Dave's Tiger I (Early) Kit Build Thread

[Dave Goodwin]

Thanks for your constructive post as always Dave.

With regards to the questions that you asked yesterday via your emails:
- Use loctite 480 for part CE0491 into part ce1409
- CE0491 should sit flush with th efront face of CE1409
- CE1409 should be secured into CE2407. If the cone head bolts are not sufficient use loctite 638

I look forward to reading that you are actually enjoying the build at some point.

Thanks for the prompt reply to those queries. You're likely to be waiting a long time to read that I am enjoying the build, as I do not enjoy building as a rule. It is a necessary evil to get to the Use It stage.

As an example, did I enjoy the time it took me to hand file just one of the thick lugs at the front of the turret to match the wrap's profile? Not in the least. I understand why it is the way it is, but it is not an enjoyable task. Having noted how difficult and tedious it is, I will likely haul it off to a local machinist and pay someone to do it for me. Enjoyment will come later, when it can actually be run.

[simon_manning]

David getting used to the size and complexity of the kit is part of the fun, they are a challenge, that's what keeps the interest going, every builder struggles with some aspect of every vehicle, if you unpacked the kit and it fell together you'd be bored, just keep plugging away, all my kits have tested me in some way, simon manning.

[neil graham]

Thanks for the prompt reply to those queries. You're likely to be waiting a long time to read that I am enjoying the build, as I do not enjoy building as a rule. It is a necessary evil to get to the Use It stage.

We should form a team...I build it, you drive it. I am worried that I wont really be interested in driving mine around much!

[Adrian Harris]

> I am worried that I wont really be interested in driving mine around much!

That's one of the reasons we go out to shows throughout the summer.

It's a great way to get out of the house and catch up with friends but also you get a day or two of churning up someone else's grass rather than your own

Adrian.

[Dave Goodwin]

That would be a great idea Neil, were it not for the many thousands of miles between us

I am finding it hard to keep motivated and working on these turret lugs. Sadly I have not found any shops local to me that are willing to take on a small job shaping those to the turret wrap. They all just want to manufacture big job lots. I can understand that but it means I have to continue to do it all by hand. Consequently I have put it aside and will work on something else, but I'll have to do it eventually. I'll probably end up figuring out how to spread the wrap open without damaging it and taking the mantlet frame out so I can work on it without damaging the wrap. Not looking forward to that...

To avoid having to do that, I've been assembling the rest of the turret deck and hatches, so that's now ready for primer and paint before fitting the turret bearing and the rotation option bits. After that comes another task I have been putting off - I have to drill new locating holes for Mark Lawson's excellent bump stops and for the mounting brackets for the ArmorPax 20T jack. These bits don't fit in the standard holes. I don't own a drill press, so I'll have to try drilling them by hand, which worries me a bit. I'd prefer to avoid it, but I just can't bring myself to use the kit-provided bump stops. The kits jack is decent, and I may end up sticking with it if I have too much trouble drilling the bump stop holes. Fortunately, if I screw those up, I can revert to the kit versions and they'll mostly be hidden by the running gear.

[Dave Goodwin]

I'd had a PM asking for a photo of what I was referring to on the turret frame, but PMs don't seem to have the same attachment capability, or at least I couldn't work it out. Consequently, here's a quick shot of what I was talking about.

These lugs for the mantlet frame have to be sized and shaped to the turret wrap. I'm doing it by hand with a file as I simply don't have other metalworking tools outside of a Dremel, which I found a bit too fiddly for this work. I really wanted to have it machined but cannot locate any shops willing to do such a small job so I'm muddling along when I feel like spending time on it. If I were to make only 1 suggestion for the next iteration of the Tiger, it would be to have these parts shaped when they are made. Seems like it should be easy to do on a good CNC.

[Dave Goodwin]

While avoiding working on the turret , I did manage to get the drive units built. They are ready to be installed once the hull gets painted, which I am hoping will be within a couple weeks as the weather is warming up.

