Fiddly things to make,but very satisfying. Don’t have many photos of making them. Also did a double one with two inlets 180 degrees apart. Need to try find those photos 🤣
Customer “ Johnny, we have lost our bearings” Johnny, “ Then how do you know you have come to the right place” Customer “ Hahaha, we are in the right place,not those kind of bearings” Customer” We had xxx bearings make these ,and the oilseals before. They are for the Sdkfz 251 half track. The bearing company got taken over and all the tooling has been lost. In all fairness,they weren’t the greatest seals anyway. We are sure you could do better” Johnny “ Funny that. Used to be the standard remark on my school report “ Customer “ Ok. We will send down the samples”
First up it was to make the bearings. These are what the track themselves pivot on,and are pressed into the track link. They are basically a needle roller bearing with a funkey shape. Made them first out of a special grade of bearing steel ,so they could go for additional heat treatment whilst I was making the oil seals.
Nice and shiny. The harder the material,the shinier the finish. I must be odd,but give me hard material anyday over some of the soft,snotty grades of mild steel you can get 🤣🤣
So with the bearing shells off for heat treatment,it was time to turn my attention to a tool to make the rubber seals. Was quite the non event once I got my head around where to best split the tool. It’s got various nasty little undercuts in it,that only really show up when you cut a seal in half. Not that kind off seal, Sicko 🤣
Tool was a transfer moulding type tool where you place the correct weight of rubber in the top and it gets forced into the cavity by a cast iron piston
Once the correct weight of rubber had been determined,( starting off deliberately with too little rubber to fill the cavity,and sneaking up to the eventual weight),it was pretty much plain sailing. Confirmed sizes in part and up against the bearing. All perfectly dimensionally.
Actually this one The restoration is finished and it is now in Australia 😊 Did get to go in it before it left 😊 And the house elf got run over by it. Bloody teenagers,always on their phones.....😉
Very cool! A guy my brother used to work for had a King Tiger.
Not many of them about. Bovington has a static one, possibly two. The only running one is in Samur in France. There is one being rebuilt in Switzerland. Who, if I may ask,is the “bloke” your brother used to work for? 😊
Very cool! A guy my brother used to work for had a King Tiger.
Not many of them about. Bovington has a static one, possibly two. The only running one is in Samur in France. There is one being rebuilt in Switzerland. Who, if I may ask,is the “bloke” your brother used to work for? 😊
His name may have been mentioned but I don't recall. He operated a management / crewing company crewing superyachts & megayachts, (my brother worked on 2 boats in the Abramovich fleet). He may be the one in France?
Not many of them about. Bovington has a static one, possibly two. The only running one is in Samur in France. There is one being rebuilt in Switzerland. Who, if I may ask,is the “bloke” your brother used to work for? 😊
His name may have been mentioned but I don't recall. He operated a management / crewing company crewing superyachts & megayachts, (my brother worked on 2 boats in the Abramovich fleet). He may be the one in France?
Seriously doubt it’s the one in France. They haven’t two roubles to rub together. Not that it matters in the least who it belongs to 😊
Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes, under pressure.😊 The world had changed considerably between WW1 and WW2, something very evident in engineering of the era. We will go back to WW1 later in this thread. The materials used in WW2 vehicles was vastly different to that used in WW1 era vehicles. Why? A variety of reasons. This was warfare on a huge scale, tactics had changed. A lot less digging your own grave..err trench. It was bloodshed on an unpressidented scale 🙁. Technology had moved on. Very little alloy material being used in tanks or military vehicles,it was in short supply. No longer did you have Fritz the Fokker, leaning out of his triplane, about to drop a bag of excrement on yer head from a dizzy height, whilst hoping at the same time the tailwind he was experiencing wasn’t strong enough to blow his package into the propellor, covering him in Chocolate sprinkles...
Aeroplanes has come along way, and alloy material ,being in short supply, was earmarked for aviation use, not ground vehicles. This got even more evident, the closer to the end of the war you got. It was also a case of making do with what you have got. An interesting one came through my doors awhile back. Tank track,for a Hetzer tank. Well, you ask,why is that so interesting? Well, you see, this batch was non magnetic. Further investigation showed they weren’t stainless steel either( most stainless steel is non magnetic ,but there are grades that are...440c being one used a fair amount in food manufacturing plants). Anyway,it turned out to be Manganese steel. Has very good wear characteristics,bit of a pig to machine,especially with the tool technology of the day. So why did they use it? Simple answer? Because they had it. These tracks can be traced back to a particular foundry that the German war machine commandeered for its use. It had been producing transformer cores,prewar,and yep, you guessed it,they made these out of Manganese steel.
Anyway, history lesson over. One thing early on in the war you find,still made out of alloy was oil pumps. These are pretty much unobtainable in useable condition these days, the alloy was of dubious parentage at best when cast, anything vaguely resembling Aluminium was chucked in the pot. It corroded to buggery in the last 80 years. So , when you need oil pumps for your military vehicle restorations, who ya going to call? ....not Ghostbusters 🤣🤣
I saw something the other day (think it was the Skid Factory) on YooToob where they had some stainless pipe which was non magnetic but when it was mandrel bent it became magnetic. Something to do with something or other apparently. True story.
I saw something the other day (think it was the Skid Factory) on YooToob where they had some stainless pipe which was non magnetic but when it was mandrel bent it became magnetic. Something to do with something or other apparently. True story.
That shonky old steel plate you used to grind for hours on end is non magnetic....Hows that you say? 😳🤔
Heat it up to the temperature needed to harden it, it’s molecules realign themselves and it’s no longer magnetic. Good indication if you have heated it up hot enough to harden it. Once it cools down again,it’s magnetic again. Random, useless information 🤣🤣
I saw something the other day (think it was the Skid Factory) on YooToob where they had some stainless pipe which was non magnetic but when it was mandrel bent it became magnetic. Something to do with something or other apparently. True story.
That shonky old steel plate you used to grind for hours on end is non magnetic....Hows that you say? 😳🤔
Heat it up to the temperature needed to harden it, it’s molecules realign themselves and it’s no longer magnetic. Good indication if you have heated it up hot enough to harden it. Once it cools down again,it’s magnetic again. Random, useless information 🤣🤣
It was definitely magnetic when I was grinding it although it didn't seem so when you forget to turn the chuck on 😂 😂
Incidentally Saxon Steels has now ceased trading as of last week. Just clearing their shelves to send over to Sheffield Gauge Plate. Don't know if you've dealt with them at all but I wouldn't if you can help it.