How To Prevent Belts Slipping

A piece of rubber belting fastened around the belt pulley of an engine will keep the belt from slipping.

Rasps

A farrier's rasp is an excellent tool for preparing a rough piece of wood or ivory for the lathe. Where only a small quantity of the material is required to be removed it will be found to be more convenient than the axe or paring-knife. There is also a somewhat similar tool used by shoemakers which, for smaller jobs, will be found equally efficient.

Soft Files

Small single-cut files or "floats" of various shapes not hardened, may be met with at some of the dealers in watchmaker's tools, which are useful in finishing small articles in hard wood, ivory, and also gold and silver; they are used sometimes by jewellers for finishing, on account of their leaving a smooth surface behind them instead of a rough one, as a cross-cut file does.

Amalgam Varnish

Melt together equal parts of bismuth, tin and quicksilver; when melted and cooled make it into a varnish with white of egg. It is used for the varnishing of plaster-of-Paris figures and others of the like kind. Some people recommend lead, but lead soon becomes tarnished, but tin and bismuth will keep bright.

Painting And Preserving Ironwork

A good black paint for coarse ironwork may be made by mixing plumbago with hot coal-tar. Equal parts of asphaltum and resin dissolved in common turpentine make also a good, cheap covering for heavy ironwork. For machinery, dissolve 2 lbs. india-rubber, 4 lbs. resin, and 2 lbs. shell-lac, in 5 gallons of benzine. This may be used with any other paint as a vehicle. Wrought-iron bridges are painted with white-lead as follows: The ironwork is first made clean by scrubbing and brushing it with wire brushes; this done, all the cavities and fissures are filled up with a putty of litharge, linseed-oil, varnish, and white-lead; this filling being dry, brushing is repeated. Afterwards a paint is applied, consisting of 300 lbs. of white-lead, 10 gallons of crude linseed oil, 1 or 2 gallons of boiled linseed-oil, and 1 1/4 gallons turpentine. This paint is repeated when sufficiently dry, and finally evenly overspread with white sand. Galvanizing is employed also to prevent rusting. A galvanizing paint consists chiefly of zinc powder and oil varnish Rusting is further prevented by rubbing the red-hot iron with wax, tallow, pitch, or coal-tar. Rubbing with heavy petroleum is also well adapted for keeping ironwork clean.

Preparing Soft Solder

The following directions for soldering without fire or lamp may prove useful: Bismuth, 1/4 oz.; quicksilver, 1/4 oz.; block tin filing, 1 oz.; spirits of salts, 1 oz. Mix the whole together. Another soft solder for tin, etc.: Take lead, 1 part; tin, 1 part; bismuth, 2 parts; this melts in boiling water.

How To Clean Silver Filigree

Make a thin paste with cold water and cream of tartar, spread over ornaments thickly, fold in flannel, leave a week, then wash off with water, and they will be as good as new.