Warbird Information Exchange

I hate when people say things like that, especially when people like you say them, Gary! It's so untrue!

Glad to hear that Gary...that last thing you need is a vet bill added to the cost of Lil's transformation.

Quick question...did you purchase the replica .50 cal's from Carl Schol's business, "Aero Trader"? I remember asking about replica .50 cals in a previous thread months back and somebody mentioning that Aero Trader was one of the only companies making quality replicas out of solid blocks of aluminum.

Scott...put me down for $50 as well...I'll have the check in the mail to you today.

John

First of all, I wasn't trying to sound like I was whining about my mistake on the tunnel gun window, just explaining how I felt about it. I screw up frequently around here, it's just that sometimes mistakes like the one for the tunnel gun are more frustrating because I know better. Oh well.....

And, jpeters...
Yes, those guns are from Aero Trader. There are other remanufactured guns out there that are cheaper, but Carl's guns just look right and are much lighter than the originals.

Thanks for pitching in to help purchase them. I need a total of five guns for now. One is here, so only four more to go.

Gary

Gary
Are you planning on having ammo belts attached to the guns? I ask only because we seem to lose a few .50 rounds everytime Yankee Lady is open for tours. I wonder if there is a small field mod that can be done to make everything look accurate, but still keep those with light fingers at bay.

_________________
Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

Chico, I have your answer.

We did this to our "Ma Deuce" heavy MG display. All the fifty casings have holes drilled through them and then we ran a thin "piano wire" through the holes and secured at the end of the belt (one in the bottom of the ammo box and the other under the flip up cover.) Most people don't notice the small wire that is near the links. It also allows the belt to "flex and twist" like the original...

OR I guess you could epoxy the links to the casings......That would be a LOT of work for a couple of belts though.

Actually, it appears that the B-24A primarily used ammo cans clipped onto the guns as opposed to the ammo belts like on the later models. You can see the can on the side of the tunnel gun I installed yesterday. It's not yet complete, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Thanks for the tip on keeping the bullets in place though. Definitely something to remember.

Gary

There have been a few times on this thread that folks have asked me what we need as far as tooling goes to make this project go a little quicker and smoother. Well, my Maintenance Officer just sent me some pictures to post of some tooling that Consolidated once used that would certainly be helpful to us. So if any of y'all have this stuff in your garage and your wife is on your butt about getting it out of there, just ship it on down to us and we'll put it to good use.

Gary

No problem Gary...just as long as you pay for the shipping costs!

John

That first pic is a huge hydropress! We purchased a company about 20 years ago in Washington state. We got all of thier machine tools, etc. and there were two hydropresses, one about 2/3 the size of that one and the other being about 1/3 the size.

We were able to bring home the smaller one but the larger one cost WAY TOO MUCH to disassemble and ship home. The smaller one does everything but our largest fuel dams and ribs.

I would not be surprised in the least if some small amount of equipment remained at the Willow Run plant. The facility is MASSIVE and has changed hands so many times (and is so slightly utilizied now) that there may well be something B-24 related in there. I know the turntables are still in place.

Heck, my uncle (GM powertrain employee. The facility is a transmission plant now.) got an Indian head 1903 penny as change from a coffe machine not too long ago. Even money says someone picked it up off the floor and put it to use without looking at it!

_________________
Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

The Scholl replica 50 cal. is nice Gary, but can't you persuade HQ to splurge a little and get just one that'll spit lead?

http://alliedarmament.homestead.com/50calM3.html

I mean, really, couldn't it actually be useful for certain ramp security situations, let alone the border patrol moonlighting income.

_________________
It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Gary,

first off I want to applaud you and your efforts, both with the sheetmetal work and the continuous updates you post for our pleasure. But, now, if I may, from one "Tin Bender" to another, you are doing alot of work with little support and tooling. PLEASE....don't put yourself down as often as you do. I have done aircraft sheetmetal work on and off now for the better part of 25 years, most for pay, some for pure enjoyment on the WW II types.

