My latest project almost done.

[rob love]

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.

[Wayne Hingley]

Very nice Rob. A great piece for sure. What fun that would have been to fire!

[rob love]

Wayne: I was hoping to find out how much fun it would be to fire, but the recent OIC has stopped that endeavour. A change in the current party would open up that possibility again.

[Ed Storey]

Attached is a photograph of the RCN demonstrating the twin A.A. Mounting as well as a page illustrating the various M2 types.

F-4293 (2) copy.jpg

Browning Machine Guns, Caliber .50, M2 - Caliber .50, M2 Browning Machine Gun - How the Gun Work.jpg

[rob love]

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.

[Harry Moon]

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.

[rob love]

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.