Provost - Part 2

Its taken nearly two years to completely dispose of Franks Engineering Workshop and modelling items except the Provost project which after considerable deliberation, I have decided to finish.
The airframe build is complete, thanks to the great work by Flying Pete but all the hardware needs constructing / completion. ie U/C, Cowl & Canopy. Frank had planned to make the latter true scale and sliding.
My starting point is the Tailwheel and because no suitable commercial product exists so am scratch building. While it would be very difficult to manufacture in true scale, i am making an effort to emulate the full size.
Attached is a pic of the full-size and what I've made so far. I still have to design and make the suspension strut. The material is essentially stainless and alloy for the block on


which I lost count at 60 ish separate machining actions.

Looks great so far Kevin, lovely bit of work.

It'll be really good to see the Provost finished.

Kevin - So pleased to read you are going to finish Frank's "Provost" - great that it will stay within the club.
Look forward to following your progress.
Best Wishes for 2018.
Colin

Nice work Kevin, Frank would have loved that, though it looks as if you could do with a 3D printer. What happened with the one I remember seeing in Frank's office?

Great work Kevin,

I wouldn't have the first idea how you go about machining something like that, but I can appreciate the skill involved, I wish you'd done a time-lapse video of all the different processes involved.

DavidTappin wrote: Nice work Kevin, Frank would have loved that, though it looks as if you could do with a 3D printer. What happened with the one I remember seeing in Frank's office?

David - have to admit as i progress this project, i can't ignore that sneaky "oversight" feeling from the master.

BTW, 3-D printers and CNC machines are for sissies - give me hard core manual - The printer went to Ron in the club who fixed it and has already done a project for Phil Ford

Kevin asks for a

hard core manual

Kevin, if you got hold of an instruction book like that the next thing you'd need to do would be to borrow Brian's chastity belt.

Chris001 wrote: Great work Kevin,

I wouldn't have the first idea how you go about machining something like that, but I can appreciate the skill involved, I wish you'd done a time-lapse video of all the different processes involved.

The following pics should provide an insight. X & Y axis via the normal milling machine slides Z axis from the headstock used in conjunction with a tilting rotary table. So managing 5 axis with my ageing brain didn't leave any capacity for recording./ photos

Making the forks :-
1. Diagonal section of stainless tube - later heated and reshaped.
2. & 3 Machining the saddle
4. Silver brazing the parts (yes Chris 001 i make jigs as well )
5. initial clean up

Fantastic machining Kevin. I am jealous of your workshop and your dedication to making such detailed parts. I appreciate how much effort it take to plan the 'cuts' for such precise components and I am humbled as I remember how much effort it took to making simple vices, clamps, andother stuff when I was an apprentice.