12jaguarNice find Alan
12jaguarMorning all
This weekend saw some drilling, well actually lots and lots of drilling lol. The stbd bomb keel member is moving on apace. Using original wreckage as a guide, I marked out the rivet pitches along the lower keel extruded angle; Shorts in their own quirky style had different rivet pitches all along these, so each had to be plotted individually. Very time consuming, along with having to drill through 3/8″ thickness aluminium. Should get the stbd one finished next weekend hopefully.
I’ve introduced Andy to the delights of solid riveting as well and he’s a natural at it. We managed to get Fr6 centre fully assembled now and he’s busy cracking on with the remainder, so currently 2 are finished with only 25 to go!
Cliff was busy, sorting and identifying wreckage, and then made the final pieces of bomb keel diaphragms that fit at the end aft of fr14 to just before fr15.
All in all a busy day, but one that’s seeing some definite progress
John
12jaguarGood morning all
A busy and productive day yesterday. Only 3 of us on site but Andy and Graham have started a veritable production line of bomb frames. As you know we completed ctr fr11 previously and now we have 8, 9 and 10 in work having been pilot drilled ready for final rivet sizes installing.
Meanwhile, I made a start on the bomb bay keels, with the stbd one being the first prototype. We’ve had some revised frame station data provided, so this was marked out on the lower extruded angle that runs the length of the bay. The keel diaphragms were then slaved into position which revealed one minor and one not so minor issue.
The minor issue was that the diaphragm between fr10 and 14 is 0.45″ too long, this just needs trimming to size. A bigger issue was on the front diaphragm which goes from 5 to 8. The length of this appears to be incorrect, and where it meets the front of the bomb bay there seems to be slightly wrong. The CAD needs to be checked for this one as everything else works out fine. You have to expect issues like this when basically everything is a prototype but we’re confident we can work through them as they arise
Notwithstanding this I was able to pilot drill the doubler that joins the fr8-10 to the 10-14 diaphragms. With all this now clamped together it just shows how big a beast the old girl will be.
Till next
John
12jaguarWe’re properly settled in the new workshop now and I think it’s safe to say that we all feel a bit invigorated by it .
Yesterday probably saw the most people on site that we’ve had for a long time, with 6 of us in attendance.
Having more space is definitely a bonus, with Andy and Graham combining to fabricate bomb bay centre frame 10. This was Andys’ first real go at building structure and between the two of them they’ve made a pretty good start. A little more do then it’s riveting time. As time goes on, they’re both confident that they will turn them round quicker .
We’ve changed over the media in the shot blasting cabinet to something a bit gentler and with the new gun, the results are certainly better with a satin finish being achieved where you can clearly find intact part numbers. Dave K has been working on 2 recent finds; part of the vertical camera mount in the bomb aimers area and the front turret hydraulic access hatch which is part of the nose turret fairing. It’s come up so good we think we’ll be able to re-use it once it’s straightened out.
Lastly Cliff and I were having a minor headache working out the rivet pitches on the doublers that hold the bomb bay keel plates together. We finally got there and pilot drilled them ready for the next stage. We’re hoping that this will see the start of the beginnings of the bomb bay structure proper as we think we have all the necessary info to allow us to make a start on the keels
Cheers
John
12jaguarChange of plan from my last update, as I was able to get this weekend at the workshop. 4 of us were able to make it, including newish volunteer Nathan. He was amongst the team that helped get the building fit for occupation. Now it’s time for aircraft stuff, so we started with some riveting and stripping items down. Have to say he took to it like a duck to water.
Cliff and Dave K were busy cleaning, identifying and sorting wreckage parts so although there’s not too much to show for the day there has been steady progress.
Pic attached of Nathan’s first go at riveting up one of the heavy bomb beam reinforcing structure from BK716.
No update next weekend so it will be a couple of weeks
John
12jaguar3 of us on site yesterday, with Andy making the trip down south to get a handle on the most efficient way to form the hundreds of joggles that we need for the bomb frame brackets.
