flandersflyer

18 hours ago, 11th Armoured said:

You're right, anything is possible, but in that location there's effectively a natural choke-point on the High Street with a number of substantial brick-built planters restricting access - you can get an artic through, but only really first thing before anyone's about. What's the width of a Mk.IV with its sponsons deployed? Because presumably you'd also like some people (of all ages, including kids & the elderly) there to witness the procession? Well, you'll struggle... Road access is also a nightmare - you'd have to run the tank at least 300m along a fairly narrow congested street, through crowds (who may or not care about the Tank itself), and across a medieval bridge just to get to & from a point where you can park a low-loader (with a tight 90 degree turn at at least one end). All relying on whatever forward vision the driver can get between the track horns (even with CCTV cameras, it would be dodgy).

At the end of the day, it's not the downfall of Western Civilization, it's a slightly regrettable but practical decision that the council had very little choice over. I'm sure if the council had bent over backwards to make it happen & spent tax-payers' money removing planters & bollards, closing roads, paying for insurance cover and then paying the coppers their fee, people would have been VERY quick to slag them for that too.

Rather than lay all the blame at the door of the council, people might want to ask Channel 4 why they put out a press-release announcing this pie-in-the-sky scheme just two months before the event, when they obviously hadn't secured any form of agreement for it to happen. One might also want to question why the only on-site recce that anyone's aware of comprised Guy Martin & a bunch of feckless media luvvies who couldn't even work out how to set out a square of f*cking string to try to check available clearances prancing up & down the street. You could ask why it wasn't suggested that there was an event featuring the replica Tank on one of the two commons, which could have re-enacted the testing of the real things, instead of trying to attempt the practically impossible on the High Street.

If you're that bothered about seeing a First World War Mk.IV in the birthplace of the tank, then pop over to the Lincolnshire Life Museum & look at a real one. I note from the press-release that Channel 4 didn't even mention that one, instead choosing to go to Cambrai to see the wreck of one...

Do you work for a local authority...?

31 minutes ago, johnwardle said:

So do I, a few years ago West Wiltshire MVT came up with a proposal to build a full size accurate replica Mk IV female tank to replace the presentation tank that was given to Trowbridge in 1919 in recognition of the town raising £1,000,000 pounds for the war effort, which was an amazing amount for a population of 12,500 at the time.

After getting support from our local MP, a lot of research, finding someone to build it and sourcing funding, we had a meeting with Trowbridge town council for permission to put the tank in the town park where the original presentation tank was sited.

Well that meeting was something else, with councilours ranting that we were glorifying war and one said that all we wanted to do was "kill a kraut' which was rather embarrassing as there were delegates from the German twin town at the meeting. Needless to say, we didn't get permission to put the tank in the park and all our time and effort wasted, although I did manage to read an original 1916 Mk IV tank operating manual as part of the research.

 

Back to the Guy Martin replica, I have read that the Channel 4 programme about building the MkIV will be shown around Remembrance Day, in the same article it states that the Norfolk Tank Museum is preparing a 1948 Rolls Royce engine and drivetrain to power the tank, could it be a Meteor?

Well...

A way to have shut off that particular little slice of pan blok federalism courtesy of Trowbridge town Council...would've been to show em a pic or three of the A7V that currently resides in Australia... 

51 minutes ago, 11th Armoured said:

Just out of interest, have you ever been to Lincoln High Street, especially around the war memorial?

Now you'll tell me it'd be neigh on impossible to get this tank into position in or near the square... 

Anything is possible...if the will exists to make it so... 

36 minutes ago, 11th Armoured said:

Just out of interest, have you ever been to Lincoln High Street, especially around the war memorial?

No

On 04/11/2017 at 4:28 PM, Citroman said:

Well shoppers are lot more important than history.... what a nonsense.

Airbrushing out history is more important to them than anything else...including shopping... 

Perhaps they will go all the way and give us a detailed account of "EU...the first 30 years" ...or a rendition of Richard "club remoan" Branson and his meteoric rise to prominence... 

They've been conducting a sustained program of social conditioning for 30 odd years now...the tools employed being schools, universities, the BBC and other left thinking institutions...auld uncle Joe would have recognised this pogrom against tradition and common sense...no doubt he would have granted it his seal of approval... 

The UK is currently being smothered by an army of bureaucratic, pen wielding Stasi...its a blanket of "officialdom"... faceless, grey, stultifying little modern reformists that have managed to lie, sneak and insinuate themselves into virtually every aspect of public life...answerable only to the Council gauleiter there they sit...hiding away in equally bland offices...making decisions amongst each other on what passes as acceptable for popular public consumption in their fiefdoms...such as the attendance of a replica tank to the town that originally spawned them...

