Building the Double Panel Bailey Bridge.

[Pieter Koops]

On December 8th, 2017 the UPS driver lightened his van and filled up my small hall with the bridge kit and extras. After assembling a panel for training purposes (I couldn't help myself not to) in the weekend, I disassembled it and started primering lugs, braces, transom seats, connectors and so on. On Sunday 17th Theo Andriessen (whose bridge kit had been left in my small hall also) and I assembled two panels and put them together with the braces for a double panel bridge. The assembling went very well. The only parts that we found were sheer impossible to put together were the bracing frames on top of the two panels, following the flow of the maual. Theo suggested to mount the bracing lugs between the panel frames, tighten all screws and then disassemble the four bracings lugs. We mounted them onto the underside over the bracing frames and were then able to assemble them onto the panels.

Theo in his workshop and I in mine will primer and build more parts and try to report about our experiences in the coming months. The bridge gets its strength from the inventor's brilliant brain and Armortek's developers and fasteners. Theo and I would like to develop a system to easier take apart and build up our bridges.

[Stephen White]

Pieter, congratulations on the first Bailey Bridge build thread. Looking forward to seeing progress with both yours and Theo’s. We’re hoping to create a large bridge at TanKFest in Bovington at the end of June. You’d be very welcome.

Stephen

[Pieter Koops]

Hello Stephen,

thanks for your kind invitation. I would if I could but I am afraid my Bailey Bridge will stay in the Netherlands. I expect the crew of my Morris, Limber and 25 Pounder Gun and their grand stage - The Bridge - on which they will be displayed sometime this perhaps next year will be inseparable. When not in use by the British the Americans might use it to transport captured ordnance by means of a Dragon Wagon to a West-European harbour to ship it to Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Who knows?

Since mid December 2017 when I primed and constructed the first two double panels an enormous amount of black primer has been sprayed, much of it unfortunately not on but past parts. Nevertheless parts look less frail and more rugged.

The build itself has really taken off when I understood that mass production methods should be applied when I attempt to build a bridge with three extra sections. Theo Andriessen flew through his kit and volunteered to assist me constructing frames into panels with M2.5 x 20mm screws and nuts after which I took over to add doubling and bracing lugs with M3 screws.

The fitting of parts is excellent but testfitting the pin holes to connect bridge sections I found out that the holes needed to get widened. I used an 8.1 mm drill (advice Maarten Schutjes) in a drill press or bench drill holding every individual pin plate EN0102 in a machine clamp for safety reasons. Drilling at 500 rpm I didn't need oil for cooling the drill. All 160 pin plates took me an hour and a half.

A second machining of half of the pin plates EN0102 is necessary if one wants to easily add or dismount bridge sections. So I took a lock grip plier to really get hold of an individual EN0102 (safety!) to grind a little off of one side with a bench grinder. Ofcourse the best way is to use a lathe for a more controlled finish but that would take me forever even when I needed to machine only 80 EN0102s. Mind you it still is not very easy to add or take off a bridge section due to it's size of 100 x 50 cm, it's weight and sharp bits.

I will add photographs in a couple of days.

Kind regards, Pieter