Graham was sorting out the AGS and I made a start on on priming the the items that Dave K bead blasted last week. Once done I thought I’d make a start on the bomb bay keels. Whilst we can’t set the jig down yet due to waiting for some space to be cleared, it won’t hurt to start preparing the relevant parts for assembly. In this case the centre and rear diaphragms need some cut outs on the forward end, a fact that was discovered from the parts recovered from BK716. First 2 cut outs have been added to the lower side of the centre diaphragms with the rear to follow next time. Can’t do the upper ones yet until we set the height of the keel member but hopefully not too far away.
Next job after that will be to pilot drill the doublers that join the diaphragms together
No update next weekend as I have a weekend off
John
12jaguarCheers TA
John
12jaguarNew Year, new workshop, new progress to report.
As I have this week off, we scheduled a mid week get together. Whilst Cliff and I carried on sorting out the various boxes, Andy has blooded himself and has finished the bomb beam closing plates. These started off as blanks that were laser cut by our good friends at Amada and formed using metal blanks provided by them as well. Andy had 3d printed some press tools which worked pretty well but just needed some final percussion persuasion to finish off the flanged lightening holes. Pretty good job from him methinks.
Our bead blasting gun finally gave up the ghost; however it has lasted 20 odd years so didn’t owe us anything. Luckily I’d bought a new on and once hooked up it was surprising how much more efficient it was. It took Dave K only 4 minutes as opposed to the hour it previously took to de-corrode similar items.
Finally I finished off the light bomb beam that I started before we moved, it didn’t take long as it just needed the electrical connector mounting to its plate which then needed the 4 attaching bolts tightening on the beam itself. Small progress but good to put it behind us
Cheers
John
12jaguarOther than that it is as described, what else would you like to know about it?
John
12jaguarThought it worthwhile to have a recap of our activities in 2023.
January saw us sorting out our stuff after the move from Alconbury and lightened by the delivery of the remaining parts from BK716 courtesy of the Dutch Air Force…Great bunch of guys
Once we’d sorted through the delivered parts as well as the stuff we’d brought with us it was back to making/restoring; bomb frame 11, the first light bomb beam and the diaphragms for the keel structure.
Then it seemed that just as we were getting settled at Stilton it was time to be underway again, this time of our own volition and thanks to Saint Andy who has organised our very own workshop a mere 5 times the size of the Stilton one. So the last 6 months of this year has been bouts of restoring along with making the ‘new’ workshop fit for use.
So this brings us to the end of 2023, with our final move taking place at the beginning of December. Apart for some fettling of the compressed air lines we should be able to crack on in 2024 without fear of interruption or relocation. To sum up, 2023 was a mixed year but one that should set us in good stead for the future and with some new volunteers coming along, hopefully some speedier progress
Happy New Year
John
12jaguarNo pics unfortunately, but today was spent sorting kit out etc. Compressor is back up and running with the airlines now routed to where they’ll be useful.
Hopefully normal service will be resumed in the New Year
12jaguarHi MN138
Looking at close up photos it looked more like Lancaster and wasn’t the characteristic tubular spar type structure of a Stirling unfortunately
John
12jaguarA quick further update. One of or supporters, John Wilson, has restored a large wooden Stirling model that has been in our possession for many years, was battered and looking very worse for wear. The exact history of this model which is approximately 1/24 scale, is unknown to us but we’ve always suspected that it’s a Shorts wind tunnel model. This seems to have been born out as John has found evidence that it has been progressively modified from a MkI Srs 1, through MkIII to MkIV.
John has removed the awful paint that had been applied to it and has finished it in natural wood back to its original MkI configuration. I’m sure you will agree that it looks superb
John
12jaguarHi all, sorry for being a bit quiet of late, but prep for the move was underway and yesterday was the big day itself.
Mostly straightforward process although lorry issues gave Andy a few extra grey hairs!
In the end it only took a couple of loads, helped by moving the jig and the ISO containers separately; the latter had most of the racks already so this saved us a lot of humping and dumping.
A couple of pics below of the chaos at the beginning of today, it’s already looking a lot better but muggins here forgot to take the ‘after’ pics
AAlso photo of myself Andy and Jacob holding some bespoke Stirling beer…cheers
Till next
John
12jaguarIt’s American spec
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