johann morris

Evening Terry, I don't really get time to stop and stare, before one jobs finished my minds else where. Plotting and planning the next job to be done, so as one job finishes, the next has begun. Evening all, 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.

Evening all, Progress is a bit slow but it is progress. 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. 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. 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

Evening All, I managed to complete one sprocket and then, two cuts from finishing the second one, the cutter inserts gave up the ghost. I thought that i had plenty of spares but sods law said that I had plenty of every other type but not the ones that I was using, so now I will have to wait for replacements to arrive in the post....bugger. jon

I know Rick and then all the hard work will be forgotten and another project will be the center of my attention. By the way, thanks again for the phone call, it dragged me out of a hole and was very much appreciated. Evening All, All the holes have now been drilled so it was on to the machining of the recess in either side of the sprockets. To start with I counter bored the flange and then tapped a number of the holes so that I could bolt the sprocket in place rather than just relying on my tack welds. Again I used the modified Land Rover hub but by using a spring loaded stop I turned the whole assembly into a sort of ratchet. If you remember I am rotating the assembly by hand using a long bar, so if the cutter were to snatch, especially at the start of each cut, it would try to rotate the sprocket at the speed of the cutter (500 rpm) in the opposite direction to the one that I am trying to turn it, taking my arm with it and ending in a big bang. As you can see from the pictures, the stop rests against each tooth of the sprocket in turn, stopping it rotating in the wrong direction and as the sprocket is rotated the stop moves accordingly. First side finished. 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. And that's tomorrows job. Jon

It's all very sad and quite what the west can do I really don't know but lets just hope that the Chinese don't take advantage of the situation and try something as well. Jon

Evening All, I haven't made that much progress over the past weeks as everything else seems to be getting in the way. I have got to make three more sets of the items needed for the remaining observation ports, I wish that I had made all six sets in the beginning but I hadn't intended making a whole tank back then. So far I have made the splatter guards that fix to the inside of the hull. Of course the other thing that I have been doing is drilling flipping holes, I am even dreaming about the things. Next it's the fun job of machining the recesses. That's all for now. Jon

That's what my wife thought and then she commented that anyone reading it would think that I was a right boring old fart. Of course being a woman how could she be wrong. Jon

Evening All, The machining of the sprocket flanges went well but I forgot to take pictures when they were on the machine and by the time I thought about it, I had tack welded the sprockets on. The sprockets should be and will be, bolted on to the flanges but first I have to machine a recess in both sides, so that the sprockets sit over the outside diameter of the flange. My cunning plan, is to drill the 60 lightening holes and 20 retaining holes in each sprocket but rather than drilling the retaining holes as clearance holes drill and tap them. Then by bolting from the rear of the flange I can utilize the retaining holes to hold the sprocket to the flange, then machine the recess in one side of the sprocket flip it over and machine the recess in the opposite side. Well that's the plan. Jon

Evening All, Truth to tell, I am glad to be back and making some progress, thanks for the support it is very much appreciated. Onward's then. The next job is to get the sprocket flanges welded together and machined and as I do not have a lathe big enough, the machining will have to be done on a milling machine. I have a rotary table but I don't want to damage it, so I needed a rotary device that wasn't going to cost the earth and as usual my mind started to look at Land Rover components. I decided on a stub axle and hub from a Disc 1, it would need modifying but it would do the job. A few modifications and some adapter plates Rotation will be via my arm and a long 1/2" drive bar, a health and safety nightmare I know but I have used the method before and as long as a lot of caution is used, it works well. Bolt the whole assembly to a nice thick bit of plate, add some bolt down holes and all is ready. It also came in handy when I welded the plates together. I then turned the bottom flange so that it runs true with the top plate just to make positioning it on the main plate easier before welding. It's now all welded together ready for machining in the morning. Jon

