12jaguarHi TA
Thanks for that, unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances the delivery won’t take place until the 12th now, otherwise we’ll be working as normal until then
take care
John
12jaguarHi all
normal service nearly resumed: finally moved house and getting sorted so managed to slip away for a few hours to satisfy my Stirling cravings LOL.
As I was on my own today I sorted out the new airlines as our old ones were getting a bit tired; at last no more hissing of escaping air.
That done, I picked up where I left of on the Bomb Crutch we got from Air Ministry. This needs a total strip to almost all of its constituent parts so that they can be properly drawn up for the other 5 crutches we need. First off was getting the upper hatch off, it would have been nice to keep it but it’s suffered from a bad case of metal moth and the release fastener is totally seized. So with a cutting disc, the majority of the lid with some salvageable parts was carefully removed; this then gave access to the fastener receptacle which was removed using a thin piece of titanium to shear the 4 off 3/32″ rivets holding it in place. Once removed the whole assembly was placed in a bath of oil so that it could have a good think apart coming apart.
Next stage, is removing the doubler on the bomb bay floor, this is held together with a mixture of pop and solid rivets and 26 off 2BA Bolts. The latter defy convention with the bolt heads facing down and the plain nuts are on the upper surface and are peend in place. Thankfully all of the bolts came out relatively easily, leaving the rivets for next time.
More next week and I’ve been told that the bomb bay jig is now finished and will be delivered on 1st March; a big day for the future of the project
take care
John
12jaguarHi all
After the weekends shennanigans I’d almost given up hope of the Forum being usable again, but here we are and it’s ‘functioning’ as well as usual. Thanks again to those that cleared the spam out and to echo Propstrikes sentiments in the dedicated thread, this Forum isn’t what it was but we can collectively make into something else, I certainly have no intention of moving this thread elsewhere.
So to get back to some actual aviation related content. I managed to cram a couple of hours in last Saturday with Graham and whilst he was progressing the escape hatch handles I was able to give the Bomb crutch assembly that we got from Air Ministry (thanks Alan!) some attention. On closer inspection I think it’s a Type A (Heavy) bomb crutch and I have a distinct feeling it’s from Bomb Station 4 at Fr12 to 13 on the stbd side of the fuselage just forward of where the floor slopes upwards to meet the main spar. This has also thrown up an issue in that the Type B (light) bomb crutch held at Stafford in the RAFM stores is 0.2″ longer so this will impact on our frame positioning slightly. Thankfully this part of the design is still fluid so won’t cause us too many headaches.
Generally speaking it’s not in too bad a condition and is only suffering from some surface corrosion although the hatch is completely shot unfortunately although hopefully I can recover some parts from it. The quick release fastener is anything but that and is solid in its housing. These are unobtanium so I’ll do my utmost to recover it.
To gain access I first removed the electrical connector and its mounting bracket from the interior of the crutch. This has seen better days although I might be able to save the mounting bracket or at least use it as a pattern for all 6 bomb stations. Does anyone happen to have any of these 5D/929 electrical connectors?
Finally, whilst the quick release fastener was left to marinate in some penetrating oil, I thought I’d find a home for a couple of the cockpit Pillar lamps which I sorted out last week. These are fitted to the 2 off pantograph mounts in the bomb aimers station. It was apparent that at some stage these had been repurposed into either domestic or industrial spotlamps as there were some extra parts on them which most definitely weren’t Air Ministry. Thanks to that early upcycling though, these have survived in remarkable condition.
No update for at least a week now as I hope to be moving house next week
take care
John
12jaguarI thoroughly enjoyed reading his book especially regarding his experience of flying Stirlings as there are not many accounts out there.
A very accomplished man RIP
12jaguarHappy New Year to all of our followers.
No physical progress to update you on today, although Cliff, Graham and myself managed to snatch a few hours at the workshop. Graham contented himself with making 4 off closing plates for the hatch handle assemblies that we stripped down last week. Cliff and I made the last of the bomb bay stringers then had an end of year tidy up, during which we found yet another hatch handle assembly, this is more damaged, but the internal mechanism looks immensely restorable thus cutting down the number of new parts we need to fabricate. We also found not one, but two original keys for the escape hatches/main access door; these are marked up as S25 parts (Sunderland) but they fit the recess in the external access points. Ok, not actually Stirling but it’s made by Shorts and that’s close enough for me; so hope you all can keep a secret
Aside from that, David Collins and Stephen Corbett have been working togather to model the bomb crutch assembly, which has now been incorporated into the main bomb bay model.
Here’s hoping for a successful and healthy 2022
John
12jaguarCheers TT
And the same to you and yours, hope you can come over some time in the spring for a personal update
John
12jaguarA quick bonus update; the bomb beam assembly is being drawn up into CAD by a new friend to the Project; Stephen Corbett, enabling us to accurately recreate it.
12jaguarIf not the last post of 2021, it’ll definitely be the last one before Christmas
Graham and I were able to snatch a few hours at the workshop today, his visit with the intention of cleaning and measuring the parts stripped from the upper escape hatch handle assembly. Quite a bit to draw up, as there’s the 8 off parts mentioned in the previous post.
I, on the other hand am carrying on with the stringers; there are now 15 out of 16 required for the vertical bomb bay structure, then there’s 6 further long ones required for the fuselage/bomb bay floor. I’m sure you won’t want to see pics of those as they’re just more of the same. Suffice to say that our long material stowage is beginning to fill up nicely.
On a parallel track, there has been some definite progress on the construction of the bomb bay jig. David Collins has visited the constructor today to check that all is going to plan. David took some photos and whilst it’s not easy to determine what’s going on, I’m assured that they show the first of side members as shown in the schematic below.
As always, take care and have a peaceful and healthy Christmas
John
12jaguarHi All
Firstly, it was good to have Graham back in the workshop after a period of absence; he certainly made his presence felt by completely stripping down the upper Escape Hatch Handle assy. Surprisingly this came apart after only a token fight and appliance of heat certainly helped things along. The handle itself was beyond recovery but we’ve had this drawn up previously and we’re looking to get some new ones cast. Being a Shorts design, it’s definitely not ‘short’ on parts (do you see what I did there LOL). Each handle itself is made up of no less than 8 separate parts, not including rivets and taper pins; and that’s not including the mounting structure; let alone that there’s 4 of them!
Whilst Graham was beavering away with that, Cliff and I had an efficient production line going, making more stringers for the bomb bay. We’ve now completed 12 off of these which is sufficient for the 2 keel members (6 per keel member). We still need to make a further 4 for the outside bomb frames and 6 for the underside of the bomb bay/fuselage floor. Having a pneumatic pop riveter certainly helps
I might be having a lone visit to the workshop this coming Tuesday, so there may be a further pre Xmas update. If not I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and safe Christmas and New Year
John
12jaguarThanks Bert
It’s always good to get some feedback from fellow forumites as well.
I/we have taken a conscious decision not to make a start on forming the bomb frames at the moment and instead we are progressing the keel structure as effectively this will be what all of the structure hangs off anyway.
Take care all
John
12jaguarYes, we give a slight mist of WD40; it helps prevent resistance during the forming process
cheers
John
12jaguarMorning everyone
On opening up the workshop on a cold, wet and windy Saturday morning it was a pleasant surprise to find the building bone dry; so at least our endeavours of a couple of weekends ago has proven time well spent
Yesterday was spent proving the new purpose made bead and flare tool required for the numerous lightening holes in each bomb frame; this worked perfectly as shown in the picture below. Most of the main structural items on a Stirling are manufactured with this type of hole in them so proving the design shows that we can easily make tools for each diameter required.
Other than that, with just Cliff and myself present, we set about making more of the longitudinal witches hat stringer sections. I won’t bore you with more photos as essentially they’re all the same as the one I posted previously. However i can state that we’ve now made 8 of the 16 required for the keel members and outside faces of the bomb bay structure.
Not sure when our next update will be as we’re a bit thin on the ground in the weeks running up to Christmas and I am also hoping to move house soon so will be getting prepped for that.
Till next
John
12jaguarAwesome progress
12jaguar2nd update of the weekend; you lucky people.
Just a quick update to report that thanks to the Forums very own Air Ministry, we are now in possession of an original Stirling bomb crutch assembly. This was the one that Alan posted a short while ago.
This is a timely acquisition as a cleaned up unit will be integral to setting up the bomb bay frame stations
John
12jaguarEvening everyone
No update last weekend as some essential maintenace was required to our workshop before winter; in other words attempting to keep it watertight! Typically, we’ve had no rain since so we’ll wait out to to see if it’s stopped/reduced/done nothing at all*. *delete as appropriate.
Not the same this week though
Not earth shattering construction progress, although we did finish off a couple more longitudinal stringers.
Today was in fact a red letter day, as our good friend Sorin from Amada UK, delivered all of the bomb bay frames from Fr6 to Fr14 (some 27 off); these were laser cut free of charge by them and they even provided the material FOC as well.
There is some considerable work still to be carried out on these; from bending the flanges, flaring the lightening holes through to making the attachment brackets. Whilst metal blanks in themselves are not particularly exciting, what they represent is; as this is the beginning of the fuselage rebuild proper. From these we can make a kit of parts in readiness for the arrival of the bomb bay jig, when we can fabricate the keel members and then start assembling the fuselage.
Despite some false dawns, we’ve finally got here and apologies in advance as you’ll probably get bored to tears seeing yet more photos of frames undergoing work, but for us this is tremendously exciting.
As usual
take care
John
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