Contributions from Drivers and Mechanics.
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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 vehic es and Era_ tors, and mechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send sliort cootributions on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Work. shop tips and smart repairs ; long and successful runs ; interesting
photographs: all are suitable subjects. Send a post-card, or a letter, or a sketch to us—no matter Ii )W short, or how written, or how worded. We will "knock it into shape" tin./ prepare sketches, where necessary, before publication. The absence of a sketch does not disqualify for a prize. When writing use one side of the paper only and mention your employer's name as a guarante of bona fides. Neither your own nor your employer's name ma, Ii be disclosed. Payment will be made immediately alter publication. Address your letters to The Editor, THE CONIMLECIAL. Moron, 7-15, Nosebery Avenue, London, E.G.
Grinding on a Treadle Lathe.
The sender of the following communication has bcen awarded the Ms, prize this week.
[S321 "J.L." (Malvern) writes :—"I am sending a rough sketch [We have had this redrawn.—En.] of a makeshift grinding attachment to a treadle lathe, which we used for a certain job, and which proved very satisfactory, considering the elementary arrangements that we were able to make.
" We had a commutator shaft which was very-badly worn, and which had been the cause of a lot of misfiring on an old petrol car that we had in hand for repair.
Apparently the only way we could remedy this was to take a cut up it in a lathe, but, as we had no facilities for hardening it subsequently, we decided that the best way to work was to attempt to grind it. We managed, after a little thought, to evolve the arrangement which is shown in the sketch to which I have referred. The main angleplate was made out of 1-in. steel plate, and to this we attached an adjustable back centre that, was made of a piece of 1-in. by 5-16-in. flat steel. Into this latter piece we screwed a pointed set-pin at the correct. height, which we had previously ascertained with care. The bearing in the front part of the holder was the existing commutatorshaft bush, and it merely needed to be bolted correctly into position. The whole of this mounting, with the shaft, was then fixed to the slide-rest, so that it was an easy matter to move the shaft backwards and forwards as desired. A small emery wheel, about 11-in. wide was fixed on to a spindle, which, in turn, was held in a chuck, and that completed the arrangement ; while one ;A us worked the treadle and so spun the emery wheel, another twisted the shaft by hand. We namaged to get the shaft perfectly true, and that cured the trouble on the cld car which we were busy repairing. " It may interest you to know that we have since used a modification of this simple jig for a lot, of other work upon which we wanted to do some simple grinding operation or other."
A Durham Mann.
1S.33] " G. R.G." (Durham) writes :—" I send you herewith a photograph of my two-ton Mann wagon, which I had taken during Christmas week. I wonder whether you will be able to find room to reproduce this in your valuable paper. " It may interest you to know that. I have been taking the ' C.M now for nearly six years, and I have constantly found a number of very-useful tips in it. This is the first time, however, that I have written to your paper, but I am inclined to think it. will not he the last.
" The wagon, which is illustrated herewith, is not a new one; it will be four years old next May. It has already covered about 40,000 miles amongst the hilly roads of Weardale, and it is in this district that I have driven nearly all that time. My employers have three wagons, main Thornycroft and two Manns, of which latter, one is
five-tonner and the other, as photographed, is a twoMilner. I have driven all of them, but I find none so comfortable as the little two-tonner. It is very smart for manoeuvring, and that is very important for us, for we supply mineral waters to numbers of small shops, and this necessitates sometimes as many as 50 calls a day up and down the colliery roads. This sort of work is very trying to springs and frame.
"All my fellow-drivers know how small the boiler is on a two-ton wagon. This vehicle now has its second set of tubes, and I have never had much trouble with leaky tubes. If anybody can keep a two-tonner tight, they can
manage a live-tonner. So much, however, depends on the tiring. I never allow my fire to go black, while we are
standing delivering to customers. The quality of the water is another great point. For instance, T ran my wagon round the Sunderland district for a long while iiefore we had another wagon; that was before I shifted to the Auckland district. Near Sunderland T had one or two tubes give out, hut during a. year's running near Auckland, I have not known what it is to have a leaky tube, it is all soft water here."
A Handy Tip for Foden Wagons.
183-1.1" W.E.C." (Plaistow) writes:—" I am driving one of Fodens' wagons for a, large London firm, and lately I have had a lot of trouble owing to the pump's working loose. Now, this is very annoying when on a busy run, especially when it happens after dark. You find that when you are trying to screw up the bolts outside they turn round; there are three of them. The only way to ;ighten them is to get your mate to hold a spanner on Ihem inside, and this is where the difficulty conies in, as lie cannot get hold of the bolts properly without. getting nearly baked, because he has to reach down by the firebox, iind perhaps to remain in that position some little while. It frequently happens that coal has shaken down under the casing and has to be cleaned away from the bolts before a spanner can be got on to their heads. This all takes time, of course, and, if you are standing income busy thoroughfare, and there is a policeman anxiously waiting for you to move along, it is none too pleasant. Well, lately I had had. this job far too frequently for my liking, so I decided to take some steps to make the bolts about which I have written, more accessible. I quggested a scheme to our foreman, which he eventually adopted. I had a sort of hand-hole or door cut in the plate exactly behind the pump, and the rivets connecting the plate behind the pump to the firebox were cut out and were replaced with four stout bolts, with a piece of strengthening-plate behind. The hand-hole was cut out with a sharp chisel and hacksaw, and the door which covers the hole is fastened by means of a projecting piece which drops into spring-steel catches that are fixed to the side of the plate.
"This is a very satisfactory scheme and I have nicknamed the arrangement' my handy door.' In ease any of the bolts, or even the pump pipe itself, works loose, I can get at the trouble in no time through this band-hole. Any little job like this now requires only one pair of hands instead of two, as previously, and the inside can be kept as clean as the outside, for the same reason.
" Several drivers of the.se popular wagons who have seen this little modification have agreed that it is very useful indeed, and when possible, they intend to recommend its adoption."