RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

ALPHA wrote: Wondering Herman ....with all your wonderful gadgets.... combined with your Ryobi ...can't figure out why you couldn't machine your wheels by yourself

ALPHA

PS. Machining on the wheels is nice though

Ha!!..............I did do two of them by havd with the help of gadgets. The problem was keeping the faces square to the wheel face.
I got it close, but with the tolerance for incorrect centre line fitting of the inner row being half a mm, I took the prudent step and machined them.
I did price up a small lathe ...........300mm between centres, 115 mm over the cross slide, digital read out & auto feed for $700 bucks.
I will see if that is going to be justified by how many sets of steel wheel Panther conversion kits I need to sell to pay for it !!

Slow day progress wise today.
Had a crack at removing the exhaust covers to change them to late Jagpanther ones with the elbow on top.
Hmm, the H/L glue monkey beat me, to death almost !!
Ended up breaking the shrouds into fragments & still not getting what I wanted.
Bought a new set of exhausts - X2- and a whole new rear plate just in case.
I do want to muck around with a storage box for the Vampir gear that these had on the right rear, so a spare panel to get things right on is going to be handy.

Also got the turret spare track link hangers bent up & mounted.
Used a heavy paper clip & two sets of needle nose pliers to bend them.
Still to complete the rear quarter mounts, but once the welds are placed I reckon they will look smoother than a gravy sandwich
Sure does give the turret an angry Echidna look with the guide horns sticking out like spines

Looking good Herman smart trick with the paper clip nice one

HERMAN BIX wrote:

ALPHA wrote: Wondering Herman ....with all your wonderful gadgets.... combined with your Ryobi ...can't figure out why you couldn't machine your wheels by yourself

ALPHA

PS. Machining on the wheels is nice though

Ha!!..............I did do two of them by havd with the help of gadgets. The problem was keeping the faces square to the wheel face.
I got it close, but with the tolerance for incorrect centre line fitting of the inner row being half a mm, I took the prudent step and machined them.
I did price up a small lathe ...........300mm between centres, 115 mm over the cross slide, digital read out & auto feed for $700 bucks.
I will see if that is going to be justified by how many sets of steel wheel Panther conversion kits I need to sell to pay for it !!

Yeah those metal milling machines can be costly....seen some small units on EBAY...about 100= 200 US dollars with ship Depending on the options you want;)
with that said though...you could have cut the wheels with carbide cutters ....spun the wheels on a drill set up and milled them quite well

ALPHA

Thats how I did two of them before I pulled the pin.
I wanted them consistent, accurate & quick !!
Certainly something that can be done at home, but time & risk of mistakes when you have an alternative must be considered.

HERMAN BIX wrote:Thats how I did two of them before I pulled the pin.
I wanted them consistent, accurate & quick !!
Certainly something that can be done at home, but time & risk of mistakes when you have an alternative must be considered.

So basically...your "LAZY" part of mind said..........THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY ....you have done well Grasshopper


ALPHA

Ahh, so master finally gets it !!
I like to do my builds from bottom to top, and until my bottom was squared away, it was upsetting my Fung Shui so to speak

HERMAN BIX wrote:Ahh, so master finally gets it !!
I like to do my builds from bottom to top, and until my bottom was squared away, it was upsetting my Fung Shui so to speak

This is the usual path Grasshopper.... having running chassis is all important...should take priority over fabrication on any other part...have found exception to that rule though...

With that said...it's always nice to have options....milling your wheels probably took as much effort by your hired help to accomplish...but because the sweat wasn't shared but experienced from different perspectives ...it became more fun than job like

Delegating responsibility ... you will make a good officer

ALPHA

Officer ? - no, I prefer to work for a living !!

My rear plate has still not arrived to replace the mess I made of the exhausts. The glue maniac got me cold.
I just seem to be out of sync not having the lower hull done.
Need to replace the exhausts with fully hooded Jagdpanther types, mount the tow clevis claw, starter crank, and track pin pliers on it, and create the Vampir storage box in place of the right side stowage bin.
THEN carry on with the hull upper.

Freed up the barrel travel mount by drilling out the long pin & replacing the solid moulding with brass pins out of a picture hanging kit.
Also completed the turret track link hangers, but these still need the welds doing.
Finished welds on the hull & need to place the fan cover plate lifting hooks.
Coated the glacis plate with superglue & spread it by finger to give texture. Seems to be pretty effective.

Looking pretty dang good Warrant OFFICER 2nd class Herman

ALPHA