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colin jones 10-02-19 09:24

David, you are quite right. They are only a test run and the material is not the right steel. I will order a strip of high carbon steel 25mm wide then form my shape and send them in for treating. I will get extra as there are other clips I need to make that are the same width.

Dave Mills 10-02-19 11:17

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Hello Colin, great work mate. Watching and learning all the time.

Believe i may have already sent this to you; if so just delete.

Cheers,

Dave.

David Dunlop 10-02-19 13:42

If that is is the little 3 fuse panel box next to the Signal Flags rack, I think I have seen something very similar used in another military vehicle. It had a metal cover that slipped over it and then a wire band was swung over the cover that notched into a ridge in the centre of the cover to secure it in place.

David

Richard Farrant 10-02-19 13:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Dunlop (Post 258223)
If that is is the little 3 fuse panel box next to the Signal Flags rack, I think I have seen something very similar used in another military vehicle. It had a metal cover that slipped over it and then a wire band was swung over the cover that notched into a ridge in the centre of the cover to secure it in place.

David

Yes, it was a C.A.V. component and the fuses were flat pieces of paxolin with two metal spring blades and a length of normal fuse wire was wrapped around, so if the fuse blew, you unwound it a bit to secure another length across the blades.

Mike Cecil 10-02-19 17:55

Interior shots of the Collings Foundation MkVIA?
 
So harking back to Richard's work on the Littlefield, now Collings Mark VIA, which sounds like it is probably the most accurate template available, then interior shots of the Collings Foundation MkVIA would help Colin to replicate the wiring as close as possible to the original?

How approachable is the Collings Foundation? Anyone live in that area of the USA?

The other 'thing' we have to locate to help Colin is the manual referred to by Hopkins - 'TTI 1930, page 170' which I assume shows both the flag designs for the six flags and how they were used. Anyone hazard a guess as to what TTI stands for? Tank Training Instruction?

Mike

colin jones 14-02-19 07:05

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I have made a steel block former for the fuse box lid as they are really hard to find in this configuration and I wanted it now. A bit of hammering, welding and grinding and it will do unless I find a couple of originals. The backing plates and toggle switch brackets are done also.

colin jones 14-02-19 07:07

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I will find some fuse holders to go in the fuse box to complete the inside and finished the flag holders less the leatherette bag that is riveted below.

colin jones 21-02-19 03:04

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I have fitted the parts in the turret and will take some pics later but I have also been finishing off the smoke launchers. The firing pin is spring loaded and I have used some stainless rod for that.

colin jones 21-02-19 03:07

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Al the components have to be a certain thickness so once it is together it has to move freely.

colin jones 21-02-19 03:11

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Sorry there is so many photos but I use this as my reference as well. A bit of mucking around in making the extractor parts because of the small tolerances that have to achieved for it to operate well.

colin jones 21-02-19 03:17

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I would think about another day should see these done but we all know how anything can change. Anyway the extractor works very well as a dry run but no doubt it will all need a bit of tweaking here and there once it is all together as I do want them to operate as they should. Of course they will never fire a real projectile :no4: A good simulation is my only goal. :thup2:

Bob Carriere 21-02-19 03:44

At least once.......
 
.... you must try to launch a Foster Lager....preferably cold......

When do you ever eat and sleep?????

colin jones 21-02-19 05:14

Hi Bob, Fosters was launched in 1889 and sorry to say but it's just not that popular in Australia. Personally I think it's a bit like soapy water :ergh: but that's just my opinion of course :cheers:

jdmcm 21-02-19 06:09

Rumor has it that you fellas down under eat prawns not shrimp despite Paul Hogans famous tag line....

