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#1
22-09-20, 04:47
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My latest project almost done.
There was a thread on MLU a little more than 2 years back where Dennis Walker had a bunch of pieces for sale on Kijiji. Thread is here: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ht=searchlight
In a photo of the 25 pr chassis he was selling, I noticed a bent piece of metal in the background and recognized what it was. Another photo of a CMP trailer chassis had the base. I called Dennis, made a deal for the 25 pdr chassis and also a deal on the twin 50 mount. I went out in the spring and picked up both. To my pleasant surprise, Dennis had pretty much all of the small bits and pieces for the twin mount, and had already restored the sight assembly. Here are the original photos from the ads, copied from the other link. Last edited by rob love; 25-09-20 at 16:26. 
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#2
22-09-20, 05:03
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Excellent
Did you get the wagon as well?
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#3
22-09-20, 05:10
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When I got it home, I realized some parts were missing. I called Dennis, and he swore everything he took off it was in the items he gave me. I took him for his word.
Anyway, fast forward to a couple weeks ago and there was a pair of M2HB guns (dewats of course) on the floor of my shop that I kept tripping on. So I decided to get onto this project. I did take some photos of the one marking on the front shield to try and ID at a later date. Apparently Canada bought a very small number of these for costal defense. Later, a lot of them seem to have found their way to the RCAF as you can find them with the crest on the shield. We have an almost complete mount at work, and had a second one that a naval unit has borrowed for display. They left behind the shield which has the RCAF crest. I sanded the area trying to bring up more, but it would seem whatever the base colour was was long gone, and just the red number and letter, along with a little bit of the white name strip on top remained. When the time came to sandblast the shield, I gave it a light blast, and some stencilling appeared. I gently blasted and took photos. With the help of my wife, who loves things like suduko and word puzzles, combined with my minor knowledge of military nomenclature, we translated most of it. The main text was basically a part number along with "homogenous armor plate spec (undidentifed number) class B". This was under all the layers of paint, which appeared to be olive green along with battleship grey. Last edited by rob love; 28-09-20 at 02:33.
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#5
22-09-20, 05:20
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Here are a few shots of the assembly as it came together. I went with the semigloss green over the POR15. The green will flatten over time to give it some patina.
As I went to install the first cradle, and comparing with the manual, I realized I was missing two large bolts with nuts that the two cradles hinged on. I searched a few places, and had just about given up, when I realized I brought home that 25 pdr chassis at the same time, and Dennis had included some spare parts with it. The spare parts were sitting in a box just 10 feet away, and sure enough, the two missing bolts and nuts were there. Dennis, if you are reading this, you were right. In the end, there was one missing 6" long 1/2" UNF bolt, nut, a tube that fits onto it, and lockwashers, but I will be able to buy the missing bolt downtown and make up the missing tube. Last edited by rob love; 22-09-20 at 05:47.
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#6
22-09-20, 05:35
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Great project and really nice to see one of the items Dennis cherished getting the full up rebuild it deserves. I’m sure he is pleased.
__________________
Jordan Baker RHLI Museum, Otter LRC C15A-Wire3, 1944 Willys MB, 1942 10cwt Canadian trailer
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#7
22-09-20, 05:40
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I have mis-filed some in between photos, so jump to today and here is where it sits now. I got the mount mostly together yesterday and tossed the pair of 50s onto it. I still have to change one to right hand feed configuration, which can be a bugger on a deact. At this point, I now have to refinish the clamps for the shoulder braces, the cradle pins, and clean up and install the tombstone drums. I missed out on the ones at Dennis' auction last December, this pair of drum mags cost me considerably more than if I had made it to that bidding ring. As well, the swing chair has to be refinished and installed. I also have to figure out what marking will go on the shield.
My plan was to move this in to the gunroom, but the damn thing weighs in at 875 pounds without the guns or drums. It is likely at around 1100 pounds with those items and the dummy ammo. I am now leaning towards it residing in the workshop, as that shield is too heavy to install without a tractor. The photos make it look pretty simple, but in reality I had to remove the left cradle about 4 or 5 times trying to get the elevation clamp adjusted properly along with other tasks. There were a few other instances of having to remove major assembly's in that old adage of "two steps forward and one step back". Then I had to remove the front portions to get the front shield onto it.
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#8
22-09-20, 06:01
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Very nice Rob. A great piece for sure. What fun that would have been to fire!
__________________
1953 M37 CDN 1953 M38A1 CDN 1967 M38A1 CDN2
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#11
23-09-20, 05:42
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Thanks for the photo Ed. Also for the data on the 50s. I had no idea the watercooled guns were so much heavier. It makes me wonder why the spring for the aircooled guns had more coils than the water cooled spring. One would think it would be the opposite.
