A Riveting Time

[Phillip]

I'll bring this thread up to the current day quite quickly, partly because this was a fairly straight forward restoration but mostly because I did not take anywhere near enough photos of all the fiddly bits.

Once all the big bits were cleaned back to bare metal and repainted, the gun started to take on its recognisable form as it was bolted back together.

The time consuming aspect was spent in freeing up all the small components, then cleaning, polishing and then for all the small steel components, polishing and bluing.

The range cone, despite being purchased as NOS, had to be repainted and the whole sight assembly freed-up, pulled apart and rebuilt.

There are lots of small bits that all interconnect to work together. It really pays to have an operating manual and a spare parts manual so that you don't turn a screw the wrong way or try to hammer out what looks like a pin but is actually a bolt - seriously who makes a bolt with a round head

Possibly the most challenging and frustrating part was getting the frame work for the firing platform working. This was all seized sold and with such tight tolerances and no grease points (only oil points) required a lot of patience to get apart and moving again.

The Australian modification to instal a foot operated firing linkage is fiddly to set up and I wonder how effective it actually was. From what I understand, the Brits had a simpler method for AT shooting which was a webbing strap around the No.3's shoulder attached to the firing lever - obviously too simple for us antipodeans.

[Phillip]

I ended up with two shields, the first came with the gun. All the fittings were okay but there must have been a fair bit of corrosion where the strengthening bar went across. The workshop boys had cut off the strengthening bar made from angle iron, cut out the rusty plate and welded in some new plate. In this process they put too much heat into the steel and warped it.

Oh, and they also cut all the fittings off and put them to one side.

I found another shield that was nice and straight but all the fittings were rotted. I stripped this shield with the intention of using the fittings and top plate from the original shield onto this new one.

A bit of searching located the correct piece of imperial size angle iron for the strengthening bar and some more looking found some old solid rivets of the correct size and profile. So now I had everything to make one shield from the two. Now, how do I join everything together.......

Moved town, threw everything into the shed, moved house... twice.... Built a new shed, drank more coffee... drank a few beers......

Now we can fast forward to last month. After having this shield cluttering up the shed for the last three years, I thought that it was about time I worked out this problem in time to take the 25 pdr out for a display on Anzac Day.

I ended up making a few dollys for the different head sizes and profiles and, rather than a heavy bucking bar, I profiled the head shape of the rivets into a thick flat disc of metal that would rest on an anvil.

With some oxy and a few conscripts we had our first attempt at hot riveting. It took a lot longer than expected, especially trying to work out how to get the bucking bar into a few tight spots but I'm happy with the results as the joints all pulled in nice and tight.

[Phillip]

What a miserable weekend, wind and rain. Time to hide in the shed.

With the riveting completed a few coats of paint have been applied. Nothing too exciting really.

Great to see it mounted onto the gun after all these years, very happy with the riveting process, no warping of the shield and it all looks correct and works as it should.

[Phillip]

It has been cold and wet, hardly inspiring time to spend evenings in the shed so I've been entertaining myself with restoring and sorting out bits for the 25pdr.

I finally restored the Illuminating Apparatus box and the No.5 Illuminating Apparatus, so that both lamps now work properly. I am still missing one of the lamps and the right angle ' Niphan' style plug - who made these lamps? What happened to them all?

Next will be sorting out the aiming point lamp and battery box....