:cool:John

colin jones 21-02-19 06:35

:) :)John, that is not a rumour! I can confirm that we do in fact eat prawns. Shrimps down here in Aus' are vertically challenged people and by that I don't mean dwarfs I mean people that are too short for their height :D
I might just add to the record, I don't know many people that throw prawns on the BBQ either. Our usual Barby would generally consist of. Snags (Sausages)
some patties, marinated steak (thinly sliced) onions, potato slices and probably some chicken wings. Oh, of course the missus or myself would do a salad, have a loaf of fresh bread and a big bottle of tomato sauce. :yappy: :cheers:

Mike Cecil 21-02-19 17:05

Cart case specs?
 
AHHH! The Great Aussie Barbie .... salivating just thinking about it! Washed down with an ale of choice (no, not Fosters Water ... )

Yes, .303 - I'm an idiot! (That does not need an answer!)

Thanks

Mike

tankbarrell 21-02-19 17:38

Looks like a .303 blank to me, which is what the dischargers used originally.

colin jones 21-02-19 20:59

Adrian, you are spot on and thanks for the drawings. They were certainly easy to follow although I did make a few mods for the extractor area so it can in fact fire a blank to ignite a oxy/accet balloon or something similar.

Bob Carriere 21-02-19 23:01

BBARby things
 
...... here barbies are dolls and.....and a big bottle of tomato sauce.

What no wine! !!!!!!!

You are just as quick with the replies as you are at machining parts.....

Bob C.

Bruce Parker (RIP) 22-02-19 00:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by tankbarrell (Post 258557)
Looks like a .303 blank to me, which is what the dischargers used originally.

Not quite a blank. It was a ballistite round. Kind of like a blank. I'm actually surprised these square dischargers were used instead of cut down SMLE rifles.

Lynn Eades 22-02-19 06:10

Bruce , I think it is a blank. (in Colin's pictures) The Ballistite round is plain ended, with no crimp.
The Ballistite round is used to launch a grenade, so quite different with quite a big charge compared to the crimped blank.
To help stop breaking the stock the No1 rifles were wound with wire when used for grenade launching.

David Dunlop 22-02-19 06:57

Hi Lynn.

Not to deflect Colin’s Thread for too long, you are correct up until about 1944/45 .303 Grenade Launching Rounds.

Prior to that date, sorting out these rounds is a complete PITA, particularly if dealing with spent casings. Brass cases were standard Ball Cartridges with no special Head Stamps, or crimping. Some iterations had fully blackened, or partially blackened cases and were described in great detail in written documentation, but rarely, it seems, were the differences ever deemed important enough to make the rounds readily obvious to the end user in the field, or at sea. Most of the earlier cartridges were a slightly heavier load of standard powder with a small insert of guncotton fore and aft with a lacquered plug and no crimping. Ballistite and Cordite loads did not gain prominence until the 2nd War when Rifle Grenades, Anti-Tank Grenades and Smoke Grenade usage really evolved, along with Line Throwing equipment for the Navy. I think the Cordite loads were a tropical thing where they stood up better in high humidity to Ballistite.

By 1944/45, all Grenade Launching Rounds had been standardized in so far as head stamps and they all bore the letter H, with a following number (1-8 eventually), the rosette crimp was also standardized and the cases were either blackened any of the front third, the rear third, or two small black bands roughly amidships.

It’s amazing it took the bureaucrats 45 years to sort these rounds out properly. Makes one wonder how many poor sods grabbed a blank round by mistake at a critical moment and what the consequences of that mistake must have been.

David

colin jones 22-02-19 07:00

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Well I can't answer exactly what type of round it was but I assume it was a blank as I can see it never had a projectile in it. Bruce, I am glad that we had the square discharge style as it would have been considerably more difficult for me to reproduce the cut down SMLE.
Anyway, they are done except for the cable installation which I will do after I get some more information. Even though they are only replicas they are still quite heavy.

colin jones 22-02-19 07:01

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And a few pics of the other brackets now installed in the turret. There's not a lot left to go inside there now.

David Dunlop 22-02-19 07:02

Colin.

I hope you are getting some nicer working weather now, though your daylight time might be shortening up a bit.

