Wright adjustable wrench

 I saw this Wright adjustable wrench yesterday, the first Wright tool I've found. A quick Google found that Wright Tools has a plant in Barberton, Ohio, one of only three manufacturers still making wrenches and sockets in the USA.

 The company was started in 1927 by tool salesman C. Nelson Wright, he quickly grew the company into a manufacturer of quality hand tools. When he retired in 1967, his son took over the business and ran it till he retired in 2007. The company is still privately owned, with about 180 employees.

 Company history here and the Alloy Artifacts page here.

The adjustable wrenches are expensive on Amazon.

1969 Benelli four exploded view

Kel Carruthers won the 250 ccc class in 1969, riding a 4 cylinder Benelli, the last time a 4 stroke won the 250 cc GP class. This is an exploded view of the motor, based on a large one piece aluminum crankcase casting with holes covered by a rectangular pan and four round covers, through which the crankshaft, seven speed transmission and clutch were assembled. A large aluminum oil pan bolted to the bottom. There were four separate cylinders with right and left cylinder heads. The cams were driven by a three gear train and there were two valve and four valve versions.

 In 1970, the class formula changed to two cylinders and six speeds which favored the Yamahas and Benelli withdrew.

 

Multi-socket speed wrench

 Here's a multi socket speed wrench, no name on it that I could find but apparently made by Blackhawk.  Simple action, pull the head outwards to choose a socket, push it back in lock it in place. 

 

 

Sidecar Sunday

 

Just another day, testing at the Benelli factory

Or maybe it's just lunch break...

 

Clerget airplane engine

Clerget rotary engines were used in Sopwith Camels and Triplanes among others.. They were different than the Gnome et Rhône rotaries in that they had both intake and exhaust valves as well as a carburetor. The crankshaft design was simpler, pistons were aluminum and the connecting rods were tubular in shape. The engine components had to be well balanced as the whole 400 lb engine rotated at 1200 rpm.

Here is a video on Youtube showing the assembly of a Clerget 9 cylinder engine.

 

Assembling scooters

 

Building Vespas at the Piaggio factory.

One of my vices is vises, Nippon #140

A big solid vise from Japan with 4" jaws, but not much more info online that that.

 

Mustang for kids

1937 Red Hunter engine cutaway drawing

Back before valve spring technology was perfected, they used to be run out in the open to keep them cool. In 1937, Ariel introduced a sheet metal valve cover for the valves. It was short-lived, the next year came real modern alloy covers with screw-in caps for adjustment. 

 

International Harvester wrench

Just a fairly common M231 wrench, intended use long forgotten...  Many more of these agricultural equipment wrenches here.

 

44 foot yacht

This might be the stupidest thing I've ever seen manufactured... 

 

BMW chopper

LeDepassionme

Also no April Fools joke. This picture taken in Hamburg in the 70s.  

 Photo; Michael Wegener

Vincent Trackmaster

 

When I found this image, I figured it had to be a joke, who would take the time and trouble to fit a big heavy motor into a flexible flat track frame? But no April Fools, apparently it's real.

 https://egli-vincent.net/2014/01/26/trackmaster-vincent-the-speedway-racer/

Citroën DS convertible drawings

The convertible version of the DS was designed by Henri Chapron and introduced in 1958 to rave reviews.  The coachbuilder was approached by Citroen to create a production version, which became available in 1960.

Monday Mystery, short wrench

Here's an odd 1 1/2" wrench with an unsually short handle. It must be part of a system that utilizes a slip-on type handle, possibly formalizing the 6 foot pipe-persuader process, so favored by us hacks.

 The printed text "DWG ####" and "TLD ####" don't seem to help in a google search.

 Someone must have these in their toolbox, thoughts?

 

Catalina flying boat with JATO assist

 Actually the ones they built in Canada were named Cansos. In the postwar years experiments were made to try to shorten the space required to operate from.  Here a Canso of the 408 Sqdn of the RCAF takes off from Golden Lake, Ontario. Seems like cruel and unusual punishment. 

Sidecar Sunday

 

Inspector Charles Greenwood Toronto police motorcycle squad, 1928

Stamped wrench assortment

 

It's maple syrup season

Here is a spile from back in the cast iron days. These days they'd be formed sheet metal or injection molded plastic. Drill a 7/16" into the sapwood, tap the big end into the tree, and hang your bucket on the hook. 

(Bottom) We have enough for all your trees.

 
 

Chevrolet trucks

Traffic jam of delivery vehicles.

Buck Rogers Flash Blast Attack Ship

National Air and Space Museum

 Tootsietoy, 1937

Rudge Whitworth bicycles

 

Making DKW RT-1s

This doesn't look like a staged photo, does it? How about the "showroom " below?

Probably the mostly copied motorcycle ever, becoming the BSA Bantam, Harley Hummer, the Russian M-1A Moskva and the Yamaha YA-1, among others.

Elliott Erwitt photo. Karlsruhe, Germany     1951

 

Bruno Will pliers

  Here's an old pair of pliers, probably dating to pre WW2 with very unusual handles with defined fingers and thumb grips. There are other Bruno Will pliers on ebay etc, none have this handle configuration. 

 The business seems to have passed on to Harry Will who after WW2 moved the business into West Germany (Harry Will history in a previous post here). Confusing to me is the fact that Bruno Will tools continued to exist, becoming Orbis Will in 1947 while Harry Will-labeled pliers also continued to be available, though they seemed to be the same company. Orbis/Will history here.

 

Cross Transfer-Matic machine

 

  This is a Cross Transfer-Matic machine for automatic machining operations on V-8 engines. Ford introduced this machinery in their Cleveland engine plant in the early 1950s.  Though there was a large reduction in required manpower, the equipment was very expensive and inflexible. Short video here.

Golden Comet motor oil

 

Available in grades frrom 10W to SAE70.  Very little information on the can but apparently Golden Comet motor oil was a product of the Sinclair Refining Company. Not clear when it disappeared from the market.
 

Honda for 1968

 Scrambler styling for the Black Bomber. 

Almost psychedelic background.

Ford Plant Stamping Press, 1927

 Compare to this one.

Number series of machine screws

Cardon's Tools is having a fastener sale, wish I needed more small machine screws, but it started me wondering where the # screw series came from. Fractional bolts go down to 3/16 and 1/8" but those smaller sizes are little used. The number series 10-24, 8-32 etc. screws are much more common. 

So, it seems the system starts with the base size "0" being .060" and the sizes go up and down from there in .013" increments, so a #6 screw is .138" diameter, .060+ (6 x 013") and #000 is .060-(2 x.013"). Over the years the odd number series have been pretty much discontinued. Seems pretty arbitrary to me but here we are 100 years later.. 

Where did that protocol come from? I find two references. 

  In 1907 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) defined two series that used Seller's thread, numbering the sizes by gauge numbers from 0 to 30. Who was William Sellers? He was an American machine manufacturer who, when elected to the Franklin Institute in 1864, was instrumental in the adoption of a thread form different than Whitworth and also a graded series of nuts and bolts. 

Also, apparently during and after WW1, the powers that be, the ABC (America, Britain, Canada) Council, decided there should be more standardization in threaded fasteners, part of that process was the decision in 1919, that small screws needed better defined, hence this # series. There have been other systems for small screws, but the main standard for screws smaller than #0 is now ANSI/ASME standard B1.10 Unified Miniature Screw Threads.

More than you wanted to know about threads at Wikipedia, here.