For DRIVERS, MECHANICS & FOREMEN.
Page 21
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A PRIZE OF TEN SHILLINGS is awarded each week to the sender of the best letter which we publish on. this page ; all others are paid for at the rate ol a penny a line, with an allowamce for photographs, All notes are edited before being published. Mention your employer's name, in confidence, as evidence of good faith. Address, D., M. and F„ "The Commercial Motor," 7-15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.G. 1.
Lamps Alight.
On Saturday, 8th February, light your lamps at 5.29 in London, 5.45 in Edinburgh, 5.17 in Newcastle, 5.30 in Liverpool, 5.31 in Birmingham, 5.39 in Bristol, and 5.50 in Dublin.
For Emergency Spring Repairs.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the 108. prize this week.
[1940] "W. B." (France) writes :—" I have had considerable experience in the maintenance and operation of commercial vehicles, reaching back to pre-war times which has been eatendecl and expanded as the result of service in the M.T. overseas. I am, therefore, naturally interested in the descriptions which appear in your columns from time to time of methods for alleviating the discomforts as well as curtailing the time lost consequent upon a roadside breakdown or some similar mishap. It occurs to me that an old and well-tried device of mine may be of interest to some of the many readers of your 'D., M. and F.' page. I have effected a number of successful repairs by means of this device. •
Spring breakages at the Front during the war have, as is now widely.known, been one of the most common troubles. Now, although such mishaps do not in commercial life attain to anything like the same numbers which have been the experience of the M.T. in France, they are not by any means unknown, and the device which I have in mind is intended as a sort of 'get you home' fitting for use on the occasion of such a mishap. As you will gather from the description and sketches [We have had these redrawn.—En.] it is very cheaply made, is compact, and•will go easily into the tool box of any wagon. It surpasses any of the old-time methods of clamps, ropes, or wires, or the use of anything handy, and it is, moreover, made so that one fitting can be used on almost any size of spring within reasonable limits. There are in all five parts to this device, and I have sketched these in detail, as well as a rough section showing the apparatus fixed on a spring. The biggest and most complicated part is (3). This is L,shapecl in the main, the base of the L fitting up to the underside of the broken spring,' and the vertical _part bedding on to the side of the spring. Screwed projections will be observed on base and side. Another Component (2) is a at plate with a similar screwed projection, and a 1 in. hole i the plate which passes over the horizontal screw of (3), and is retained in place by means
of the special nut (5). A flat plate with a drilled hole to fit on one of the vertical screws and a slot to engage with the other are indicated at (1). This plate is serrated on the top side at the end where the slot comes, and on to the serrations fits the underside of a similarly grooved washer. Nuts and locknuts bind the whole together, and clamp the broken spring firmly and quite well enough to enable the driver to return home. Of course, it will be readily understood that the repair is only in the nature of an improvisation, but it will serve to get the wagon back to the gaiage."
An Improvised Emery Wheel.
[1941] " P.G.H." (Southend) writes :—" Recently one of our turners, while grinding a bush internally, had the miifortune 'to smash the emery wheel. As this happened to be the second one broken that day, we found ourselves out of stock of this very essential tool, and it therefore became necessary to devise 'a makeshift. This I did, and as the occurrence which I lifive named is not by any means an unusual one, a description of how I overcame the temporary difficulty may interest some of the readers of your 'D., M. and F.' page. "I cut from a piece of old leather belting a disc about equal in diameter to the emery wheel which we required. A hole was drilled through the centre of such a size that the disc could be slipped on to .a scriber or other suitable implement, so that it would revolve freely when in that position. Some flour emery or carborundum powder is then to be procured and laid along the bench in a _Ain stream. The leather, meantime, should have been steeped in a basin of hot glue, and allowed to stay there until it is thoroughly, soaked with the adhesive. As a general rule, a few seconds—say ten—is sufficient for the purpose. Now withdraw the leather from the glue and slip it over the end of the scriber, and roll it quickly up and down the train of emery powder, pressing well down on to the table during this process. At the conclusion quite a satisfactory emery wheel substitute will be the result."
Another Use for a Syrup Tin.
[1942] " F.G.M." (Bow) writing in our issue of the 2nd January, under the above titre, letter No.' 1929, described a simple home-made lubricator for the driving chain of a steam wagon, and in a footnote to his letter we pointed out that khe had provided no means of cutting off the supply of oil. He now writes as follows :—" I was pleased to see my description of a chain lubrieatml in the Drivers' page, and hope to be able to send along a few,anore hints and tips in the near future. I note your editorial footnote with the suggestion that some method of cutting off the supply of oil should be provided, and in reply would say that in !practice I found that if I put about a pint of oil in the lubricator just before I 'started out on about a four or five mile run, when I reached my destination the chain was well lubricated and the can quite empty, and this appeared to me to be satisfactory. it would, of course, be a simple matterlto put taps into the bottom of the syrup tin where I showed the copper pipes, but my ideaswas to make the lubricator as cheap ,as possible, and I had only scrap materials , available. Another reason also, perhaps, is that there would hardly be room for taps between the bottom of the tin and the chain, and even if they were fitted it would be extremely difficult to get at them to cut off tte supply of oil."