Sopwith Snipe Project

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Leatherhead

Nick & Scott,

The company name is Precision Steel. They are in Chicago. I called them this morning, just to make sure they exist. Yep, they are there!


800-323-0740
Precision Steel Warehouse, Inc. - Home

Coated Metals - Tin Coated - Precision Steel

Hi Leatherhead,
Many thanks for posting that link. Scott's post though sounds like much the same response I've got elsewhere though. I'll keep looking , there's got to be some out there somewhere. I hate to think what a special production run would cost
Cheers, Nick

[NostalgAire]

Hey Nick,

Let me know what you need and how much. I'm going to keep looking and if I can find everything, we'll work something out.

Scott

[Nick]

Originally Posted by NostalgAire

Hey Nick,

Let me know what you need and how much. I'm going to keep looking and if I can find everything, we'll work something out.

Scott

Thanks Scott,
I'm going to need a couple of sheets minimum (22 gauge .028" or whatever the closest is to that available) as also have to make the header tanks. I'll contact the Australian Steel institute next week and see if they know of anyone who still produces it. Will let you know if anything comes up.

Cheers, Nick

[Leatherhead]

This place has it listed as one of their products.

Products Tinplate (tin plate), Black Plate, Stainless Steel Strip, Tin Coated Sheet/TFS, Galvanized Steel (Electro and Hot Dip), and Cold Rolled Sheet and Strip.

[NostalgAire]

Originally Posted by Nick

Thanks Scott,
I'm going to need a couple of sheets minimum (22 gauge .028" or whatever the closest is to that available) as also have to make the header tanks. I'll contact the Australian Steel institute next week and see if they know of anyone who still produces it. Will let you know if anything comes up.

Cheers, Nick

Nick,
Could you give me square footage? (or rough sizes: width by length) When I was talking to Precision Steel, the size of terne plate I was needing would come in rolls. I will be talking to Berlin Metals this next week.

Thanks Leatherhead for finding Berlin Metals. *fingers crossed*

Scott

[Nick]

This place has it listed as one of their products.

Products Tinplate (tin plate), Black Plate, Stainless Steel Strip, Tin Coated Sheet/TFS, Galvanized Steel (Electro and Hot Dip), and Cold Rolled Sheet and Strip.

Thanks for posting that Leatherhead, sounds promising.

Originally Posted by NostalgAire

Nick,
Could you give me square footage? (or rough sizes: width by length) When I was talking to Precision Steel, the size of terne plate I was needing would come in rolls. I will be talking to Berlin Metals this next week.

Thanks Leatherhead for finding Berlin Metals. *fingers crossed*

Scott

Scott,
Thanks very much for doing that. Just sat down and did a rough calc on the amount needed and it's actually quite a bit once you add in the baffles and also the fuel oil header tanks.
It would vary depending on the width of the roll and subsequent wastage.
Assuming a 3 foot wide roll I would need about 18 foot of it. If its a different width I'd have to look at it again to see how all the piecs fit. A roll would presumably be easier to ship as well.
As you said "Fingers crossed"!

Cheers, Nick

[j ferguson]

Guys,
Are you sure terne-coated steel is ok for avgas? Galvanized is really bad for diesel.

Just asking

john ferguson

[brisfitworks]

Guys:

I know how it is dealing with manufacturerers - "minumim order or we won't talk to you or charge an arm and leg".

Bulking up our orders as a group makes sense.

I'd be in for a co-op but I need three gauges 20BSWG (0.032"), 22 BSWG (.0.028") and 24BSWG (0.022"). I will buy enough for three to five aircraft worth of material.

One issue I have is the tin-plate on the sources given is electroplated, "bright" tin. I have seen tanks on Barker's Snipe up close as well as the tanks on A & B's Vimy; the coating appears like galvanizing - crystaline pattern which means the tin plating was done by passing the metal trough of molten tin as opposed to electoplate.

Terne-plate may be more appropriate since it is an alloy of tin-lead and thus must be a molten tank process. Issue is, and why "tinned plate" was used, lead oxidizes; pure tin is more corrosion resistant.

I am after the ease of soldering AND the authentic appearance. So terne-plate seems the closest for me.

Is anybody in a hurry? or do we have time to figure out better what we should do?

Bill.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by j ferguson

Guys,
Are you sure terne-coated steel is ok for avgas? Galvanized is really bad for diesel.
Just asking
john ferguson

John,
That's a very good question . Don't know the answer so guess had better find out before going ahead.

Bulking up our orders as a group makes sense.

Bill,
I know of someone else who is chasing it up as well, between all of us we could come up with a reasonable sized order.

Is anybody in a hurry? or do we have time to figure out better what we should do?

I'm not in a screaming hurry, I still have hundreds of other bits to make to keep me busy. If it happens I'll grab it, if not I'll keep looking.
Nick

[Nick]

The main reason for going for Tinned Steel is to keep it as authentic as possible, where possible. John had a good question though about it's compatability with Avgas though so we'd better get an answer on that also before proceding.
Regarding also getting the authentic look, On looking at some of the photos that Edward & Jonathon S sent me the tanks on Barker's Snipe it's hard to tell exactly what they would have looked like originally. Is this grey colour how it would have looked or is that with age? Have they been painted at all?

Top of the Fuel & Oil header tanks

Bottom of those tanks with a good layer of gunge by the looks of it

Top of Main fuel tank

Cheers, Nick