A very interesting topic Andy but maybe it's just a case of the passage of time and peoples memories. I was talking to an old woman, blimey I have just realised it was about 30 years ago, she told me that she used to cycle from her home to the Bank Of England during the war. Well obviously she was barking as we were standing in her home that was just outside Andover. My reply was something like " I bet that took you a long time to get to London every day". Oh no she said it was just down the road. This spiked my interest and I asked her where she used to cycle to and to my astonishment it was about a mile from my house at the time, just outside Andover. After further questioning I decided that when I took the dogs out next I would investigate. As you walked down this small country lane you came to a railway bridge and just before the bridge there was a track that went up so that it was level with the railway line and then it enters some woods, apparently the woods didn't exist then. As you enter the woods there are clear signs of some sort of barrier and beyond this, loads of concrete footings of several different building and what I assume are stepped entrances to air raid shelters, so she wasn't mad after all. Apparently, according the old woman, from the air it looked like a huge lake and the trains used to stop and unload. I couldn't find any evidence and none of older locals remember it but I suppose people didn't talk about it then. Jon

Evening All, Thanks for the concern, I am ok, just needed a break and life has become so hectic the project had to take a back seat. There's not much progress to report but I am hoping that this year I will have more time. First of all let me wish you all a happy and healthy new year, let's hope that this bloody Covid thing gets under control and we can get back to a normal life. I have had the sprockets cut and they now need to be machined. All the metal for the sprocket mounting hubs has been cut and the centers machined to suit the final drive, I just need to weld it all together, machine the outer diameter and drill the sprocket mounting holes. I have made and fitted drives and radio operators seat cushions. If we go back to my last post I was working on the drives vision optics. I have now made the vision tubes, I don't know what the originals looked like but this is my version. It's a bit hard to get a picture looking through them but they do work. However at normal magnification you can see bugger all, I don't think that the originals 1.25X would make much difference. On the Tubes there is a little boss that locates in to a slot in main optics housing. When the unit is assembled, if you turn the knurled boss, the split pins only there as a temporary measure, the vision tubes move closer together or further apart to suit the driver. As you can see the unit hasn't be set up properly yet. And that's all there is for now. Jon

Thanks, we like it. I restored it several years ago and then put it to bed until it was tax free. While it was having it's little sleep we decided that it would be better with a full hard top, which is what I have been playing around at. Jon

I was down in the workshop on Wednesday playing with another restoration project, and in a quite moment I had a ponder about the Panzer. I have actually only got the three vision ports in the upper hull to make and apart from the tracks and the front sprocket it's finished. Admittedly it need all needs taking apart and spraying and the tracks are going to be a real ordeal but it is so close. Does anyone know of a company that might be interested in Laser cutting my sprockets? Jon

I haven't done anything to the tank since the last update and as for the tracks I am going to fabricate them. Although saying that I haven't been idle, I have diverted my attention to modifying another project, in the hope that doing something a little less complicated would reignite my enthusiasm. Jon

In truth very slowly. I seem to have lost all my energy and drive, my joints hurt and I blame the Covid injection that I had on April the 1st. I have always been physically hard on my body, so I have the odd aches and pains but after the injection, every joint hurt and at 55 you should be able to get off the bog without pushing yourself off the seat. Thankfully it's calmed down now and I am only having problems with my left knee but I feel knackered. That said I have made some progress with the tank but I find myself making silly mistakes which has entailed doing things twice to get it right. Whinge over. As mentioned last time, I have been making the drivers vision telescope. It's quite a complex little item and it took me quite a long time to decide what does what and how it all works. The pictures that I have, at first glance, hold very little information but if you stare at them long enough it all becomes clear. Basically there's a main casting, of course mines a fabrication. The casting is attached to a top plate that slides into the location rails and is attached to the vision hole blanking block via a threaded bar. In the location rail there are two location holes, one positioned so that when the periscope is not required the blanking block covers the vision holes and one that aligns the periscope with the vision holes. To release the assembly, so that it can be slid one way or the other, you press the lever on the side of the casting in, this lowers a sprung loaded plunger. The assembly can then be slid across and the plunger will then locate into the relevant hole. Because our eyes are not the same distance apart, person to person, there is an adjuster that would allow the vision tubes to be adjusted to suit the user. This is attached to the lower part of the casting and contains a thumb screw attached to a threaded bar, one end is threaded with a left hand thread and the other with a right hand thread. If the thumb screw is turned one way the adjusters move apart, if turned in the opposite direction, the adjusters move closer and when the vision tubes are assembled into the casting, this adjusts the distance between the eye pieces. Attached to the front cover of the assembly, there is a split boss with a tightening screw. When the vision tubes are assembled into the casting there is a brow rest that fits into this split boss and the screw is there to lock, said rest, in place. The last items of note are the two curved plates on the inside of the front cover, these act as springs and they hold the vision tubes in place when they are assembled into the casting. That's all folks. Jon

