Chris' Tiger

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Well, it's not been sent yet. I imagine mine will be the last. But I feel sorry for the poor fellow who only got half his kit. Don't think I would survive that.

So, here are some shots of my facilities before the tiger moves in. How do yours measure up?

The assembly workshop, where the tank itself will sit (yea, there are a few items that need to be moved out of sight):


The heavy workshop, where work on heavy parts will be made (when wifey moves her stuff it will be alright. I think?):


The fine-mechanical and electrical workshop, where detail work and soldering will take place:


The machining area. The practical fold-away closet is really for a sewing machine, but what the heck! It's fine for this little lathe and mill combo. I *might* have to upgrade, though.


I realize I'm lucky to have four workshops and with only a little bit of cleanup work they'll be ready for me to spread my Tiger parts all over.

Cheers,
/Chris

[Martin Cohen]

But if you know where everything is now then why clean it up?

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Good point - I didn't think of that!

Cheers,
/Chris

[Paul Morris]

Hi Chris.
Someone once said "only a genious can work in chaos" leave it as it is...it reminds me of my shed you will be fine.
Cheers Paul.

"Paul's tank workshop"

[Sven Strobbe]

@Paul : If only women could understand this....

Regards

Sven

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Santa's arrival in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer:


Cheers,
/Chris

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Everything grand starts small:


Press fit, but some alpha cyanoacrylate cement (ACC, a k a super glue) is needed in a couple of locations.


All is well that ends well:


/Chris

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

I've been warned!

The magic dance that cured it:

Better do it right!

Wow!

Drops right in!

The rear has plenty of overtones...

...but doesn't quite fit. It sits too high in the slot.

I solved it by rounding it slightly on both sides...

Perfect - problem solved!

Almost done now...

Looking good!

The bottom is too short! Aargh

...and the holes don't mate...

Reassembling in a different order and stretching the metal with the bare hands helped . Now everything fits!

But everything isn't my fault. Really.

Look carefully - this is the last time I'll lift it!


Cheers,
/Chris

[Ragnar Arntsen]

Hi Chris
One happy Swede I belive

Good to see that xmas was somewhat early this year.
Are you going to assemble the whole Tiger first, and then starting on the primer and paint ? What is your chassie number?

Ragnar

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

As happy as they get! Although concerned. There are issues I don't know how to fix yet, mainly related to my backdating ambitions.

Chassis# is 37. I can't figure that out. Rocky got 49 and has had his "for ages". I'm pretty sure that I ordered mine last, as I was on the reserve list for long. Doesn't look like first come first served, anyway.

Don't know what I'll do for painting. When I first saw an Armortek model it was in metal finish. That's what caught my eye and impressed me most. If it had been painted ever so well, I would have assumed it would be plastic. If I manage to put it together straight without any need for spackle, I may want to keep it in metal finish with only a clear coat for protection. Metal is cool!

Pictures:
"some fitting may be required":

Will a good squeeze fix it?

Hmm. Not sure. But it's definitely much better:

The front deck doesn't quite go all the way down. Wonder why?


See the exiting answer in the next episode...

Cheers,
/Chris

[Lucien Runge]

Chris;

Assemble the entire chassis and don't tighten any of the machine screws. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Once all of your screws have been started, square the chassis up as much as possible and start to tighten all of the screws a little at a time until you have them all quite tight.

I found that my entire chassis came into spec by doing this in a very methodical fashion.

Good luck;

Lucien

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

I agree wholeheartedly! The word "square" catches my eye. I think I'll go back and do it again, this time checking using a carpenter's square as I go along.

The story goes on:
Me idioto! Me not understand difference between front deck and glacis properly and use wrong brackets:

Using the right brackets, it fits beautifully:

But what's this? Not warped again!

This was worse. The fact that the front deck is shorter than the sides made the magic dance ineffective. I weigh too little! (I don't get to say that very often). Maybe a clamp is better:

Alright - this is war! I squeeze with all my might!

Still no success. Sensitive viewers are advised to look away now:

Absolutely perfect!

But I'm not happy with the gap to the glacis. (Yea, I know what the glacis is now..). Speaking of glacis - there is nothing holding it down to the chassis. It can move vertically with only the pannier floors restricting it somewhat. How is that going to get fixated?

Finding the right screws is a breeze thanks to the well organized packaging:

Decking! Wonder why I'm supposed to use these screws here - that can't be right?

Hm - the rear bulkhead isn't attached to the hull anywhere, making the assembly flimsy? What's your take on this? Should I make a bracket to the hull?

Front bulkhead. This way?

Or that way?

Is it supposed to have such an obtuse angle?

It's either this or worse. Battle of the bulge has started!

Beginning to tighten it up - the gaps are closing!

It's taking shape!

After tightening. I'll have to do something. Maybe the belt sander? What will it say about aluminum?



Cheers,
/Chris

[Luca Fossa]

Hi Chris
look carefully at the instructions, about the rear bulkhead you must place two brackets on both sides near the upper corner of the rear plate.

cheers

Luca

[yves mouton]

Hi Chris,

I' dont know for the moment how to put the bulkhead on the rear deckplate, but i know well that the holes you are used are for the squire bolds. these bolds hold the for grills togheter on the rear deckplate. there are a total of 69 squire bolds to use.

best regards Yves
ps sorry for my english.

[Christoffer Ahlfors]

Chris;

Assemble the entire chassis and don't tighten any of the machine screws. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Once all of your screws have been started, square the chassis up as much as possible and start to tighten all of the screws a little at a time until you have them all quite tight.

I found that my entire chassis came into spec by doing this in a very methodical fashion.

Good luck;

Lucien

This turned out to be a much more tedious process than expected, but Lucien is right. Only if you do this will you get it right. It also made me find the reason for the misalignment I had experienced: It turned out that my pannier floors are 1+ mm too wide.

Squaring up the rest of the hull without them is now in progress. The floors were really making that difficult. Now, how do you make those floors narrower? I tried using a belt sander with very limited success. I now have aluminum debris all over, wore out two belts and still have one mm to go on each.

The instructions do alert to the fact that bending sheet metal is a less precision process than that for the other parts, so this was to be expected. They also suggest using a file to adjust it. I will now try to do exactly as the instructions say. Wish me luck

Cheers,
/Chris