Colin, I had the same trouble with steel angle here and had the edges water / lazer cut to size. (water is better because I didn't have to straighten it) I don't know what people do in other parts of the world, Riveted carriers have approx. 7mm side armour. Here I can only buy 6mm or 8mm plate. Maybe in Australia and other larger countries you have more choice? Everything is a compromise, but the small variations you have to make will be of little consequence. Mechanically minded people, like us, will be in awe of what you have done.

Clarkray, Thank you🙂 but I'm sure my work puts no one to shame. I would most certainly think that most restorers here could do the same if not considerably better when the different challenges arise. I have had many on this project mainly because the Vickers are just so rare and they deserve to be preserved. There's not many examples out there to compare against :)
Thank you also Lynn.🙂 As far as the angle is concerned, it too is just another time consuming necessary thing to do. It is not my job to redesign :nono: :)although I could make some things easier :) but I do enjoy replicating 80+ year old designs.
I had a goal today of completing the basket inserts I started last night.

This is the second time I made most of these parts as I never listened to my own advise (Measure twice and cut once) :teach: and how I hate making mistakes :nono: Anyway I just quickly recut and got back on track. I don't know at this stage what goes in here but one of the baskets still had the original small door in it. How lucky am I.

Commander's G&T cabinet? :thup2:

Mike

Thanks Mike :thup2:
I have completed another 4 units which are for the wireless battery storage. They also sit directly in front of the turret stays.

And the finished product.

Well that's all the bins completed for both turret baskets. I now need to repair the angle frame that sits on the bottom and I can reassemble them.

still working on my turret basket internal frame machining down the oversize angle. Such a shame the original just turns to powder.

Done a test fit and all appears to be a good fit. It just seem to be highly over engineered.

Of course it is over engineered ... it's British!

Mike

Great, it all fits and the next fab job is the turret stays. I will make a press tool bar to make these as they are about 900mm long, tapered and a 180deg return on each side for strength.

The stays are 3mm ally and they are tapered 200mm out to 340mm. I made a former for my press brake to get the 180 return on both sides. They are extremely rigid once pressed.

They are secured by 7 bolts at the bottom and then another 3 at the top of the turret basket. It's seems quite odd but they are not symmetrical every stay is a different angle and a different distance apart. That alone is going to be tricky to mount it to the turret and have it traverse within 10mm from centre :confused Once again, I guess they had their reasons.

Hi Colin.

Are the stays perhaps the best ‘compromise’ for access to the guns and the balance of the turret?

David

"...The best candidate, based on current evidence, for the earliest species in our genus is Homo habilis (meaning “handy man”). ..."

Spend 6 hours making a tool that does 3 perfect passes and is in use for all of 5 minutes. Sounds about right.

Hi David, I guess it must have been the best idea. Access in these small tanks is very limited and I no doubt they would have tried numerous other methods. As the stays are all different in symmetry, they must be in specific locations for ease of equipment accessibility :confused . I'm sure it will become clear as I progress :teach:
Terry, that's part of this job :) spend hours of prep to get minutes of results :yappy: :yappy:

:) After checking the centre of my fabrication, I was very pleasantly surprised to see I am within 3-4mm off centre and that is quite a relief. Also yes the inspection plate in the floor is meant to be non central :)

Still working on the first turret basket and I now know that the seat mounting blocks and brackets must be done now or I will lose access to those areas once the top is riveted on. Again, they must have thought that replacement of these parts wont require access as they wont last long once in service. It would be totally impractical to attempt to install these things in the tank.
What is really interesting is to see the makers centerpunch marks on these original parts and the part numbers still very easy to read after all this time and as I said before that I'm putting as many original parts back on no matter how small they are.

I had to rivet the bins to the floor before the top is secured. I have ordered my rubber matting which will be here in a day or so.
I have saved almost all of the perimeter aluminium strips that hold the matting down and as I was cleaning some up I saw OS written in pencil. I will assume it was for "Out Side", as that makes sense to me. It has been there for a minimum of 86 years as it was in between the strip and the rubber and riveted together. The odds are not good that the person who wrote it is alive today.
Another part that retains some of the original history that may not be seen for another century or so along with the Centre punch marks and anything else that was done way back then.

Nice progress, Colin.

Has the purpose of that small door become any clearer yet? From this side of the project, it almost looks like an inspection/access hatch, rather than a storage compartment door.

David

Hi David, yes I am making steady progress. The small door has to be for gaining access only as there is no floor on the other side. It has to access to the electrical connections underneath.
I have the other basket on the bench to get that one up to speed. I think it took me a day and then some to get the first one off :confused Then this one was about an hour. Knowledge is power :teach: :)

Now the top is off the second one I see it certainly is not as bad as the first and that is a real good surprise. I have marked all the top pieces and photo'd them for reference. Sorry about the amount of pictures but I do use this for constant and quick reference.

After disassembling the 2nd basket I was really surprised to see that it is still in fantastic condition. I'm glad this one was a quick job.

Even though I made all new bins, I found that one of he larger ones was in good condition except for the floor so I disassembled the one I made and put it on the original and it was a great fit, so another original part going on for another 100years.

Wow, just wow. This is without a doubt one of the best threads going. If I could be so bold to make a suggestion, if you have any captive spaces drop a few coins it them before closing things in. A couple hundred years down the road when some future restorer is re-restoring it will give them something to puzzle over.

Hi James, thanks for your comment and I will take up you're Idea except I will rivet a couple of coins in there and a small plaque with some details of my resto on it :thup2: Thanks for the tip.
I got my rubber for the basket top and been busy fitting it. It is a necessary covering to have I would have thought. I will need to put the odd pin hole in it and inject a bit more adhesive under it as it has a tendency to move when riveting down.

A few month back I found a couple of original style camp stoves. I had totally forgotten about them until they turned up this morning. The funny thing is, I purchased them from the Ukraine. I think I would be waiting a lot longer if the war over there escalated to full on. I feel for the people over there who just want to get on with life like we all do.

Another couple of pieces for my hydraulic system arrived this morning. They are two shuttle valves which will turn off the park brake as soon as I operate the forward or reverse controls. It will just make it easier to drive as it will disengage the brake instantly. I'm pretty sure most skid steers are fitted with these in their systems. Only one more operation to work out and that is the two speed on the final drive. I will get these hoses crimped and installed them in so I can see what and where I can get the hoses to accommodate.

Very nice work colin been watch it right from the start :thup2:
Colin I've just got a question to ask you are you running case drain lines from your Hydraulic motor's back to tank i just see any or you have not done them yet.


Regards
Ian

Hi Ian, yes I have a return line from each final drive which is the red striped one you can see and a small black line. These will ultimately return to the tank once fitted. I have put a thread location already on the tank I made. As soon as my friend comes over and does the engine tune up, points, plugs, condenser, leads and coil, then I can fit the hydraulic tank and connect the lines. There won't be much room after that :)
I did a trial fit of the turret basket and I'm pretty happy with that. As I was standing on the basket while I lowered it down it made me realize just how incredibly small these tanks really are. You could never have been able to stand up in there and if you did then you would be sticking you head way out of the hatch. Easy target I think.😕😟