They simply can't stand nor cope with the notion that Britain had a history before 1975...their unending mission has been...and continues to be the complete destruction of any national pride, identity and self determination... 

This latest attack...under the guise of "public health & safety" being just another example... 

22 hours ago, Tomo.T said:

More details are emerging and it seems the local constabulary were demanding £20,000 to police the event, which is possibly why the TV company baled out. There are rumours of a plan'B' but details are as yet under wraps.

That means there was a covert operation to extract cash for the 'privilege' of showing a piece of local history at an important event...whilst employing the canopy of 'health & safety' to conceal the real motive... 

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story...

5 hours ago, andym said:

A bit difficult to judge without more information but it looks as though the Council made suggestions about improvements that the TV company chose not to implement.

Andy

Be careful... 

Local authorities are pass masters at making unpopular decisions appear to be someone else's doing....

They are full of completely hopeless and useless shysters, charlatans and chancers... devious and sly...

3 jaw chucks generally have upto 1 1/2 thou runout

A few odds and ends going on this week. I have turned up two more carburettor choke tubes of 27 and 26mm bore so I will have something to play with when we start the engine for the first time.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129625[/ATTACH]

 

It was nice to meet up with several forum friends at Old Warden Steam Rally the other day. I was pleased to see that John Marshall has the same size carburettor on his Thornycroft as we have. It gives one confidence!

 

I have just bought some 'Wynns Carburettor Cleaner' in Halfords. I hadn't thought that there might be such a thing until FlandersFlyer mentioned it a few days ago. There is always something new to learn!

 

More posts shortly.

 

Steve

Wynns do many different products Steve...

You may need some of this for it:

The other arch for the roof was cut from the offcut.

 

Both arches were tidied up with a plane and sanding block

 

The half-lap joints were cut in the same way and it was all tried in place for correct fit and so that the cut-outs could be scribed onto the uprights.

 

It was then all dismantled again so the other half of the joints could be cut in the uprights and some of the parts could start getting their coats of paint. That should keep me busy for the next week!

Nice work there Ben

And use of chisel & sand/glasspaper to tidy up those notches is correct...

The rebating plane suggested would have spelched the wood...as your going against...rather than with the grain

The main jet had a polish.

 

 

Then the throttle and end caps. I couldn't wire brush them as it took off the nickle so I was left with just Brasso as I couldn't find a solvent that would touch the muck on the outside. I dressed the damaged cover with a needle file and then polished the ends flat with fine emery paper on the surface plate so that the throttle would have a reasonable chance of sealing against them.

 

 

I drilled out the screw which I failed to remove earlier and then ran the tap through very carefully. This was successful, I am pleased to report.

 

 

All of the original bits, ready to fit. Cleaning the main castings was exceptionally painful as I could not find a solvent which would shift the muck and resorted to hand scraping and Brasso. What should I use to clean a carburettor?

 

 

Now, on to the bits I had to make. The venturi should have a 28mm throat, according to the manual. However, I was surprised to find that the diameter through the throttle was already 28mm so that there would be no divergence until after the throttle. I was fortunate to be able to borrow a Solex MOV40, which is a later incarnation of mine, and was interested to find that the venturi in that one also had no divergence. I find this puzzling but it gave me the confidence to turn one up.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I turned up a replacement screw to secure the end cover.

 

 

I fitted the covers using the mill and the lathe as presses in order to make sure that I put them in squarely. This worked well and I managed to remove almost all of the end float in the throttle barrel without it binding.

 

 

 

 

Clean up the banjo and final assembly and it is ready to fit.

 

 

 

Something to take to Devon the next time I am heading that way. Now it is back to pattern making.

 

Steve

Carb cleaner

It's quite aggressive stuff so don't get it near painted surfaces or rubber diaphragm/seals etc...

Failing that then throw it in a tub of Tol...

I don't have a suitable thread gauge as we are not geared up for metric! I took my glasses off, looked closely and then counted ten threads against a 6" rule which does have a metric scale. I tried to make it 0.8mm pitch but it just didn't work so I settled for 0.75. I did hold the tap against the screw first, though, just to make sure.

 

Macro vision is about the only advantage of short-sightedness!

 

Steve

Nice to meet up & chat Steve down at shuttleworth the weekend

The 2 subsidy trucks there were great...

Did you see the 1920 Albion Charabanc...?

They let me have a go at starting it...

Quite easy...and with no modern gimmicks on it...

I want the thread shutting down

I started this thread

I WANT IT CLOSING DOWN

I want this thread closing down

I want the thread shutting down.

Theirs too many nosy people about anyway.

Mod...shut it down.

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Invest in some holesaws Steve

I use DART...

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