Armour Dreams

[Jonathan Moore]

The tack welds now had to be ground out and the sprocket flipped over so that the recess now locates over the outside diameter of the flange and it is then bolted in place ready for the recess to be cut in the opposite side of the sprocket.

[Jonathan Moore]

I now have two completed sprockets so my next task was to make the sprocket flange look something like the real thing. The original has a nice curve on it where as mine is, well, rustic

[Jonathan Moore]

I was going to make a sort of hub cap that bolted on but in the end I decided to roll a cone and weld it on to the flange.

[Jonathan Moore]

And after a bit of welding.
Then of course there was quite a bit of grinding but I am quite happy with the end result.
The next job is to make the cover to go over the hole in the middle.



That' all for now.

Jon

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for the great update, Jon.

Nice work, as always!

David

[Petr Brezina]

Excellent craftsmanship!

[Jonathan Moore]

Thanks both but I am just doing what I enjoy.

Both sprocket flanges are finished as are the two cover caps and hopefully this weekend I will find some time to test fit them onto the final drives.
Then apart from the three vision port covers, associated fittings and the dummy gearbox cover, in theory I have finished making parts and the whole thing needs stripping and painting. That of course ignores the elephant in the room, the track links. In a moment of shear madness I emailed every iron foundry in the UK, attached the wartime specification for Malleable cast iron track links and requested a cost, some luck. Most didn't even bother to respond, some were down right rude and some where clearly taking the P. However one did provide me with a figure of £30,000. That was before the current increase in electricity and material costs, so it's back to fabricating them, oh joy.