Early Tiger 1 from sPzAbt 503

[cahlfors]

Thanks guys, but please remember that I did not do these idlers. Liam Mahoney in Australia did. I only tapped a hole and assembled them.

I wish I had a metal powder printer!

[cahlfors]

Oh, and if you happen to have a king tiger at home, don't forget to order his new steel tracks for it!

[cahlfors]

Here is a nice new barrel from Jack in Illinois. I had planned to do my own any year now, but there is no way I would have been able to do the muzzle brake. It cost a bit, but when you look at the pictures, you will understand why. I am especially amazed by the muzzle brake, which is machined in one piece. Wizardry, totally!

[Hans K]

Otroligt fina bitar.

Hans K

[mrTyko]

Geez, yeah you were not kidding when you described the muzzle brake.

Robert

[cahlfors]

The winter season is for maintenance. This time, it has been necessary to rebuild the entire running gear. The torsion bars have been removed reground and reinstalled. One road wheel tire had come off in Denmark, but three and a half came off during checking, so five had to be reglued. Unfortunately, the precious Loctite 480 had cured in the bottle and only made it for two. Another bottle had to be ordered and took considerable time to get delivered, but now all the tires are cleaned (meticulously scraped with a chisel to get rid of any glue residue from the past) and reglued with proper stuff.

The batteries went out as well, as I have realized that the aluminum enclosure is connected to the + pole.
That explains the strange sparks I have been seeing... Cost me a Benedini mini... Dangerous stuff, this tank business...

With the batteries out, there was a golden opportunity to tidy up the wiring. Doing it right the first time is always best, of course, but when you really don't know what's right, you have to experiment your way forward. Old, stiff wiring has been replaced with very multiple stranded silicone wire from China.

By the way, this is the speakers. Quite odd form, not available for purchase anywhere I have looked... Good thing we have our printers. It's amazing what they can do, even in the world of aluminum!

New tracks from steel have arrived from Liam in Australia. "Surface mail" is a thing of the past and I feel global warmth guilt, very much. And guilt toward our wonderful mail woman, who was tasked with carrying them to my doorstep. The white knight (me) jumped out, trying to save her back, but was only able to get hold of one of the two boxes. I really, really planned to pick them up myself, but given the random mail service we have here, I have had to specifically request delivery of a glue bottle (you know which...), but hadt these very heavy track boxes (20kg each) without request nor forewarning delivered to my doorstep. Having their "app" doesn't seem to quite help....

The tracks come half assembled. The tiny circlip is installed on one end and the links are assembled ten by ten. "All" I have to do is to install the circlip in the other end and connect them. Half a track was one full day's work, sore fingers and a bucket of excuses to do something else:

One of the possible other things I could do are battery trays, to keep the batteries reasonably well insulated and to protect their tops from dropped screwdrivers, and other metal tools that could potentially short spectacularly (model tanks are VERY dangerous...):

This will keep me occupied for a while, so don't expect any updates in a long time..

I hope to be able to test the new tracks in Denmark in May. Oh, that means that everything else needs to be completed by then.

Gotta run!

/C

[Hans K]

Du verkar att hålla ett bra tempo, så du hinner nog.

Hans K

[mrTyko]

Thanks for the lovely update Christoffer
Robert

[cahlfors]

My printer has been misbehaving and getting things done has been tedious. I wonder if it needs a cleaner room? Maybe a bench grinder is a bad neighbor?

Anyway, I have completed the battery trays and a cover for the new main cutoff:

The tracks are completed and installed:

The look isn't right, but the whole thing is suspended. Since the torsion bars are adjusted as well, it might well have something wrong with the riding height when on the ground anyway...

[mrTyko]

It's really enjoyable to see your photos, especially the ones on your tracks.

Robert

[cahlfors]

I took it out today in the beautiful sun. The plan was to get out early morning, while it was still freezing, but things take time...

Fighting the grass is easy if it is attacked early season.
Before:

After:

This post would not be complete without some videos....

https://youtu.be/OwC3XepOdk0


https://youtu.be/te52a8LUndw


https://youtu.be/gKoS7TJGa-U


https://youtu.be/MNsmFP3hOSo


//

[mrTyko]

Looking SWEET.

Robert

[Hans K]

It looks nice

Hans K

[cahlfors]

At our last outing on the course in Gothenburg, the smoker caught fire. It has happened once before. Luckily, the smoke fluid is not very flammable, but with a blower providing plenty of oxygen, it is in fact possible to sustain a fire. All you have to do to put it out, is to stop the engine and thus the fan and it dies out by itself.

This time, it was going on long enough to melt some plastic in the smoke box. I decided to cut out the damaged areas and glue on some clear acrylic sheet instead of the clear packet tape that was there before. Looks much better, is more stable and is airtight.

But this smoker is an ongoing story, isn't it? I suspect that the reason for catching fire is that it has been left in preheating mode for too long. If all the smoke elements are working (I suspect some are not...), it dissipates 96W in a quite confined space. I often find myself talking to people when preheating has been started, forgetting time. 15-30 sec is typically what I aim for, but what happens if that becomes two minutes? Or five, if I forget completely what I was up to? I think I need to program a time limit to turn down the preheating power after, say 30 sec, to something that is sustainable over a longer time. That's next!

//

[mrTyko]

This is a smart idea to auto reduce the time.
When the tank is not active.

Robert