Panzer 2 turret

[ghasp!]

Hi Johann

If you are looking for labels for your radios I can put you in touch with a guy who makes excellent copies.  I used them on my recent build of a Fusprech A for my Sdkfz 222 replica.  Did you make the power lead connectors yourself?  I've been looking for some of those for ages.

[johann morris]

16 hours ago, ghasp! said:

Hi Johann

If you are looking for labels for your radios I can put you in touch with a guy who makes excellent copies.  I used them on my recent build of a Fusprech A for my Sdkfz 222 replica.  Did you make the power lead connectors yourself?  I've been looking for some of those for ages.

Morning ghasp,

The power plugs, like most of the rest, is home made but if you notice they screw to the front plate, as it didn't seem worth making them actually plug in.

Yes the blokes details maybe useful, although I have bought a small CNC engraving machine so that I can do such things myself. It's a bit of a long winded process to program it and my mind is else where at the moment but in time I will get it going.

Jon

[johann morris]

Hi Dan,

Add this to my user name

@googlemail.com

Jon

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by johann morris
trying to contact Dan

[NZM305]

Happy New Year Johann, can't wait to see what this year brings for your Panzer 2 😁

Edited January 2, 2021 by NZM305

[johann morris]

Evening NZM and the same to you, lets just hope that this virus buggers off soon.

 

Not much to report I am afraid, I have been a bit down in the dumps lately and didn't feel like doing anything on the Tank until yesterday but I have completed some other jobs that needed doing instead. The Component that I started yesterday was the turret rotation gearbox, it's quite a complex little unit that not only rotates the turret but also houses the trigger mechanism for the MG34. 

I have managed to put a digital display on to my Bridgeport milling machine, I bought the read out about three years ago, so it was about time and although I don't mind doing it the old fashioned way, the digital read out makes life so much easier.

Happy New year to you all,

 

Jon

 

[johann morris]

Evening All,

2021, it doesn't seem five minutes ago that it was 1982 and I was leaving school to enter the big bad world and if someone had told me what a shit year 2020 was going to be I wouldn't have believed them. But forwards, onwards and backwards. On to the turret rotation gearbox and just to remind you what it should look like.

The top section is the actual gearbox, the lower section is just a guard to stop things getting trapped in the gear that meshes with  the turret gear ring. This is what the gearbox housing looks like in my world.

 

The original unit rotates the turret 4 degrees for every turn of the handle, so that's 90 turns to rotate the turret through 360 degrees, which I find quite hard to believe. I would have thought that there was a fine and course setting but I can't find any evidence of this, however I have read that the gearbox could be disengaged from the turret ring so that the turret could be rotated manually by hand. The original turret ring gearing would have been quite a precise component but of course mine has been fabricated,  so I am trying to compensate for this by allowing the gear that meshes with the turret ring gear to have a certain amount of horizontal float. To this end, the internal gears are housed in a frame that rotates around the small forward gear shaft bearings, at the opposite end of the frame will be a spring, that puts pressure onto the frame, thus forcing the final gear and the turret ring gear together, I hope.

  

It's early days but I think that it will work.

 

Jon

[Enigma]

Looking good!  And I agree, lets hope we can get back to "normal" soon.

[johann morris]

Evening All,

Things are progressing steadily  in the right direction but not as quickly as I would desire. I attached the light  and the power plug in the turret, a small job but another one off of the list and I have been making the components for the turret rotation gearbox. 

•  

The gear box now has it's attachment brackets welded on.

  

I assembled the gearbox tonight, just to see how it all fitted, it's surprising how many parts there are and this isn't all of them. 

  

It all appears to fit ok, now I just have to machine all the key ways and make the rotation wheel, if only it were that simple.

 

Jon

 

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by johann morris
I got it wrong.........again

[johann morris]

Evening All,

At last I have finished the gearbox, almost. It turned out to be quite complex but that was entirely due to me being too fussy.

I think the turret gearbox had three settings, fine, course and hand, by which I mean that you can rotate it by pulling it around, all three would be too complex for my little brain, so I decided just to incorporate two, hand and fine.  when the lever is in the vertical position the gearbox is in hand and when the lever is push forward or backwards the gearbox is in fine.

    

  

While I was in the process of deciding how to manufacture the rest of the components it occurred to me that when one is concentrating on a target or having coffee, having to hold the lever down until the gearbox internals meshed, would be slightly inconvenient. Therefore I designed the gearbox internals in such a way that once the lever is pushed forwards or backwards it locks in place, leaving the operators hands free.  Inside the gearbox there is a keyed dog that moves vertically on the main shaft, when the lever is in the vertical position the keyed dog is in it's upper position and the turret can be rotated by hand but when the  lever is pushed forward/backwards the dog is lowered, the keys can mesh with slots in the large toothed gear and the turret is therefore connected to the hand wheel thus being in fine mode.  Obviously trying to get everything in exactly the right position for the keys and slots to mesh every time would be impossible, so to over come this I decided to spring load the plate containing the keyed dog. If the lever is pushed forward or backward it locks in position, the plate containing the keyed dog is lowered and being spring loaded, if the keys and slots do not line up, the springs compress. When the hand wheel is rotated and the  keys and slots line up, the pressure of the springs force the keys into the slots and from then on the turret is rotated using the hand wheel.

