Armortek

I have made up some wooden Ribands from sapele off cuts to replace the steel ribands supplied in the kit. They need to be trimmed to length and drilled to allow the securing bolts to be installed. Huge thanks to Charles A.Stewart who emailed me a drawing of the original wooden ribands with dimensions.

Drawing of the original riband courtesy of Charles.A Stewart.

Hi Phil
The bridge is looking great bud.
Thank you for sharing the riband sizes that will save me a lot of research.
Also abig thanks to Charles for putting it out there for us guys.
Tiny and I have not done much over the past cupel of weeks we're under orders to decorate the house i think there's more paint on Tiny than on the walls.

Best Regards

Tiny and Steve

I have made a little bit of progress over the last couple of days due to a slight lull in my restoration schedule. Once I get the ribands bolted down temporarily I can get the decking planks trimmed and then remove both for staining and weathering.

Hi Phil

I am enjoying following your build. You are doing a great job with the ribands which add authenticity and I look forward to seeing the end result. My bridge build is on the back burner while I make some progress on the Churchill AVRE, I have also been distracted by a 17 pounder I recently acquired which is proving rather addictive

Regards
Gary

This afternoon I found time to drill the planking for the riband retaining bolts rather than notching the corners as suggested in the AT instructions. It all went together without any issues. The M3 square washers were found on eBay.

I have completed the decking and ribands of the first span. The sapele decking has had a coat of ebony wood stain which has weathered the wood down. Now to move onto the second span having learnt the methodology on this one.

I have now finished assembling the second span. It proved easier to plank than the first as I drilled slightly oversize clearance holes in the planking for the M3 x 40mm hex head retaining bolts. An extra 0-5mm made such a difference. Now to plank the ramps.

Today, I found time to plank one of the ramps. Fortunately I noticed the ribbons on the ramp only has four securing bolts rather than six before I drilled the holes! The planking is fitted to ensure a good fit and then removed to be trimmed back to the correct length.

I was able to find time to complete the first ramp today. Its getting too big for my bench!

Hi Phil

Your bridge is looking really good, love the weathering on the woodwork.
Regards
Gary

Over the past couple of days I have managed to finish planking the second ramp and once they are trimmed to length I will remove the timbers from it and the other ramp and two spans to allow the spraying of the top coat. I am looking at a finish in deep bronze green. to give it a 1960s feel.

Having top coated one of the ramps, I decided to strip the wooden decking of the first span completed some weeks ago. I have replaced some of the timbers with spare planks that I had left over to close up a couple of over wide gaps. The new timbers will be stained when I remove them again to allow painting of the steel structure. I am having to allow a couple of days for the paint to be hard enough to handle as the building is hardly warm with no heating at present. December is never a good month to have your heating boilers replaced!

The first bridge span has been top coated in Deep Bronze Green. There is a lot of surface area to cover needing four rattle cans of paint. The sapele ribands on the bench are a second set for Steve Lewington's bridge build.

Looking good. The ribands are excellent. I got a sample of Steve's paint from him and will go with the brown. Great job on the staining.