Sopwith Snipe Project

[robby88]

Wow these are great pics of the control grip! I'm really enjoying following this thread. It's very interesting and useful.

I'm curious to know the diameter of the control grip if you have it? Many thanks.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by robby88

I'm curious to know the diameter of the control grip if you have it? Many thanks.

Hi Rob,
The outside diameter is 140mm and inside diameter is 100mm.

Cheers, Nick

[robby88]

Thanks Nick.

[Nick]

The cast cross hatching on your museum levers have me thinking Bill. I don't have a picture of the front of the grip of Barkers Snipe so can't compare but this is one from E6938 which shows similar filed (I'm assuming) cross hatching at an angle. I think that maybe there were several contractors producing these which may explain the difference.



Cheers, Nick

[tengew]

yes the hatch looks as if it was a after thought
not like it was milled in to the forms or during machining
nick cant wait to see yours wrapped and fully machined
i dont thing some one could tell the difference

[brisfitworks]

Nick:

Had a bit of time to sift through microfilmed Snipe dwg's. Some success!
Found, and pulled aside for printing:
- oil tank drawings
- main fuel tank bearers
- fuel tanks bit or two
- more self-sealing fuel tank drawings
- interchangability tolerance sheet with center-section dimension. Too small to read the 51" dimension but it is there and toleanced!
- interchangability tolerance sheet with oil tank dimensions.
- a full assembly drawing of entire control column et'al and it is really obvious that those steps are for protecting the aileron cables
- a center section spar drawing with joint rod pitch at 51", don't know if it is the same dwg no. and date as yours though

If there was any RAF type grip stuff with this Snipe stuff, I would have pulled it out for the Brisfit. I might still have your C series grip dwg. Do you need a copy of the S.L. drawings for the Blip switch details, it makes a great push-to-talk button!

I was wrong! I went through about 160 slides and there still was a box of 100 and a few part boxes of 20! There is probably about 300 slides. Some are duplicates but I was amazed at the wealth of detials! Better ask quick for other stuff while some of what I saw is fresh.

I haven't looked through these for probably a decade. I forgot how much there was. It is interesting because I see so many very familiar parts because of working on the Camel, this is a Camel based design and yet this is a very much more complicates aeroplane. You really have taken on a challenge Nick!

Originally Posted by Nick

Wow, thats great, many thanks Bill for posting those, thats incredibly helpful.
Thats really interesting to see that the levers are cast with that cross hatching. Thats different to the ones at the Imperial War museum which are filed at an angle. Would there have been different manufacturers for these?
As for the hollow chamber I plan on taking it down to trade school and either mounting it in a big 4 jaw chuck and boring it out or alternatively mounting it in a vice on a milling machine table. I'll then use a "T" slot cutter to cut the slot inside the ring.
I've got to finish off my fuel tank fittings first, then I'll do this.
Many thanks again Bill, you just made my day.

Cheers, Nick

[Nick]

Originally Posted by brisfitworks

Nick:

Had a bit of time to sift through microfilmed Snipe dwg's. Some success!
Found, and pulled aside for printing:
- oil tank drawings
- main fuel tank bearers
- fuel tanks bit or two
- more self-sealing fuel tank drawings
- interchangability tolerance sheet with center-section dimension. Too small to read the 51" dimension but it is there and toleanced!
- interchangability tolerance sheet with oil tank dimensions.
- a full assembly drawing of entire control column et'al and it is really obvious that those steps are for protecting the aileron cables
- a center section spar drawing with joint rod pitch at 51", don't know if it is the same dwg no. and date as yours though

If there was any RAF type grip stuff with this Snipe stuff, I would have pulled it out for the Brisfit. I might still have your C series grip dwg. Do you need a copy of the S.L. drawings for the Blip switch details, it makes a great push-to-talk button!

Thanks Tengew for your comments, hopefully I can bore out the centre okay without stuffing it up!

Bill,
What can I say except thank you so much for going to all that trouble it's really appreciated.
Any details on the fuel tanks would be great.
I'm happy now to stick with the 51" between joint rods as being the way to go but I'm not exactly sure how the joint box fits through the outer rib as the plans do not show that detail. Again a case of the guys on the floor new how to do it. I suspect the joint box is packed out to the size of the spar, then the capstrip cut so it will fill around the strut socket and then finally a bracket screwed either side (A3359) where the capstrip was cut. I'm hoping details like this become more obvious when I start assembling it.
I have the Standard (SL) fittings drawings and one of the old style spade grip (SL167) and also one that says "circuit breaker" (SL168). Is that the blip switch?
Many thanks again Bill.

Cheers, Nick

[brinesharks]

Nick,

Sorry to ask a question out of sequence, but going back to your first photo - what type of tubing did you use for the undercarriage struts? Is it oval or tear-drop shaped? Does it match the Sopwith drawings or did you use a close approximation?

Looking at the Nieuport drawings they call for tear-drop shape but this is a little hard to come by these days!

[Nick]

Originally Posted by brinesharks

Nick,

Sorry to ask a question out of sequence, but going back to your first photo - what type of tubing did you use for the undercarriage struts? Is it oval or tear-drop shaped? Does it match the Sopwith drawings or did you use a close approximation?

Looking at the Nieuport drawings they call for tear-drop shape but this is a little hard to come by these days!

Bryan,
I used 4130 streamline tube which is a symmetrical aerofoil shape. This was one of the many compromises you get faced with when building with a budget. I have used the closest available size to the original that I could get without having to roll the exact profile. It's not hard to get, it's just
expensive. I'll drop you an email with the local suppliers.

Cheers, Nick

[tengew]

nick
are the tear shapes relatively the same on all sopwith air craft ?
if they are it just might be cheaper to have a set of dies made and roll your own teaming up with the other makers it just might save a few bucks for you