Everything depends upon prompt action; and the tiring of a set of waggon wheels at some out station is really an exciting event, at which all hands are required to work with a will.
Repair of perch-bolts.
Not unfrequently the “schammel-bolt” or perch-bolt will give way in the grip, and if this flaw be detected in time, and the bolt be long enough, the evil day may be staved off by removing it, boring a hole through the “buik” plank or floor of the waggon, right above, and dropping the bolt down through it so that its head remains 3in. or 4in. higher than before, and the nip is brought upon a fresh place, as shown by the dotted line above H (p. 216).
Extempore anvils and vices.
For small work, the “reim schoen,” or drag, turned up upon a block of wood, will form a very decent anvil; and the next essential is a vice, which ought to be as large and powerful as can be carried. A weak inefficient vice is worse than useless. The means of attaching it ought also to be good, for if it is not firmly fixed no work can be properly finished in it. No part of the waggon ought to be used as a holdfast for the vice, unless indeed it were properly fitted with iron guards for that purpose before starting, for the claws and screw-bolts would speedily tear and split the wood, and only damage the vehicle to no purpose. It would generally be better to cut down a convenient tree, leaving a stump about 3½ft. high, and in this to cut a niche, partly to let the vice in: it might then be secured by hoops of iron, if available, such as the nave bands, or anything similar, tightened with wedges, and lashed in its place by thongs of raw hide, which, when they dry, acquire almost the rigidity of iron.
If the vice cannot be fixed firmly, it is better to cut with the saw a deep groove down into the solid stump, and, having inserted the iron you wish to file, to tighten it with wedges, screws, lashings, or such other appliances as you may have at hand ([p. 166]).
The tapping of screws on bolts or nuts, especially if of any size, requires that the work be firmly held; but we should rather advise that duplicate bolts and nuts of the principal sizes used in waggon work—½in., ¾in., ⅞in., and 1in.—be carried, as a set of taps and dies could not be had even in Cape Town for much less than £5, and an unskilled hand would be more likely to break the instruments than use them to advantage. For the smaller sizes, suitable for gun-locks, &c., a plate and set of taps might advantageously be carried.
Cutting bolts and gun-barrels.