David

colin jones 22-02-19 07:06

Yes we are David, it's been in the 20s the last few days but we are heading for 40+/- next week. I can get quite a bit done when it's a nice day and not -40 or +40 :)

David Dunlop 22-02-19 07:23

Curiosity question, Colin.

As you have been steadily bringing these two beauties back to life, and getting all their parts and kit reinstalled in them, when you are under the turret, or inside the hull now, do you find yourself having a much greater appreciation, of just how ‘up close and personal’ the tank environment actually was? Not a lot of wiggle room to go around and just how important team work would really have been for things to run smoothly? It can be a real eye opener on the life and times of our past generation and their war service.

David

Petr Brezina 22-02-19 08:44

Beauty!!! :salute:

colin jones 22-02-19 09:13

David,
to answer your question! I would say with out a doubt, the time I started to get an appreciation of how these men survived in these little tanks was when I had the first one hanging up on my crane and seeing just how small they were and how thin the metal was. Every part I made and the stories that came with some of the information was so unique and I am very privileged to have not one but two of these machines. I was just today speaking to the chap who salvaged these tanks many years ago and he himself is 94yo. His memory is not what it used to be but he recalled finding Bowerbird buried in a public tip in a small town called Heywood in Victoria.
He had been told about the tank some time before and went to the town to see what he could find. He told me today that he spoke to a local Tip scrounger who said he remembered the tank getting buried and he offered the scrounger a dozen bottles of beer if he identified the burial location and he did just that!

After the location had been approx pin pointed he proceeded to engage the services of a excavator and Bower Bird was quickly found upside down and not too far under ground. The operator dug around the hull and lifted it out and onto a trailer and was then taken to Narre Warren. Wombat was recovered from somewhere around Hamilton in Victoria, put on a trailer and he wrote Vickers Mkv1 on the back of the tank in chalk and again transported back to Narre Warren and put with Bower Bird. That it where they continued to sit for many years until they were acquired by me, brought back to Adelaide and as the saying goes, "The rest is history"

It is a common quote from people that inspect and stand in the turret.
{ "Hell, it sure would have been bloody cramped in here"}
Not to mention, noisy, smelly and tiring. Everything I have done with, in and around these little machines of history has most definitely given me an huge amount of respect, appreciation and knowledge what our past generation had to bare. :note: :salute: :salute:

lynx42 22-02-19 11:10

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Quote:

Originally Posted by David Dunlop (Post 258571)
Hi Lynn.

Not to deflect Colin’s Thread for too long, you are correct up until about 1944/45 .303 Grenade Launching Rounds.

Prior to that date, sorting out these rounds is a complete PITA, particularly if dealing with spent casings. Brass cases were standard Ball Cartridges with no special Head Stamps, or crimping. Some iterations had fully blackened, or partially blackened cases and were described in great detail in written documentation, but rarely, it seems, were the differences ever deemed important enough to make the rounds readily obvious to the end user in the field, or at sea. Most of the earlier cartridges were a slightly heavier load of standard powder with a small insert of guncotton fore and aft with a lacquered plug and no crimping. Ballistite and Cordite loads did not gain prominence until the 2nd War when Rifle Grenades, Anti-Tank Grenades and Smoke Grenade usage really evolved, along with Line Throwing equipment for the Navy. I think the Cordite loads were a tropical thing where they stood up better in high humidity to Ballistite.

David

I just nicked out to our museum display and grabbed a couple of photos of the .303 "EY" Grenade launcher, grenade with base plate and the ballastites for your information.



Attachment 105680

Open tin of Ballastites showing black to cases and that they are not crimped like a blank.

Attachment 105681

M36 Mills Bomb fitted with the base plate ready to drop into the cup holder.

Attachment 105682

An unopened tin of .303 ballastite rounds for the grenade launcher dated 22nd July 1941

Attachment 105683

An "EY' SMLE. .303 rifle fitted with the launcher cup, a grenade with base plate and a box of ballastites. The copper banding on the rifle is both to protect the hand holding the rifle and to give the holder a good non slip place to grip it.

Regards Rick.


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