Oh well, their loss.

When I asked the Worthing's about making bits for my British vehicles they told me that the bloke that worked for them and specialised in that field had left and that they were concentrating on American vehicles. As for the SCC2 canvas I seem to remember that Alan at soldier of fortune had some made to use for British tents or something, it might be worth asking him. Jon

Evening All, I have now turned my attention to finishing the detail in the upper hull. I may of mentioned that I had never intended making the whole tank, hence my upside down approach to the project. As such I never really paid that much attention to the upper hull as it was only supposed to be a stand for the turret to sit on, consequently I have made a few errors that I have had to revisit, not major problems but still time consuming. I am currently working on the drivers vision area and how anyone could drive it with only this small area to see through is beyond me. There are three ways for the driver to see out, the first is with the visor open, the second is with the visor closed looking through a small slot and third through the two small holes above the visor. This is the only picture that I have of this area in an early clam shell AUSF C so this is what I am attempting to recreate. I also have this drawing of the visor area but there is not enough detail of the glass block retainer, so at present I am going to leave the glass block until I can find more information. The first two vision options are controlled by the levers to the left and right of the visor. To the right, is a lock which locks the visor closed. This unit contains a spring loaded plunger that locates into the main shaft, ensuring that the shaft stays in the desired position. To the left, is the lever for opening and closing the visor. This has three positions, closed, semi-open and open. This assembly contains a vertical sprung loaded plunger to ensure that the lever can't jump out of position. The third method of seeing the road ahead, is through the two small holes above the vision slot as mentioned above. To achieve this one has to use a periscope that is attached to a rail bolted to the roof of the upper hull. As yet I haven't made the periscope, that's the next job but I have made the attachment rails And the blanking block that covers the vision holes when the periscope is not required. That's all until next time. Jon

Absolutely spiffing old chap, it makes one quite excited seeing it come together.. Lovely job!!! Jon

To be honest Seamus, I don't think we are fooling anyone, our wives have us well sussed. Mine even asked me to describe the differences between the different machines that I "needed" for life to continue. Jon

Evening John, I know It will be controversial but I am going to fabricate a set. I have thought about it long and hard, hence I have a plan of attack that will involve quite a bit of machining and lots of welding. My logic is that I have time but money is limited and I like the challenge. If there's a ping and I end up with lots of bits of bent metal then it's on to plan B. With that in mind, I have bought, nay invested, in another piece of history to ease the job of making the 1000+ bushes. Jon

Hi Mark, pm sent. Jon

Nice to see that you sorted the problem. I know that there are those that will disagree but unless I have no option, I only use NGK plugs. Jon

Seamus, That really looks fantastic, well done. Jon

Morning, I am just reading the Ospray Panzer Iv book and it contains an after action report from Infantry Division Grossdeutschland, dated March 1943. The report states that "The turret of the T34 is no longer made from one piece but is assembled from individual parts. The armour of many tanks consists of a steel plate 1cm, a filling of 6cm cast iron and other material and again a 1cm steel plate". Has anyone come across this before, does anyone have more information? It seems a curious construction technique and must have added to the production time. Jon