Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

While*I was in the process*of deciding how to manufacture the rest of the components*it occurred to me that when one is concentrating on a target or having coffee, having to hold*the lever down until the gearbox internals*meshed, would be slightly inconvenient.*Therefore I*designed the gearbox internals*in such a way that once the lever is pushed forwards or backwards it locks in place,*leaving the operators hands free. *Inside the gearbox there is a keyed dog*that moves vertically on the main shaft, when*the lever is in the vertical position the*keyed*dog is in it's upper position and the turret can be rotated by hand but when the* lever is pushed forward/backwards the dog is lowered,*the keys can mesh with slots in*the large toothed gear and the turret is therefore connected to the hand wheel thus*being in fine mode.* Obviously trying to get everything*in exactly the right position for the keys and slots to mesh every time would be impossible, so to over come this*I decided to spring*load*the plate containing the keyed dog. If the lever is pushed forward or backward it*locks in position, the plate containing the keyed dog is lowered and being spring loaded, if the keys and slots do not line up,*the springs compress.*When the hand wheel is rotated and the *keys and slots line up, the pressure of the springs*force*the keys into the slots and from then on the turret is*rotated using the*hand wheel.

As clear as mud*but trying to work out how to word it was more difficult than actually making the damn thing, me thinks



Jon