My Beaut Aussie Cent

[Adrian Harris]

Superb job Stephen.

I bet that's one of those things where, the more cuts you make, the more times you check the measurements for the next cut...

Adrian.

[Stephen White]

Thanks all. Now for the two piece idler. First is to mill out the webs and lower the flange so that the hub sits lower than the wheel:









Also milled a rebate in the rear side:



Then to square up the webs on the wheel rims. I couldn't work out a way of milling them so did it by hand:





Modified idler:



And a comparison between the finished one and two piece idlers:







Installed:





Now to finish the hub caps.

Regards and thanks for looking.

Stephen

[Tim Bowman]

hi Stephen

'Beaut' is right!!

Your new idler looks superb.

best regards
Tim

[Steve Stuart]

Hi Stephen
'Fair dinkum'!
Steve

[Stephen White]

Hub caps. The hub caps are quite deep and rounded:



Rather than build up the kit part, I decided to turn a new centre piece, removing the centre of the kit part:



Also shaped the flanges to give a more rounded shape and added the fixing bolts:





Finished:





Regards

Stephen

[Kevin Hunter]

Fantastic stuff Stephen. No idea how to do half of this, which makes it all the more impressive.
Kevin

[Stephen White]

Now for the driver's hatches. With Kevin's comment, thought I'd show a bit more of method. Key to these is starting with blanks which are thick enough. Measuring the Tank Museum Cents, the original hatches are 7.5mm thick at maximum, so I've used 125mm thick blanks.



The design looks crazy, no two angles normal to each other, some very strange variations in shape, over-complicated machining. All very British. When you look in detail however, it all makes sense. For example, the boss for the periscopes has sides perpendicular to the hatch at the back but at the front, enemy facing side, the flange is sloped to give ballistic protection against small arms fire and to deflect bullets from the periscope:



My references are photos, the Illustrated Parts Catalogue and the AFV Club model from which I make paper patterns. First stage is to cut the blanks to outside dimensions, fitting to the hull plate aperture and the hinge locations. I also cut the small step for the join between the two hatches:



Then I cut the rebate on the lower surface which fits into the hull plate:





Check fit:



Then roughly mark out the top and bottom patterns, in order to locate the periscope mountings and hatch lock:



All for now

Stephen

[Kevin Hunter]

Am now on the edge of my seat awaiting the next instalment!
Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to post so much detail of your methods - I'm sure I wont be the only one who really appreciates it.
Regards
Kevin

[Stephen White]

A bit more progress, machining out the undersurfaces. I used slot drills to cut the corners to depth and then cut out the remaining bulk with end mills. I turned the work to keep the side being machined on the X-axis so that the raised flanges stayed parallel. Any mistake there would have been pretty obvious, especially as it's this side that will be on show with the hatches open. The crews very rarely closed down in the Vietnam close country.







Now to decide the order of operations for the top surfaces. Probably the periscope mounting holes next, whilst the top surface remains flat for work holding.

More soon.

Stephen

[davidwilkins]

Hi Stephen, I would very much like to echo Kevin's words. All your information is very much appreciated. My build has been virtually on stop for the past few months due to ill health (arthritis in my spine, not pleasant)but have enjoyed looking at the forum in the meantime (even looking at the computer has been painful). My Accounts manager (aka - the wife) has offered to drive me to the Tank fest at Bovington next month so hoping to meet like minded people and get a few ideas.

Regards

David

[Stephen White]

We have a retired engineer in the village who was a toolmaker. He told me you couldn't do fitting properly without scrapers - in his view the most useful tools in the box. I've just invested £9 with Proops Ltd, so that I can return the ones I borrowed months ago. He's right about useful: the flat one is for surfaces, the triangular one for edges and the curved one for interior curves such as bushes. Just the job for assembling from the kit.



Made some progress on the top surfaces. Firstly milled out the rough hinge slots, using the kit hatches as a template:





Then bored out the periscope mount seating, firstly with a slot drill and then a boring bar:







Then cut the surface where I could on the mill but it also needed a lot of hand cutting with the Proxxon, to get the profiles:














More to do on the sides and hinges.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen

[Kevin Hunter]

Thanks once again Stephen.
This part of your build has become a mini series in its own right and I'm finding it so enlightening. I need to give this a go.
Curious - what tool are you using in the Proxxon?
Looking forward to further instalments
Kevin

[Stephen White]

Kevin

These are the Proxxon cutters:



Started on the second hatch with roughing out:



After further smoothing by hand and starting work on the hinges:











Regards

Stephen

[Iacopo Di Giampietro]

I have no words: I am always entranced in front of your work!
Congratulations, Stephen!

[Stephen White]

Great to hear from you Iacopo - how's the Pz III?

The hinge line needed to be raised to take account of the added thickness of the hatches:



The operation most likely go wrong - drilling for the hinge pins:



Mounted and in place:







Now for the detailing and making the periscope housings.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen