Origins of the Merlin piston Ashtray? (Old thread)

I do rather covet that, Mr D.

It nearly fell into my briefcase during my last visit.

Has that book arrived yet?

DB 601 A…Engine no.63980 …..Me 110 C4 (2014)….111/ZG 76….4/6/1940….Toat Farm, Pulborough.

Another one up on the auction site. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281181787448?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

On e bay i saw a piston supposed to be from a aircraft made into book ends the piston is chopped in half and mounted on wood L shaped looks ok i guess.

Sitting on my desk is a piston from a Rolls Royce CV12 – the engine that powers the Challenger MBT. During my apprenticeship I rebuilt the engine that this piston came from. All 12 pistons were under limits so were scrapped, with 11 of those 12 given to the machine shop to be turned into ashtrays. As I am a) a non-smoker and b) saw the aesthetics of the piston as an object of beauty in its own right, I chose to not see the skirt machined off. Even now, I suspect unserviceable pistons are reworked into ashtrays, thus continuing a supply.

The CV12 piston is now a pen holder and a memory jogger.

During my apprenticeship days at Fleetlands we used to make ashtrays out of Centaurus pistons which always seemed to be around by the truckful! They made really big ashtrays.
The big thrill was to crank the lathe up to full speed with the chuck holding the piston by the inside. Occasionally one would jump off the chuck and go madly spinning across the shop floor.
Ah! Happy days.

Bill

The Wellworthy piston is an unfinished forging for a late Merlin piston. As an aside, pistons were good for scrap-men, they are quality alloy and, if just boxed, they have no ferrous to remove-just toss ’em in the smelter. Partly for this reason, WW2 German pistons are rare, apart from those from crash engines, they were all smelted.

The amount of pistons i have thrown to scrap & never thought about making ash trays although not merlin pistons, but with the smoking ban in the uk not much point now.:dev2:

Was at a motorcycle salvage yard one day & discovered 3 brand new high comp MTC pistons for a Kaw 1000. They were just laying in the dirt, but clearly unused. I got em for free as you need 4, not 3 for a set.

Fast forward about 12 months or so & on another visit to the salvage yard discovered the 4th one, also free 🙂

As seen here on top of my Connie piston…

The amount of pistons i have thrown to scrap & never thought about making ash trays although not merlin pistons, but with the smoking ban in the uk not much point now.:dev2:

thx creaking door…yep when i saw it in the box of mixed crap,it called out to me….merlinnnnnnnn pistonnnnnnn ashtrayyyyyyyy

…two and a half hours later and eleven bucks poorer I became the owner of this ashtray…

Very nice…..and cheap too! 😉

Definitely looks like a Merlin piston to me; is that what you thought it was?

I don’t smoke, so my Merlin piston is still intact…:p:cool:

& no, thats just polished, not chromed….. I’m not one of those chromo-sexuals 😉

Bought this on thursday

Here in Canada thursday was an holiday ….CANADA DAY… I found a local auction house holding a sale,two and a half hours later and eleven bucks poorer I became the owner of this ashtray…..The “handle”is made from a section of the removed /discarded piston skirt

Forged? How in hell would you forge a piston? Cast and then machined, but not forged.

Even the factory pistons on my old Harley-Davidson are forged, not cast…

I think this one (R2800) has had it…It was the result of very expensive sounding noises…

I have a napkin ring made from durilium or aluminium – made by my granddad from Short Sunderland off-cuts. He made a lot of things at work when not helping the war effort,including simple games and puzzles :rolleyes:

I didn’t know this, but when the family moved out of Driffield in 1988, the enlarger my dad made was mostly made from Short Sunderland scrap. It went in a skip!!! 😮

Just as an interesting aside the germans also produced ashtray pistons, here a merlin piston ashtray is shown with a rare Jumo 222 piston
Matt