And the guys I learned the trade from were very old school, I made my share of screw-ups and fixed alot of others messes. And to a man, the guys I learned it from taught me one very good rule of thumb when it came to being a good Tin Bender. And they all said that the best way to gage how well a Tin Bender has learned his craft is to see how well he can hide his own mistakes, so that no one notices and that the mistakes in and of themselves do not affect the structural integrity of the project.

You are doing just fine with the project and have been most inventive when it comes to problem solving....like using that old spinner. Also, when I have the time myself that is, I always look at the photo's carefully. I spent 18 years of my career at the airlines as an Inspector. So, if I may....you are doing just fine , and I say that with an Inspector's eye viewing the project progress photo's.

So...give yourself a break...you ARE NOT dumb as a box of rocks....and your work is very good. Personally I can't wait to see 'Lil on the circiut in person. Or....if I can duck out of my own job for a while and hop a flight to Midland, with some of my sheetmetal tools of course, I may try to get down to help out abit. Now, I just gotta convince my Boss that it would be a good thing for me to "disappear" for a week.

Paul

Thanks Paul. The kind words are appreciated. There are obviously ups and downs for me personally when putting these updates on this website, as many, many people are obviously watching quite closely at what's going on.

The good side is quite apparent. Everyone that loves Warbirds who typically doesn't get to see this side of the industry is able to see what goes on in "my" world. Also, to be perfectly honest, it helps me considerably to hear the comments from everyone out there...not only the "atta-boys," but the helpful suggestions and hints.

The down side of this type of update is also pretty clear. I'd venture to say that anyone who takes pride in what they do and is passionate about their work would struggle the same way I do to allow anyone with Internet access see their daily mistakes and troubles. I am no different. Sometimes I am happy to let everyone see my mistakes, as it is a great learning tool for both me and you. And heck, sometimes it's even pretty funny. However, there are just some days that it just gets to me. I suppose that yesterday's discovery of my mistake with the tunnel gun window, along with some comments from a couple of WIXers about the way in which I came about my parts I used for my work (which weren't actually that bad, I just took them the wrong way), just got the better of me. Hey, everyone gets frustrated. Y'all just get to read about it when I do. It's just part of this type of project.......in other words, this type of work is not always happiness and $15 trophies from Oshkosh, like you typically read about.

So anyway, thanks again for the kind words and just bear with me when my posts sometimes get a bit on the frazzled side.

Gary

paul, just point out to your boss how many people view this post and tell him you will post the company's name here as being warbird friendly. you couldn't buy advertising like this post.

Okay, with all of that "other stuff" out of the way , here's your update for today........

First of all, even though nobody has really argued this point, I thought I'd post a picture of one of the data plates on AM927 which may help prove it's lineage as a B-24A. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but kept forgetting........





The second kind of cool thing for today's update is news about our control surfaces. I got a call from Steve Clinton, who is the President of the local EAA chapter (Chapter 123), who said they had removed all of the old fabric from both rudders and both elevators. I drove out to their hangar to inspect them and they looked surprisingly good. I will only have to make one repair to one of the elevators and that's it. So, hopefully, they'll be able to get started on recovering them soon........





Daniel has been hard at it as usual and has not only finished shooting the outside skin on the main entry door (will get photo later), but has also added more structure for the new waist gunner's floor that will be installed later and is now shooting that fuselage plug I made that used to be the bottom of the old entry door. It's pretty clear how important this guy is to our project with the amount of work he gets done........


We have had a nice, steady stream of volunteers show up recently. They have been doing much of the tedious "unseen" work on a project like this. Things such as stripping parts and masking off the cockpit for me to paint, and so on. Their help is also invaluable.

I was going to post some of my continuing work on the tailgunner's section today, but frankly, I'm as tired as a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest, so I'm going home and going to bed. I'll post the rest of this update tomorrow morning.

Oh, one other thing.....just in case I don't say it enough, thank you all again for your continuing support of what we're trying to get accomplished here. I appreciate the kind words and good questions y'all throw my way.

Gary