Dave's Tiger I (Early) Kit Build Thread

[Dave Goodwin]

Need some advice from the experienced builders...

What's the best technique for getting rid of the tooling marks on the sprocket body? Do you prefer to grind and sand it down, or try to build it up with a body filler or something? I've been putting off dealing with that too, but the time is coming where I'll have to get it done.

Thanks!

[Vince Cutajar]

I used a Dremel with a miniature grinding stone to remove the tooling marks.

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Vince

[Stanislav Yanev]

Dave i like people like you who say things straight without distorting the truth.
I think that the criticisms expressed should be constructive for others. I personally would choose carefully the words I would use if I made so many small mistakes, which, however, become extremely unpleasant for the end user.
To all
Not everyone has a lathe, milling machine, and other specialized metalworking machines, as well as the skills to work with them
Therefore, for one, an operation is easy for another and inaccessible. I exclude the 5 axis machines on which some of the AT parts are produced and finish,Knowledge of working with machines that use CAD/CAM programs narrow the circle to one or maybe two.

Therefore, if you can, help each other, if you can't and don't want to, at least don't point fingers at others
Dave You're doing great, these problems will show you how much you never thought you could do on your own

[Dave Goodwin]

Well, here's another part I'm not at all happy with. The primer really highlights the defects.

I've no idea what I am going to do with this one. It's quite thin and not simply a flat piece so it seems nearly impossible to file out with any degree of accuracy. I guess maybe I'll try body filler, but I fear that is likely to end up as a mess of varying textures unless I coat the whole thing, an idea I'm not fond of either.

As a note to other builders, the build guide also calls for m2.5x6 fasteners in the 4 threaded holes, but they are not through-drilled and even 4mm length leaves the bolt head well above the surface. I'm not sure if that's a part or documentation error. Not sure what I am doing about that yet.

[Sean-Armortek]

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<5mins rubbing
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[simon_manning]

Yes it is that easy, removing production marks.

[neil graham]

Thank you Dave & Sean for highlighting this issue and how to fix it

I am not at this point yet, so its good to know.

[John Fitzsimons]

I use an electric belt file. Places like screwfix sell for about €50-€60. Various belts available and cheap. Makes short work of all these jobs. Stay clear of the black & decker. I went through more than 10 of those and they kept replacing under warranty.

[Donald Suttie]

The other option is Armorpax 3rd party hatches,that's what i am using on my build,but that's my choice,you will have to get used to doing a lot of sanding and filing on your build,i have went through a lot of wet and dry paper and like others invested in a belt file,it makes light work of jobs like this.
its a fact that you need to put in the work with these models if you want nice results,i have revisited various parts of my build to date with some work i did earlier i could now do better.
I can understand you mentioned in an earlier post about getting the thing running,well i can tell you now you will need to think carefully regarding how to get the tank off your workbench/lift table and get the thing back on,also the nightmare of setting up the radio to go with this,i thought i had all these problems sorted ,but had to start from the beginning as my plans didn't work out the way i had hoped.

for me its all part of the fun of the build,and you pick up skills you never thought you had in the process.

best of all there is a great bunch of guys on here who go the extra mile to help a fellow builder,most things are just a question away

happy building
Donald

PS: get yourself a few sets of small taps to clear out the holes as you will come across a few that need a clean out ,i have M2/M3/M4 sets and i went for HSS as the last thing you want is a broken tap jammed in a hole to give you further problems,for the last 40 odd years i have used Presto drills and taps with little or no issues,with cheaper Chinese stuff you may run into breakages

[Dave Goodwin]

OK, here's another question for you all.

My turret bearing has 6 holes around the circumference, both on the inside rotating ring and the outside fixed ring. Every other hole is countersunk, yet there is no requirement for countersunk screws anywhere in the instructions other than the ones that go through the turret deck into the bearing. More on that in a minute.

Why would every other hole be countersunk when no such screws are needed? The inner rotating part of the bearing gets 6 long M4 cap screws of variable lengths. The outer fixed portion is called out to be fastened by 6 M4x16 CSK screws through the top deck plate into the bearing. Each of the two rings has three countersunk holes, and the inner ring and outer ring have their countersunk holes on opposite sides.

The called-for M4x16 CSK screws do not fit through the holes in the turret deck. There is no indication in the instructions that there should be a nut on the opposite end of these bolts. I'm guessing that is necessary though, since the bearing holes are not threaded. For those who have built previous Tigers, did you have to use nuts on the bottom of the screws attaching the bearing to the deck? What do you do about the countersunk holes where they are not needed?

I tried opening one of the deck holes a bit until the M4 screw went through. The head does not sit into the countersink such that the screw is flush. This seems less than ideal and likely to lead to hangups in the turret rotation. Should I open the hole further? Is that the answer here?

Finally, would you put this together with the long cap screws for the turret mount in the countersunk holes? Can that be right? Seems like it would be awfully unstable and imprecise. I have to make a choice and either put the turret mount cap screws into countersunk holes, or the bearing mount nuts into countersunk holes, as they are on opposite sides of the bearing. One side or the other is going to get them.

Thanks!

[Adrian Harris]

> Why would every other hole be countersunk when no such screws are needed?

Because they are a bought in part, rather than manufactured by Armortek, so come from the suppliers like that.

I don't have a recent Tiger manual, latest I have is the Tiger 131 kit from 2015. That has the turret bearing on the same page as the engine deck and does show the M4 nuts for the deck screws. The bolts from underneath go through the gear ring, a spacer, then the bearing, then another spacer and into the turret base. Is yours the same layout ? If so, I doubt the countersinks are going to affect the stability.

Adrian.

[Malcolm.Plumb]

As Adrian says, the 'Lazy Susan Bearing' has come from the supplier as you have it.

See link for an example.

https://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/p1835 ... _info.html


Exactly the same set up as on the Panther by the looks of it and no problem at all with stability once the supplied hardware is used and all is tightened up.

[Dave Goodwin]

Thanks guys. I went to proceed with it this evening and am finding the M4x16 CSKs to be far too short. They only protrude through the bearing by a couple threads, nowhere near fully engaging the nut. I'm also concerned that the screw heads are not sitting flush with the deck. I tried opening one hole up a little bit further but that made no appreciable difference. I'll have to send support an email and see what they suggest.

[AlastairCooke]

Hi Dave,
See image below from my thread and note that the bolts do not protrude from the nuts.

I had to change out the countersunk fasteners as the originals were too short with the ring I added to make the countersinking easier to accomplish on my sheet steel roof plate (shown below). The fastener length had to be chosen carefully to avoid touching the gear on the rotation motor and fouling the motion.

Alastair

[Armortek]

Fastener is M4 x 16 csk - see below