 

As clear as mud but trying to work out how to word it was more difficult than actually making the damn thing, me thinks

 

Jon

[67burwood]

Excellent piece of engineering 👍

[johann morris]

Thanks Burwood, it's nice to know that there's someone out there.

Evening All,

Continuing with turret gearbox, the next item that I needed to make was the handwheel. Not quite as simple as around disc as it contains a remote trigger for the MG34. It would have been a casting but as I don't have that option, I fabricated it.

 

It started life as a flat piece of 10mm thick steel plate which I cut, turned and then added the relevant bosses.

 

A quick grind with a burr and a shot blast made it look something like the original.

 

Then the wall of the bosses needed to be machine away so that the two are connected as when it is finished a pivoted arm fits in the channel and a slot for a drive key needed machining into the opposite side of the center boss .

The handle obviously contains the trigger mechanism, I made the outer housing from separate bits of 3mm plate welded together and then I ground the outer profile to shape.

In the pictures I have just dropped a 6mm bolt in the the top of the handle to show how it operates. When the trigger is pulled it raises a rod which raises the pivoted arm held in the channel of the wheel. The other end of the arm, which is slotted into a rod that runs up the center of  the gearbox shaft, is pushed down this in turn pulls  and pushes a series of rods linked to the trigger on the MG.

 

And that's as far as I got today as I promised myself to spend the afternoon gardening.

 

Jon

Edited February 28, 2021 by johann morris

[eddy8men]

as ever your eye for detail and ability to fabricate are very impressive

[Highland_laddie]

astonishing quality and awe inspiring.   Really hope I will be able to see this at event when the world turns to some form of normal.

[John F]

Outstanding work as usual, Jon.

[rog8811]

I don't comment much but I, like so many, look forward to any updates on this fantastic project.

[Enigma]

And it all started with making a turret...well done Johann.

 

[johann morris]

Evening All,

Thanks for the comments it's always nice to know someone is actually reading my drivel.

I had a couple of hours this afternoon so I made the linkage that runs from the trigger grip to the top of the gearbox. I don't know whether there was a spring in the original linkage or if they just relied on the spring in the MG trigger assembly but I have incorporated a spring as my linkage will not be attached to the MG when it is installed.

Trigger out 

Trigger in   

 

I am sure that you get the picture, so there is no point in explaining it again.

Jon

 

[67burwood]

Always impressed with the effort put into all your engineering 👍

[Ex-boy]

Rest assured that you have a legion of avid followers who may not often comment but await the next instalment with bated breath.

[k2lofty]

I have read your so called drivel three times from the start till now,  incredible work, great reading and pictures, keep up the great work   Unbelievable project..

[johann morris]

Thanks👍 , I know what It's like, I don't comment a lot but there's a lot of enjoyable content on this forum.

So the next installment.

I think that it's always the same, some of the smaller items take the longest to make and so it was with this little cover. Being made of 0.8 and 1.6mm thick steel  and so small it took a lot of careful welding, brazing and grinding to get a result that was at least presentable. It's not exact replica of the original but it needed to suit my application.

   

Todays job was to make the adjuster that fits on the side of the gearbox.

The adjuster bolt lines up with the internal separate gear carrier and by putting pressure on this carrier, the final gear/ sprocket is pushed into the turret ring gear.

 

If you remember when I started this gearbox I had thought that a spring would have the desired effect but after some playing around I decided that a fixed/ adjustable stop would be a better option.

Jon

 

 

[67burwood]

23 minutes ago, johann morris said:

I think that it's always the same, some of the smaller items take the longest to make

They certainly do but it’s satisfying when they turn out right, good work as usual Jon.

[Zuffen]

Jon,

This is one of my "go to threads" as the effort and engineering are worth the wait.

[johann morris]

Evening All,

Last night I posted pictures of this little cover that I had made.

After I had posted my update it started gnawing away at me and by this morning I had decide that it wasn't good enough. I mean, how can any respectable Panzer commander go in to battle knowing that the cover for his little knob is the wrong shape. Below, next to a picture of an original, is my next attempt, which I hope is less offensive.

 

The other items that I made today were the wooden grips for the trigger handle.

 

That's all for now folks.

 

Jon

[67burwood]

1 hour ago, johann morris said:

After I had posted my update it started gnawing away at me and by this morning I had decide that it wasn't good enough.

 

I know exactly what you mean, the reality is no one would have questioned  the shape of the cover, they would just complement you on the workmanship but the fact you know yourself it’s not right can really niggle you.