USAAF airbase - January 25th 2012 - Base dump and MD session :)

[davejb]

You can't beat a pile of tea rations and a cracking toothbrush, Good stuff Steve!!


John

WHAT? for a case of constipation? are you mad !!!

[381st digger]

Steve,
I'm still pondering over your metal pipes. When I'm up the farm tomorrow I will measure the diameter of my .50 barrel and see if it would slide inside your pipes. The only thing I'm not sure of is if the cooling jacket would still do it's job if it were inside the tube? Hmmmmm
Can I see some better photos of the slots you told me about please and also a pic of the muzzle end face on. Cheers mate.

Andy

[381st digger]

Steve,
When I'm up the farm tomorrow I will measure the diameter of my .50 barrel and see if it would slide inside your pipes.

Andy

Just reread my post. Funny! It will fit up ya pipe if I push hard enough. Ha.

[Steve T]

I'll take some more pictures later on today and post them up

I knew Davejb would like that 381st.........Daft ol' pervert he is. Dreams of having a 50cal inserted most nights.......

[davejb]

Err, there is nothing perverted about normal bodily functions or having your pipes cleaned, why only last week the boiler man came round and cleaned mine, he even inserted a copper rod to shift some scale that had accumulated, my system works quite well now, free flowing, hot and steaming, perfect temperature in fact

[Steve T]

Here ya go. More pictures of the tubes. Let's see if ian_ , 381st or PB can ID them from these (I still think they are something to do with either a Merlin or Allison engine )

They are 2 feet long......



With bits cut out at one end, (where the iron clamp piece is)



Here's the other end of one of them...



and the other............



Close up of the machining marks made when the sheet was rolled.....



And then I noticed there are the remains of some sort of mounting at the end. 4 screw/bolt holes.....



Hope these help with the ID

Steve T

[davejb]

Steve, google Jay Lenos Rolls Royce Merlin Engine restoration PART 1, scroll to picture no/7, very similar tubes from the internal head

[Steve T]

I see what you mean but they don't look anywhere near long enough.

[ian_]

Good extra pics Steve. Still don't know! It's definitely not P47 blast tube. P51s only had blast tubes on the nose guns, the only pic i can find looks a bit too short and fat for yours. P38s have staggered nose guns, some shrouded, some not if you look at pics. Found the attached from 'Glacier Girl' but they look wrong . Pretty sure they are nothing to do with a Merlin (scavenger pipe in the sump is a different shape, diameter and material. Don't know enough about Allisons to say. An aircraft .5 barrel is 28 inches long, the cooling jacket 26.5 inches. Cooling jacket diameter is 48mm. Sorry, stuck...

[Paul B]

...rummages around the virtual library trying to find the P-38 armament manual...