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 tractors, and nzechanics and foremen of garages or shops, are invited to send short cootributions on any subject which is likely to prove of interest to our readers. Workshop 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 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 prize. When writing use one side of the paper only and mention your employer's name as a guarantee of bona fides. Neither your own nor your employer's name will he disclosed. Payment will be made immediately after publication. Address your letters to The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, 7-15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.
Gauging Ball Valves.
The sender of the following communicatifn has been awarded the 10s. prize this week.
[773] " H.N." .(Gateshead) writes :—" I offer yon, for publication in your ' D. and M.' columns, a short illustrated description of the gauges which I have found very useful for testing the lift of ball-valves. All that is
needed to make them is a piece of 18-guage sheet brass and some suitable bits of rod. The right-band view in the sketch herewith shows one gauge, which has to he so adjusted that it will touch the ball and the dialerside of the cap ; this position of the ball corresponds to the extreme top of the lift. The other gauge is so made that it can be adjusted to touch the ball while it is on its seat and also the facing at the top of the valve casting. where the cap makes the joint. If these two gauges then be placed so that the ball is held between the plungers. the lift will be shown between the two edges A and B. These two gauges are very simple and may be made in a few minutes; they involve no alteration to the valve cap. etc., and are available for gauging any number of ball. valves which are approximately of the same size."
From the Driver of a Subsidized Tractor.
PIT] " (Guildfortb writes :—" I am sending you a photograph of some of our tracton, which recently took part in the manoeuvres. and which did very well there, too. If you care to reproduce this, you are at liberty to do so. [We have inserted this illustration on page 117 of this issue. We would remind our readers that the battery
of " ginger-beer " tractors, belonging to R. White and Sons, Ltd., which made such a capital show during the recent manceuvres, was also the subject of a photograph that was reproduced on page 48, 21..st September. " I should like to mention a few items about leaky tubes. Not long ago, as soon as I took charge of a small tractor. I found that the tubes leaked very badly. So I made up my mind to expand them, but when I got ready tn start work. I found that the tube-ends had been battered—I should say, with the ball pane of a hammer. Well, of course, this made it bad for the expander, as it made the tubes burr inside the firebox end. I. therefore, got a half-round file and filed the inside as well as I could, so as to get the burr off_ This clumsy hammering on the ends of tubes is far too common, and it, cannot be forbidden too strongly, as, although a leak may temporarily be stopped, it makes it a very difficult job to expand a tube properly afterwards. I personally consider that no driver of a steam motor vehicle should be without a tube-expander in his kit. A good one can be bought for less than a sovereign. A master, who provides an intelligent driver with one, will often save himself pounds, as well as a lot of lost time. Tubes are apt to show signs of leakage at all sorts of unexpected times; it is surprising what trouble in this respect will be caused by variations in the quality of the water used.
" If any driver wants to buy a useful expander, I can strongly recommend him to send for one to W. H. Willcox and Co., Ltd., of 23-36. Sonthwark Street. London, S.E. These people will send one to anywhere you like by passenger train, upon receipt of a telegram. Great care must be taken to mention the right size, of course. These tools are very simple to use. We have one and would not be without it for four times its worth, because there is no doubt that leaky tubes are the worst trouble with steamers which have tough work to do on the road.
" One final tip. My idea is that no boiler should be washed out when it is hot, because, as soon as the water has drained off, the mud dries hard on the walls ; it gets sort of baked. If the wash-out is done when the boiler is cold, the mud will not cake so much, and it is then easier to wash out." Don't Pull Your Machine to Bits.
777]" S.C." (Glasgow) writes:---" I would ask motor mechanics and drivers of motor vehicles whether the vehicles, with which they have to deal, would not have a chance of a longer Ale, if they were not opened up ' so ofteit as they sometimes are. Drivers of nmtor vehicles --at least of pleasure cars—are in the main conscientiously careful of their machines, becausethey have found that this carefidne.ss is an absolute necessity. Yet there are some men'who„ besides keeping their trini in appearance, take them to pieces so often for cleaning purposes and for minor repairs, that many of the parts are distressed, so to speak, and show this in futuro rapid wear, when the maehines are once more running. As an instance of this, every driver of a motor vehicle knows that when the ball-bearing hub of the wheel of a car is taken apart and is put together again. it subsequently wears more rapidly in service than it did before. This is berause the races are not put back exactly in the same positien as at first, or because, conceivably, the balls are not put back in the same sequence. Again, there are, in ninny sets of machinery yet turned out, little defects and evidences of lind workmanship, if which none but the original erector is aware. These will, as a rude, never t-a use any failure so long as the machinery is in the same undisturbed state as when it. left the works, lint. when once the mechanism is dismantled, actual faults are finite likely to develop, and these may be detrimental to the working of the machinery when it is once Imo..., set in motion. " In speaking of the methods of the motor driver and of the motor mechanic, I would decry in particular the common practice with regard to the making of gas-tight joints for such parts as cylinder covers and flange or face-to-face pipe joints. Gas-tight joints should be neatly and carefully made, and, if there are bolt holes, the holes should not be knocked out with the ball-end of a handhammer over the holes in th& piece to be jointed, as is commonly done, but should be punched out clean with a special punch, so that there will not be any ragged edges left. The first-named method is nothing less than atrocious. Not only are the edges of the bolt-holes and the flanges burred up, but the jointing material is strained and drawn and is sometimes even fractured at its narrower parts, besides being rendered dirty and hard round the holes. Many a time have I seen mechanics, when employing this method in making joints, tear away the hanging portions ef the material on which they bad spent so much lime and labour in their clumsy endeavours to produce a packing that would not blow.'
" In the case of wire-woven asbestos jointing, or of other jointing with wire mesh that. is difficult to cut, the tearing-away of a single strand of wire makes the joint defective, and liable to blow. If eare he taken, there really is not the least difficulty, when the knocking-out method is not adopted, in making a joint that will fit neatly over studs or bolts. In all gas-tight joints, a slight clearance should he given holt-holes or stud-holes, so that there will not, be any kink in the material, when bolting up is done, owing to any ill-fitting of rhe jointing."