My Tiger will be Creme-colored on the inside, so I painted the drive adapters that color and painted the spacers for the motor mount black rather than leave them raw. I also got the standoffs and battery tray primed and painted in Creme. Over the next few days, I will finish mounting the additional brackets for the wire rope and antenna tube onto the hull and try to get the rest of the new bump stops drilled and installed, along with new mounts for the 20T jack, if I decide to use it. I drilled new holes for one of the bump stops today and it came out OK. It's not completely square to the hull but close enough that it won't matter and it's not very visible in any event. 3 more to do...

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Hi Dave!
You seem to set the standards high on your build, so I figure you might want to know that the 20t jack was not introduced on T1:s until Jan '44. Early was using a 15t jack.

[Dave Goodwin]

Thanks Christoffer, that's very good to know. I may just stick with the kit jack then and avoid having to drill any further holes!

Dave

[John Fitzsimons]

Interested to see how you get on with the motion pack. I have one on order. Thanks for posting these pictures. I will take tigers to a race track and compare.

[AlastairCooke]

hi Dave
Here's how I opened up the turret wrap to remove the mantlet support...

I then milled 0.25mm (10 thou) off each interlocking face so that it could slide easily left/right in the turret wrap (CE2470). That way I would know that the fit of the wrap to the base (CE2472) was only governed by the flex in the wrap.

I will probably use a mini belt sander to remove the material that pokes out of the wrap when the support is refitted. Also I will use a Dremel to remove material around the lugs so that the faux welds do not stand too proud.

Alastair

[neil graham]

OMG! I am now frightened of what is to come!

[Dave Goodwin]

Yeah, fitting this part of the build is decidedly not fun with hand tools. I finally devoted some time to it last night and removed the frame from the wrap using a clamp that was switchable from clamp to spreader. I got it out without much trouble. The depth of the lugs was too short for my vice, so my original plan of clamping it in the vice at an angle and then filing it flat to the jaws didn't pan out. I clamped it into the vice sideways and did it that way. It's now back in place and it looks "OK". It does not look great but I am not going to take it apart again.

I'm now running into a new issue, where some of the suspension arms, when slid into place, don't clear the holes in the hull side plates. I discovered this while working on the new bump stops, as the rear-most suspension arms were missing the bump stops completely. It took me a bit to see what was happening. On the front of the vehicle, the arms slide nicely all the way in. On the rear side, they don't do that. They are stopping several mm away from the side wall as the slightly raised portion of the arm contacts the hull rather than slipping inside it. It appears as if the brass bushings are off-center. I believe this is due to the weight of the hull sagging against the floor plate upon which the brass bushing frames are mounted. I am unsure what I am going to do about this as yet.

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

There have been many designs of this through the years. Aren't the square suspension bars screwed to the lower hull sides? On one design, the torsion bar holders were fastened axially from the outside. The fastener effectively pulled the entire torsion bar and swing arm into the hull. With that design, it was important to secure the torsion bars to the holders last, to make sure everything was the correct length - neither too short (swing arm rubbing against the hull) or too long (out of alignment like you describe). With other designs, the same basic principle applies - the road wheels need to be aligned before the torsion bars are permanently fixed to the holders. If the torsion bar holder is fixed with a stop screw from either above or below - there will be surface marring, potentially making it difficult to put it back all the way to the bottom in its hole. If so - file it smooth again and retry.

[Dave Goodwin]

The square bars holding the brass bushings and torsion bar fixed ends are screwed to the floor plate, and the floor plate is attached to the hull front and rear end pieces. The floor plate is not physically attached to the hull sides in any other way until the large cap screws are put in securing the torsion bar fixed ends into the square bushing bars. I currently have the floor plate on my small motorcycle jack and I think that is allowing the floor plate to creep upward vs. the hull side plates as the weight of the hull pushes down. I will try to brace the hull side plates and then lower the jack and see if the floor will settle back into alignment. If it does, then I will temporarily fasten the fixed ends into place to hold it in alignment while I finish the bump stops and get the hull painted. If that all works, I may consider drilling a small hole through the side plate and pinning the plate to the square bar to hold the alignment when I loosen the fixed ends to set the suspension angles.