Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/314

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��Popnlctr Science Monthly

��Replacing Pistons By Simple Means

���The task of inserting an automobile piston

in its cylinder is quickly accomplished with

a rope and a hammer

AUTOMOBILISTS who have had ^ difficulty in getting their pistons back into the cylinders can accomplish the task with ease with a piece of twine and a hammer-handle. The piston-rings being assembled on the piston with the break in the rings spaced equally around the piston, the piston is slipped into the cylinder and pressed inwardly until the first ring engages with the end of the cylinder, checking its further progress.

A piece of twine is then tied to some convenient projection so that it may be drawn close across the end of the cylinder, and it is then wrapped around the piston-ring one turn, and the loose end drawn taut until the ring is com- pressed to the desired degree. The piston is then struck with the butt end of a hammer-handle, causing it to slip inward, carrying the compression ring into the cylinder, where it will be held. The operation is then repeated with the other rings.

Universal Bench- Stop

A BENCH-STOP that will hold an> - thing and everything a stop could ever be used for; that will hold work from three-eighths of an inch square u[) to heavy slabs of wood up to tweb'e inches wide and three and four or more inches thick, edgeways or laid flat; and that will hold any and ail of this work

��perfectly square and without injuring edges and corners and yet hold it in a vise-grip, can be made in less than an hour from a few scraps of inch-board, as follows:

Take two pieces of inch-board 2j^ inches wide and 12 inches long and nail them perfectly parallel, planed edges facing each other, to the head of the workbench. Keep them eight, ten, twelve, or more inches awaj' from the edge of the bench, according to the ex- treme width of the work you plan to use the stop for. Then make an- other piece of the same thickness, but 18 inches long, and fit it so it will slide snugly between the two pieces. In the center of this piece bore a number of }^- inch holes, ]/2 hich apart and H inch from the edge, and bore a couple of cor- responding holes through the top of the bench, so that a large spike can be in- serted and hold the piece in place. Nail a couple of strips crossways on to the two stationary pieces so this sliding piece cannot jump out.

Anywhere from six to twelve inches away from and opposite, and at right angles to it, nail one-half of a wedge made of tongue-and-groove inch-board, groove in, and let it engage with another wedge having a tongue.

A moderate pressure with the thumb against the movable wedge will hold the work in a bull-dog grip and without

���A bench-stop that can be quickly adapted to every kind of work

injury, provided sufficient care has been taken to make the edge of the wedge and the end of the slide pcrfccth' square.

By cutting down one end of the slide to a thickness of ^s inch and inserting a piece of ^-g-inch board between the wedge and the work, thin boards and .strips down to that thickness can be held and planed.

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