Minesweeper

In fact, we do have another pair of these that came fitted to the Back Axle that came over from Mike in NZ - these are completely sound with no sign of wasting at all and we shall almost certainly fit these in due course in substitution! That will take away any doubt. Tony

Really great - a wonderful acquisition! Tony

King's Crown on Royal Coat of Arms - should be Queen's at that time!

Thanks Andy - what temperature and for how long? Tony

The first ones that I saw operating commercially were off Marazion after HMS Warspite went aground in a storm near St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, when the ship was being towed to the Breakers after the war. She had broken away from her Tugs. As far as I can recall, there were two DUKWs and they were being used by the Breakers as Warspite could not be moved and had eventually to be broken up where she went aground. Later, there were two giving pleasure rides off Gyllyngvase Beach, Falmouth for two or three years - 2/6d a ride, I think. I always assumed that they were the same two that had been at Marazion after their work there had been completed but I am not sure that is certain. Tony

Robert and Richard have both raised an interesting point - and I am not quite sure how this is going to work out in practice! You may recall that the Gearbox was recovered from a mountain in North Wales where it had been adapted to drive some kind of Water Pump. It appears that a flat drive belt to the Pump was taken off the Brake Drum and for this purpose, an extra piece was beautifully welded on to the Drum, just to make it wider. This had to be cut off again to return it to original and this was shown in Postings Nos 1376 to 1379 dated 29th July 2014. It also appears that once the additional piece was welded on to the Drum, the whole thing was skimmed in a lathe and a bevel machined across the whole contact surface - presumably to accommodate the flat belt. We have not re-machined that surface as that would further thin the contact surface. Just too much metal would have to be taken off to get it "flat" again. It always seemed to us that the Brake Linings when fitted would just bed in on what would be a slightly sloping contact surface. I think of the surface of any Brake Drum as quite smooth but you will see from previous pictures that the surface shows signs of the skimming so that it is not completely smooth - and whether this will cause early wear of the linings remain to be seen. With this lorry - and also with the Dennis, the main Brake is the hand brake which works on the rear wheels and the foot brake on the Transmission is taken more as an emergency brake and is not used in the first instance. So it could be quite some time before any significant wear is apparent on the Transmission Brake linings. We explained in the note of yesterday how the position for the fulcrum pin was worked out - but that was not at all straight forward in practice for the one on the right. Looking at the Gearbox from the Brake Drum side, then that was all straight forward for the left side, but it was not possible to swing the Brake Shoe on the right side as the Gear Box is sloping to the right on the table where it has been resting as there was insufficient clearance to swing it on that side - so the "Axminster Division" took a chance and swung both the Brake Shoes on the same left side. So in practice, when the completed Brake Shoe was trial fitted to the right one, there is a small gap between the dowel and the Drum contact surface at the point of the Fulcrum Pin. Whether that is due to the inaptitude of the "marker-out" or if in practice the two holes in the Gearbox casting are not equidistant from the Brake Drum, doesn't matter now! The "gap" can be taken up by using a slightly thicker brake lining but a decision on that can remain for the moment until other team members have cast their eyes over it! Tony

Really wonderful story! Tony

It's SG and I feel quite sure that it will be suitable! Tony

We plan to braze again - we don't think that Silver Solder will be man enough for this job - and I am not sure if you can actually use Silver Solder on cast iron which is the rear fitting on the Drag Link! Experts waiting in the wings will further comment on this. Brazing will do the trick but that will require more heat that we can provide with Propane and Oxy-Acetylene now comes into the equation. We have not done anything quite like this before so another learning curve! Tony

The Thorny “J” is fitted with brass “Tyre size plates” on the wheels – this is the same as the Dennis and probably the same on other British made lorries of the period but we cannot be sure of this. We found two sound plates for the front wheels but there were not all that many survivors of these brass plates as not only did they prove to be vulnerable to damage, they were also subject to electrolytic reaction with brass fitted hard against steel. A picture of one of our spare front wheels will show you the result of that effect with the steel that was behind the brass plate, completely gone. We managed to find one sound rear plate – the tyre size is for an 881mm wheel – the fronts are of course a different size and a picture of one of those is included for interest. The only other rear plate that we could find had been broken into two. We cleaned it up, tinned the rear and sweated it onto a piece of brass to hold the two bits together. Not as good as the complete plate but another original bit saved again.

It was silver-soldered in - see Posting No. 1616 dated Christmas Day 2014!

That made me laugh! We have a 7 1/4" Gauge Railway in the Garden - runs just past the workshop door so it does get caught up in one or two pictures from time to time! Tony

Yes - I thought the same - always look forward to reading about what I am missing! I guess the traffic problem has mucked a lot of people up. Tim is there - tells me by text that he is having a great time and that the very heavy rain that we have here in the West Country does not really seem to have reached them as yet. He will be under canvas with his 11 year old daughter and I do not emvy them that! Tony

[QUOTE=gritineye;444145]Looking at the cast in bosses on those arms, I would hazard a guess that earlier versions had cotter pins that fitted a flat in a solid shaft, as in push bike pedals, very liable to work loose and fail. So maybe to improve reliability and save costs brazing was a much better method. Possibly too, that the arms were just a standard part bought in, that were designed for any one of a multitude of purposes - but with this one purpose here, cotter pins were not deemed necessary with brazing preferred instead so in which case the arms were never drilled.

Look forward to another visit from you here in East Devon! Tony

A very fine job! Tony

... look forward to reading 'destination western front'. Robert You will enjoy reading it - a great dedicated work by Roy! Tony

Roy's Pewter spinning!

Our friend Roy - who is a "Hobby Woodworker" has just had a go at spinning and as a first attempt, he has spun up a Pewter insert for a turned wooden bowl. A beautiful job and he has made it look easy! His Pewter "blank" was purchased ready-annealed but it is a much easier material than Brass to spin. Roy is a member of this Forum and I would very much like him to put up his two pictures of the finished job! Tony

I think that the idea of members paying a regular subscription has been raised before - but for whatever reason, it was not proceeded with. Perhaps Jack deciding that he did not want to go that way with it? The Forum is a brilliant facilty for all of us who enjoy and contribute to it and it would only seem to be fair for us to pay something towards the running of it. I am quite sure that many would have no hesitation in taking up a regular financial commitment if that would help out. Tony

It is coming on for 10 years ago that this thread was started by Tim and over subsequent years we have been pleased that so much interest was created in it and have been grateful to have had so much input and advice from other members of the Forum whilst the work was still going on. The restoration of the Dennis was mainly completed a couple of years ago and we have not posted any more of the story during the last six months or so as there is little fresh to tell now. But there still seems to be a great deal of interest in it and if anybody notices "numbers", then you may have seen that the number of "hits" on the thread still regularly increases and that it has today exceeded the half a million mark. We remain very amazed at this continuing interest and thank everybody for it. Tony, Steve and Tim

I hope that I remember correctly but it was being used by the Guards Brigade in 1960 when it was part of the Strategic Reserve. And I think based in Winterbourne Gunner. Tony

Just brought it to mind that my father first went to see on a Harrison Ship in, I think in 1930 - she was the S.S.Warrior. The crew were allowed to go ashore in New Orleans during one voyage but before doing so, the crew were lined up on the deck to have their "you know whats" inspected by the Port Medical Officer, so that he could ensure that they were not bringing any thing unwelcome with them! It looks from the picture above that the Harrison House Colours on the funnel remained unaltered over all those years - two bands of white and one of red - or as my father described them "Two of fat and one of lean". Tony