for -use with 40-16. spot-welding guns. made by the Anti-Attrition Metal Co., Ltd., 56 Victoria Street, London, S,W.1, has -a coiled length of steel rope to allow the operator freedom of movement. The block has a hook which may be attached to an overhead beam, or the tackle of a portable crane.
To assist in the location of a faulty circuit which may be . responsible for blowing a fuse, a simple short-circuit tester has been introduced by Harmans Engineering Co., Ltd., Yelland, Fremington, Barnstaple, North Devon. .
The tester is connected to the electrical system by means of a special adaptor. The faulty circuit can be speedily located wtthout the need for conducting lengthy continuity tests.