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- Location
- Monrovia, Ca.
Over the past year, maybe more, I have been working on some smoke grenade launchers for the Museum's M551. It is outfitted nicely, but it just looked nekked without the launchers.
I was attempting to just go off pictures to try and get measurements, but I was not happy with what I was coming up with. One day, while sitting in the office, Craig and I were chatting, and the phone rang, it was Brent Mullins. He had a part off of one of the M50 ONTOS' and he was calling to say he was returning it. He also has a Sheridan. I asked, mostly joking, if he happened to have a smoke launcher that I could borrow to make some for ours. HOLY CRAP, HE DID!
He then said it would be no problem to borrow it and the next day it was in transit from College Station Tx. to South El Monte, Ca.
When it got here I was amazed how heavy and how big the thing was. I was also amazed at how complex the head of the tube was. I was thinking how I would go about replicating the head of the tube. The body itself would be a no brainer. I was also able to see in detail where the box on the side was located, it is offset of center quite a bit, and I was able to grasp how the tubes mount to the turret.
A friend of the Museum had just acquired a WWII GPA and was looking for some pieces. He also does 3D printing. I asked if I could bring something over to see if he could print it. When I got to his place and showed him the tube, explained that I only wanted the top and it would be put on top of a steel tube, I fully expected a hard "NO" because of the complexity of it, turns out that it was a "Yeah, I can do that!" I left the tube with him for a bit, he then called and asked me to come look at what he had done. All I can say is that I was blown away! It was perfect, looked almost exactly like it's steel real deal launcher head! We agreed on some parts for his Yeep and he would print 11 of them. 2 extra for us and one for Brent.
The project sat shelved for a bit. I went and swapped parts for printed parts, took some pictures and detailed drawings/tracings of the launcher, boxed up the launcher and printed part and shipped them back to Texas. Again, the project sat for a bit as I was kinda busy on a truck project.
I finally got tired of looking at an un finished project, so, in between waiting on parts for the truck project, I did little stuff on the launchers. Had to make the lathe work good enough to trim .040 off the tops of the tubes so that the head had a place to be firmly attached to the tube body. The tubes were made of .250 wall, 4 in. OD tube. I had a friend water jet some plates for the bottom of the tube that had a flat on one edge for rain water exit and to mock up the firing housing on the bottom of the tube. From the pics and tracings of the original tube I was able to come up with the mounting ears that needed attaching the the tube body and drew out a template for the box on the side of the tube. I hand bent the box from the drawing I made, made CAD, cardboard aided design, mounting tabs, and attached them to a tube so I could test fit it on the Sheridan. With small tweaks, I was able to get things the way I wanted them and was happy.
After a bit more slumber on a shelf and with the wrecker project ended, I set about getting the mounting tabs made up. My friends water jet had broken so I reached out to a local laser cutting shop around the corner from us. I presented my CAD, now transferred to grid paper, drawing to them and by end of day we had 20 nicely lasered mounting tabs. Yes, 20, JUC I messed up!
A visit to the local steel place to pick up a remnant sheet of steel for the boxes and I was back at the compound with supplies in hand and a project to complete!
The sheet metal was cut to size on the shear and notched then bent in the break to form a box. The mounting tabs were tapped for bolts. The firing housing pipe was cut to length then all of it was stuck to the tube body with a welder. The completed tubes were sanded and painted and finally I was able to get them mounted on the vehicle! Well, 4 of them, the turret is stuck and it needs to be turned 45 degrees to the left so that I can straighten the mounts on the turret. This thing was rode hard!
I took pictures of the printed head all by itself, but can't find it. Sorry, it has been a drawn out project I it might have been deleted. The heads are about 4 1/2 inched tall and 6 inches in diameter and apx 1/4 inch thick on all of the surfaces. I was also not able to get a SXS picture of my finished product and the real deal because I had Brents' part for almost a year and I wanted to get his part back to him.
I was attempting to just go off pictures to try and get measurements, but I was not happy with what I was coming up with. One day, while sitting in the office, Craig and I were chatting, and the phone rang, it was Brent Mullins. He had a part off of one of the M50 ONTOS' and he was calling to say he was returning it. He also has a Sheridan. I asked, mostly joking, if he happened to have a smoke launcher that I could borrow to make some for ours. HOLY CRAP, HE DID!
He then said it would be no problem to borrow it and the next day it was in transit from College Station Tx. to South El Monte, Ca.
When it got here I was amazed how heavy and how big the thing was. I was also amazed at how complex the head of the tube was. I was thinking how I would go about replicating the head of the tube. The body itself would be a no brainer. I was also able to see in detail where the box on the side was located, it is offset of center quite a bit, and I was able to grasp how the tubes mount to the turret.
A friend of the Museum had just acquired a WWII GPA and was looking for some pieces. He also does 3D printing. I asked if I could bring something over to see if he could print it. When I got to his place and showed him the tube, explained that I only wanted the top and it would be put on top of a steel tube, I fully expected a hard "NO" because of the complexity of it, turns out that it was a "Yeah, I can do that!" I left the tube with him for a bit, he then called and asked me to come look at what he had done. All I can say is that I was blown away! It was perfect, looked almost exactly like it's steel real deal launcher head! We agreed on some parts for his Yeep and he would print 11 of them. 2 extra for us and one for Brent.
The project sat shelved for a bit. I went and swapped parts for printed parts, took some pictures and detailed drawings/tracings of the launcher, boxed up the launcher and printed part and shipped them back to Texas. Again, the project sat for a bit as I was kinda busy on a truck project.
I finally got tired of looking at an un finished project, so, in between waiting on parts for the truck project, I did little stuff on the launchers. Had to make the lathe work good enough to trim .040 off the tops of the tubes so that the head had a place to be firmly attached to the tube body. The tubes were made of .250 wall, 4 in. OD tube. I had a friend water jet some plates for the bottom of the tube that had a flat on one edge for rain water exit and to mock up the firing housing on the bottom of the tube. From the pics and tracings of the original tube I was able to come up with the mounting ears that needed attaching the the tube body and drew out a template for the box on the side of the tube. I hand bent the box from the drawing I made, made CAD, cardboard aided design, mounting tabs, and attached them to a tube so I could test fit it on the Sheridan. With small tweaks, I was able to get things the way I wanted them and was happy.
After a bit more slumber on a shelf and with the wrecker project ended, I set about getting the mounting tabs made up. My friends water jet had broken so I reached out to a local laser cutting shop around the corner from us. I presented my CAD, now transferred to grid paper, drawing to them and by end of day we had 20 nicely lasered mounting tabs. Yes, 20, JUC I messed up!
A visit to the local steel place to pick up a remnant sheet of steel for the boxes and I was back at the compound with supplies in hand and a project to complete!
The sheet metal was cut to size on the shear and notched then bent in the break to form a box. The mounting tabs were tapped for bolts. The firing housing pipe was cut to length then all of it was stuck to the tube body with a welder. The completed tubes were sanded and painted and finally I was able to get them mounted on the vehicle! Well, 4 of them, the turret is stuck and it needs to be turned 45 degrees to the left so that I can straighten the mounts on the turret. This thing was rode hard!
I took pictures of the printed head all by itself, but can't find it. Sorry, it has been a drawn out project I it might have been deleted. The heads are about 4 1/2 inched tall and 6 inches in diameter and apx 1/4 inch thick on all of the surfaces. I was also not able to get a SXS picture of my finished product and the real deal because I had Brents' part for almost a year and I wanted to get his part back to him.
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