Service aids.
Service aids are the spares that you will need to keep in a workshop, these are not spares for particular machines, but the things that you need to have around you for making life easier and helping you to do the job in hand a lot faster.
Having a good selection will save you no end of time and get you out of many difficult situations.
In addition to keeping these things in the workshop, each technician should keep a few of most things in his toolbox for occasions when he is working outside the workshop.
If you are working far from your base, perhaps in a different hospital or even a different part of the country and you find the need for a 5amp fuse, for example, it saves a lot of time if you have one handy.
Here is a list of the sort of things you should try to get:
Nuts and bolts, lock nuts, fuses, flat washers, grommets, perspex cement, spring-washers, circlips, fibre-washers,`O’ rings, split-pins, bulbs, grub-screws, various glues, socket head screws, spray lubricants, non spray lubricants, dry film lubricants, penetrating oil, contact cleaner, metal polish.
Penetrating oil can be made by mixing Ether and a light oil in a 50/50 mixture, store in an airtight bottle and away from heat and naked flames.
Perspex cement can be made by mixing perspex powder with chloroform, perspex powder can come from perspex filings or collected from a band saw after cutting perspex. Store in an airtight glass bottle.
The list can go on and on, the point is that the more of these things that you can accumulate the better off you are, they should all be stored in individual storage draws and clearly labelled.
With things that come in various sizes like nuts and bolts, you will need to keep a selection of different thread forms and diameters, what you keep will depend on what you commonly need, you are bound to need the very small sizes and of the larger sizes perhaps less.
If you have to scrap a piece of equipment off due to damage or old age, strip it down and keep all the useful items, you can get a lot of good things this way.
Some of these items you may not be able to buy where you are working, but keep your eyes open in the shops around you, if you know someone going to a place that these things are available arrange for some to be purchased.
There are firms in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan that will sell you these things through the post, the trouble is getting the catalogues and the money, as far as the catalogues are concerned if you live in a capital city it should be no problem, go to the Embassy of the country you are interested in and enquire there.
Most of the Embassies of the bigger countries will have a section dealing with cultural activities and commerce and may well be only too pleased to put you in touch with the right firms, don’t be put off because yours is only a small matter, if the Embassy that you have selected shows no interest that’s their loss, go to another one that is interested.
Some countries like England have an organisation, in this case the British Council, that only deals in culture and commerce, they have offices all over the world and would be more than willing to help you.
Here are the addresses of two firms that do international sales in all these sorts of things as well as electronic components and tools, write to them both tell them who you are, it will only cost you a couple of stamps and you may get a couple very fine catalogues through the post. These days you can use the internet.
R.S Components Ltd OR Farnell Electronic Components Ltd
The maintenance of medical equipment in developing countries. 