25 Pounder info needed.

[Private_collector]

When I recieved my package of parts from Canada, about a month ago now, there were several small parts whose purpose were unknown to me, until doing some re-reading of the manual. One Page clearly shows a rather complex device which, I imagine, is used to secure the dial sight to the upper section of the carrier. Kind of a wing-nut! A strip of metal, maybe 1.5" in length, works as a retaining piece, to prevent the aforementioned wing-nut from becoming undone to the point of falling away. Those, and the screws to put it all together, were in my parcel. I'm grateful they had been kept by the previous owner of my parts. Such seemingly insignificant pieces could easily been discarded or lost.
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I expect the spring loaded ratchet mechanism of the 'nut' (seen best in left photo below), is to prevent over-tightening, which may have caused damage to something?!?! Incidentally, it takes considerable force to turn the nut to the point of activating the ratchet.
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[Private_collector]

Another quality piece arrived today.
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A very nice 25pdr Tool Box, that hasn't seen much work, if any, in it's long history. All the screws undo without any coercion at all. The canvas is in very good shape. At some point the two wooden blocks on the lid will be removed, and I will carefully lift the canvas off for cleaning. The strip around the outside edge of the lid is leather. A new piece is coming from UK, courtesy of the folks that made me the straps used on the shield.
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I am giving consideration to sanding it back, and re-finishing, complete with stencil markings. Fairly sure I have located a suitable font for the stencils. What I don't know is if the vinyl film will stay firmly stuck down long enough for me to give the number of coats of paint to replicate the buildup of paint thickness which the original markings have.
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Can anyone help me with identifying the one damaged character that I can't decipher?
Is it a letter O or numeral 0, or perhaps something else entirely? To me it looks to read: No. - CM-1600 Do you agree?

[rnixartillery]

Part Number CM-1600 ,stencilled on the front of all 17 and 25 pdr tool boxes !

Rob................rnixartillery.

[Private_collector]

I've started cleaning up the metal parts. The wooden blocks on box ends, where the rope handles go through, don't come off. They are held in place by two screws (easily undone) and two other fasteners that don't have any visible way to undo them. Possibly some form of rivet?
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The hinges are seriously heavy duty, and were actually welded together, not simply roll formed. They will never fall apart.

The metal strap of the lock ie also held by a combination of screws and rivete, so it to will be staying put.

I have spoken to a leatherwork business, and they are custom making a replacement leather strip for around the edge of box lid. It secures the canvas in place. Vegetable tanning was used for industrial leather usage around the time the box was made, so that is how I have requested the strip. It will be very dark brown or black in color, and 3mm thick. After measuring the current leather thickness, my leather guy could work out how thick the original would have been. He feels it may have shrunk by ahout 0.5mm over the last 70yrs. All going well, it should be ready to despatch to me by early next week.

[Mike Cecil]

The Australians were not the only ones to use fabricated and welded parts: the Canadian C No.2 and 4 Saddles were manufactured in this way.

The CM-1600 box for tools was labelled a CCM-1600 in Canada - the Canadians seemed to be very keen to add the extra 'C' prefix to anything of Canadian design/manufacture. The smaller parts box was the CM-1599, labelled 'SPR.PTS. 25-PR' on the upper line, and 'PT.NO.CM1599' on the lower line.

By the time of the last disposals of 25-pdrs in the 1970s, 25-pdrs in Australia were a mix and match of parts due to replacements.

Interesting your images taken at Bandiana all show early breech rings with the rounded curve for the sweep of the breech block handle. Australian breech rings, like most Canadian b/rings, have a series of 'flats' to make up the curve for handle clearance, rather than the smooth, continuous curve. The attached image illustrates this - the breech ring is a Mk.2 manufactured by Chubb Australia in 1942. You'll recognise it Tony - it's not too far from you at Tiaro, and is the one we have both taken measurements from.

Mike

[Private_collector]

Yes Mike, I know the Tiaro gun very well.
Sad that it is in a state of deterioration. It is even noticable in a number of my photo, which span little more than several years. Tyres are splitting and falling apart. Paint that once looked good (it wasn't when you looked closely) is now featuring prominent rust streaks. Some parts never had a decent layer of paint at all, and they are well ahead in the race to corrode away.

[Private_collector]

I've been stripping all removable parts off my tool box, finishing last night by untacking the canvas from the lid. A template has been made to fashion a new one. Could get that done tonight, but I'm tired, so may not put in the effort. I did enough for today, I think.
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The manufacturer did nice solid dovetail joints.
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All the wood has been sanded, primed, and stop putty applied to the worst imperfections.
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Even had enough time to get several small parts refinished in the final color.
If you look really closely at the middle piece, you can see the manufacturers date stamp with year of production and the broad arrow.
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Oh, and all the metal pieces have been sandblasted and finished, too.
I won't be putting paint on those. I want a slightly more aesthetic look than just usable.