Tonight I got the brackets for the shoulder stocks sandblasted, painted and installed. Also got the proper pins for the two guns sandblasted, painted and most of them installed. I placed the two tombstone mags on it.....tres cool. They will get sandblasted and painted next. I also hung the swing seat on it. The web is in poor condition on it, so that will require some work. A rather short project of just a couple weeks. I wish all the projects were this short....I might have a chance of getting most of them done.
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#12
23-09-20, 18:20
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Yorke Island
Next time I'm up at Yorke Island I'll take some specific pictures and measurements of the two .50 anti aircraft positions and mounts.
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#13
25-09-20, 03:53
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The guns are now mounted with their pins, and I was able to pick up the missing 6" long 1/2 NF bolt at home depot. Ground off the head markings of course before sandblasting the bolt and painting it.
The tombstones are in place, but I'll likely pull them in the next couple days and give them a repaint. I will give them a slightly different color from the mount to give a bit of contrast, otherwise it is too clean. I picked up a couple boxes of dummy 50 on the weekend, so I'll assemble some belts (I got a belt loading machine at Dennis' auction last December) and add them to the tombstones leading up to the guns. Even the cans that I got with the 50s are kind of neat...I have not seen those markings before as they are before my time, although I am sure a few on this forum will have. The seat is in place, but I'll keep my eyes open for some suitable wide cargo strap to freshen it up a bit. Seems like the truckers leave pieces of the stuff at the side of the transcanada once in a while.
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#15
25-09-20, 22:47
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You are, of course, right James, but trust me, they will aquire patina soon enough. This mount is going to be in the dusty side of the quonset and will aquire tons of "museum dust".
The drums do have some surface rusting on them. In the army or the Navy they would have at a minimum got the paintbrush out. The Airforce, on the other hand, would have either sent them to the refinishing techs, or else tossed them and ordered new ones. Last edited by rob love; 01-10-20 at 00:12.
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#16
26-09-20, 00:57
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What capacity are the tombstones, Rob?
David
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#17
26-09-20, 01:07
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Quote:
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#19
26-09-20, 03:42
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Quote:
 (or perhaps in this case, rat-a-tat-tat-tish).
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#20
26-09-20, 04:06
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So this evening I decided to move it the 5 or 6 feet to it's new location, as I need to get the shop opened up a bit for a priority project. Initially it was an inch at a time using crowbars underneath the base...lift and pivot, lift and pivot. I had to move it from the cement side over to the gravel side. I laid down some plywood, and once the lift and pivot portion was done, I was able to pry up the front edge, place an 18" long piece of 3/8 roundstock under the front, and by pulling down on the barrels, it would roll forward a good 8-10 inches. Then I would pry it up, place the roller back to the front, and do it all over again. It is now in a prominent spot amongst the bigger artillery.
Tomorrow I will put a pair of muzzle cones on the two gun barrels to make them look a little bigger. I don't want them to get a "little gun" complex sitting there among the larger guns.Mind you, I think it has greatly boosted the morale of the 2 pounder. Last edited by rob love; 26-09-20 at 04:21.
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#21
28-09-20, 02:07
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Absolutely awesome job Rob . Kuddos !
__________________
44 GPW / 44 C-15-A Cab 13 Wireless 5 with 2K1 box X 2 / 44 U.C. No-2 MKII* / 10 Cwt Cdn Brantford Coach & Body trailer / 94 LSVW / 84 Iltis
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#22
28-09-20, 02:45
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Kuddos indeed. Where does one find a single M2HB much less two?
Quote:
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#23
28-09-20, 05:09
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Oh two is not the number I have....just the number I was tripping over on the floor of my shop.
I also have a converted M3AC basic on an M63 AA mount downstairs, along with one affected by the OIC sitting on it's tripod. I had two more M3s in their original crates with paperwork showing what CF100 they were issued to, but during the initial covid crap, I had too much time to think and decided I had too many so parted ways with them. Damn covid....there is no such thing as too many.
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#24
11-11-20, 19:29
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An interesting addendum to this thread. I spotted a grinder for sale out of Dartmouth NS on Crown Assets. https://www.gcsurplus.ca/mn-eng.cfm?...1&sf=ferm-clos
The base looks very much like the base of the Browning naval mount, either for a twin or single gun. The bottom appears to have been squared off.
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#25
14-11-20, 18:29
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Addendum to the addendum. The grinder I show above (model King KC680) is worth $69 retail. This one is used, so it should be worth what...maybe $50 on a really good day? The bidding is now up to $400 with three days to go. I could understand if it was an old school Baldur or one of the industrial 3 phase grinders, but for a King?
Is a 200 pound base worth that much? Or have others recognized what the base is and do they actually have value?
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#26
14-11-20, 20:30
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Quote:
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#27
14-11-20, 20:40
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I don't know. The CADC auctions are a little obscure in the first place. The other funny thing is that if you look at the bidding, they seem to be most active at around 4am. Not the normal time for bidding here in Canada. Overseas bidders perhaps?
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