I've always wondered how the hell these things were stamped. They all seem to be one piece. It's just always been a real head scratcher for me. Anyone know or have pics even?
I know they used huge presses, the Guide companies ability to stamp parts was put to good use during the war as well. The .45 cal( grease gun) sub machine gun was made by them as well. I think it was the M3, produced for something like six bucks a copy. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Probably 'deep draw' steel....that's my guess. An aluminum beverage can starts out as a kinda thick flat disc and is drawn in length by dies.........I once saw a video of that process, absolutely amazing that it comes out a thinner, but uniform thickness, cylinder....then is 'turned' in dies to shape the upper part before being capped.
I'm sure they were, I just picture the metal getting wrinkled as hell. The face of the bucket where the headlight sits is 90 degrees to the rest of the housing. I'm just baffled.
Got 2 B a multi stamping process. If I remember right, a 33 ford grille went thru 8 to 10 different stampings
Most all buckets have a draw to them (the tear drop shape) and then end in a diameter that is reduced or smaller than the largest diameter of the tear drop. This is the area where the headlight ring attaches. Buckets may begin with a deep-drawing process and then finish with a metal spinning operation to achieve the necked-down end for the headlight ring. They could also be fully formed with the metal spinning operation but it would be much slower than splitting up the fabrication amongst 2 or more primary processes. - EM
Spinning makes sense for the headlight end. Didn't think about that process. I've never seen the re-popped Guide buckets but I would think it's probably the same process or close. So someone knows for sure. Thanks so far fellas.
There is a thing called a shimmy die that uses cams to create lateral motion in the die. I have never seen a headlight made but assume this is the process used to create the shoulder at the big end of the part. I'm sure they weren't spun, I have chucked them up in a lathe, and they are not round enough to have been formed by spinning.
I have sanded the paint off many of them. You can see the draw marks in them as you take the paint off. You can see the shrinking done on the rim area. The are not round and far from perfect as far a contour and radius. The hard bend hids that. In fact the thickness of the metal varies quite a bit as well. There must have been a fair amount of rejects. The idea of moving a piece of metal that much would be interesting to see. In fact most manufacturing is interesting to see. That is why the TV show "How It Was Made" is interesting to watch.
........Same here, well more like Arrows than Guides or BLCs, but do I need to be wearing a respirator when I do this? I'm sure there must be some lead in that original paint. Sorry didn't mean to hi-jack this thread, but was just curious...........Thanks, Don. ,
From wikipedia "The T-20 was formally approved by U.S. Army Ordnance for production at GM's Guide Lamp Division in Anderson, Indiana in December 1942 as the U.S. Submachine Gun, Caliber .45, M3.[5] Guide Lamp produced 606,694 of the M3 variant submachine gun between 1943 and 1945" Lars
The Jalopy Journal
