Centurion 20 pounder Ammo

[mick whittingham]

While the Lathe was covered in brass swarf I decided to make a round for the mantelpiece, if she who must be obeyed will allow it in the housed that is lol.

[Stephen White]

Mick, congratulations, they look magnificent and well worth the effort. I'd love to know how you turned the curved taper on the projectiles. With my beginners skills, I can just about turn a straight taper. Love the work you've done today on the tracks and suspensions. Suddenly the model comes alive. The brake press tool sounds interesting.

All the best.

Stephen

[mick whittingham]

Hi Stephen,

I first attempted the curved taper by juggling the cross slide and compound slides on my lathe with some success, but an old engineer at the steam club told me a useful trick to improve on my results:-

If you have a lathe with reversible carriage traverse then set it to travel away from the chuck whilst turning normally. Turn a series of small steps in the work piece to take out a lot of the waste metal before proper shaping is attempted. Set the tool almost rubbing at the widest part of the taper and start the auto traverse, as the tool retreats from the chuck feed in gently with the cross slide and watch in wonder as the curved shape starts to appear, a few passes to get the hang of the infeed rate and you will be turning curves almost to a finish in no time.

Hope this makes sense to you as it seemed elementary once Old Barry had explained the theory of it to me. Plus it really does work once you get the hang of it.

I spent the afternoon welding railway track today and had lots of fun, they want to build a suitable flat bedrail car for my tank to be pulled round the layout so any photo's or ideas welcome.

Best regards, Mick

[Stephen White]

Brilliant, Mick. So pleased you didn't say it was done with some expensive gizmo, just skill and some inside knowledge. That's one of the things I love about this forum, the willingness to share accumulated knowledge. Thanks a lot. Makes sense and I'll put that into my little engineering notebook of stolen good ideas. All the best. Stephen