Neil's early Tiger 1 (2023)

[neil graham]

Thanks Tim....and I hope you are planning something special for your partner for 50 years!

[neil graham]

Put on the big boy pants this morning! It was a cold morning here so I thought I would make the most of it, getting the loctite 480 out of the fridge. Degreased all of the rubber wheels and set about gluing them all.

The first wheel had a bit of squeeze out so I decided to follow the advice (thanks Dave) and mask them....but after a few I noticed that my bottle squeeze technique had improved and I was no longer getting large blobs (the trick was to barely squeeze at all and let gravity do all the work).

So I ran a bead all the way around, trying to stay closer to the non-rim side.

Then lay the wheel down flat, then putting the rubber on. This way I didnt touch the loctite at all.

Then flipping it over immediately and pushing down hard in the centre to make sure the rubber was on fully.

I only ended up using one of my bottles, and I was a little concerned I hadn't used enough, but the rubber on the wheels just won't budge at all....so very pleased after all of that. Only half a dozen wheels have any loctite 480 on the rims at all, and of course they will be very easy to hide. I won't bother to touch them up.

[Dave Goodwin]

You're a machine Neil! Looking great and I'm watching with interest as I'll be way behind you soon.

[neil graham]

Hit a major roadblock when I started on the wheel assembly. Apparently I have fat sausage fingers that aren't really cut out for M2.5!

sausage_fingers.gif (543.6 KiB) Viewed 1524 times

One of these things is smaller than the others

Bigger issue actually was the lack of tools. I had been getting away with using tiny sockets, but the nuts on the wheels butt right up against the spoke....so I needed an open ended spanner. Liam Mahoney to the rescue! He was selling tiny spanners over in the Craftsmans Market forum....they are fantastic!

Who knew a tiny expensive spanner could be so beautiful?

...and there are ring spanners in the set too

Just like all the M3 nuts I decided to get nyloc nuts instead to save me any loctite on tiny screws. I know some of the nyloc nuts will be visible, but I still think this is the sensible approach.

While I was waiting for my tiny spanners to arrive I painted & varnished the underneath of the skirts.... I figured that doing it once assembled would be very annoying.

Only yellow on this side

Also finishing the front armor plate parts

I fixed a mistake I made.... I stupidly primed the entire machine gun cover before seeing if it fit....and of course it didnt. You would think I would have learned from the torsion rods. Even once I sanded off all of the primer, it still didn't fit! So from there it was a sand, test fit, swear at it, then rinse & repeat...until it finally fit. I sanded off so much white metal I had to use a dustpan and brush for the dust! But they all fit beautifully now. Just need to prime & paint the ball and hope it fits, but the ball seems fairly loose, so shouldn't be a problem.

Just mask this....

Test if this fits BEFORE you prime it all.

So, was fitting the side skirts & armor when I discovered this large dent. I don't recall anything happening that could have caused this, but I had to remove the side skirt and file it flat so the side armor could fit.

Hmmm, don't recall dropping this

It's starting to look like a tank, if you look passed the funny colour scheme.

Most bolts above the torsion bars still very loose. But it is time to tighten them all up methinks.

[neil graham]

Continuing on the tiny bolts and nuts..... I cleaned out my local fastener shop of M2.5 lock nuts.... and I did the maths today, I won't have enough! As my wife said when I told her: "Awww nuts!" (I admit, I had to give her credit for that one!)

Finished the first set of 8 wheels, my fingers need a break (and more nuts!) before I do the next 8.

Eight done

So, moving onto the next thing which is finishing the side & front armour details. Sanded, degreased and then etched the pieces, will prime later today.

[neil graham]

Another problem tonight.... while assembling the side armour detail I came up against another mistake in the instructions.

Not wanting to throw stones, just wanting opinions on what bolt to use...and slightly worried I am missing something. Maybe its from the old drive system?

Instructions indicate M3x20 CAP, but this bolt is clearly waaay too long. I could use another M3x12 CSK like the other bolt holding this curved piece on.....opinions?

Yes, I will sand out the centre hole a bit better before I loctite in the plug :-)

[Vince Cutajar]

That part (CE0667) in my 2017 Tiger is held by a M3X16 cap bolt and also a M3X10 cap bolt.

Vince

[Martyn Clark]

Had this same issue today. I replaced the m3x20 with a m3x16 which sorted out the problem.

[neil graham]

Thanks guys, I used a few M3x16 CAP's and they did the trick....just hope I don't need them later.

Got the green loctite out again, did the idler bushes, the brass studs for under the gears as well as the inner races for the main gear.

Sanded, degreased, etched & primed the gear holder thingies, then loctited them to the outer race of the gears bearings. Found a new use for my Mr Surfacer jars.

These caused me a huuge amount of grief. I didnt file/sand them down enough, so one didn't quite fit all the way.....and I couldnt turn it to get the bolts to line up so I could draw it in the last bit....and I couldn't get it out either. So 15 minutes of me swearing at it before I finally got it out, using a claw hammer and a 20mm socket that was just smaller than the hole. It fell out and rolled everywhere on my concrete floor....which is why it looks a little scratched up

[Adrian Harris]

> It fell out and rolled everywhere on my concrete floor....which is why it looks a little scratched up

I've covered the workshop floor with soft rubber interlocking mats. They have just enough give that heavier things don't seem to bounce and just tend to sit where they fall.

Maybe dropping things onto a concrete floor could be the new big thing for making cast or rolled armour effects ?

Adrian.

[neil graham]

The never ending saga of the Tiger 1 wheels looks like it is finally nearing the end..... I finished the last batch this morning. Thank goodness for the 240 M2.5 nyloc nuts I bought....I cannot imagine having to use threadlocker on each and every one of them. Sure, the nylocs made tightening them all more difficult, but on balance I am happy with my choice. Unfortunately I did scratch or nick the paint off more than a few of the wheels....so a brief touch-up will be in order, but only after I attach them.

Are we there yet....?

Onwards we go to the idler wheel.

No time for idling

[Andrew Gaze]

Hey Neil, thanks for sharing your progress.
I do enjoy seeing what I’m in for in the near future.

Cheers,
Gazey.

[neil graham]

Sometimes I have felt that I should have named this thread "Don't repeat Neil's Tiger 1 stupid mistakes", last night was one of those times!

I was sitting down about to start sanding all the idler parts, ready for degreasing & etching but I needed to find just one more part I had missed on the instructions. As I searched, I stumbled across the 'spacer' that goes in the short axle and immediately 'had a bad feeling about it'. When I had started the wheel construction on the long axle, I double checked the end cap could go in after fitting the hubcap thing.....and it did. So when I got to the short axles I didnt think about it as I stupidly assumed the same would apply. It doesnt!

So, I had to spend last night undoing 48 fiddly nuts, inserting the spacers and doing them all up again. My wife came in half way and said she could hear me muttering away well before getting to the shed! Obviously this wasn't a one-way...."now I have wrecked a part" mistake, but it was still annoying.

Put CE1215 in BEFORE you tighten up everything

Any way, self loathing over I have moved on and I am totally fine, no really!

I haven't been idle

[Dave Goodwin]

Very handy tip on that spacer. I also might well have missed that. I'm just about to start on the short axle assemblies.

[Andrew Gaze]

Hey Neil, that’s a bummer but thanks for the heads up.

Cheers