Mountings, Carriers, No. 1

[cletrac (RIP)]

I have a set that are surplus to my needs. Maybe we could work out a trade. I need the shock absorbers though. Did they use two or three on a setup? These came wired together like they were a unit.
The end holes on the metal strips are 11 7/8" center to center. The bolts that go through the table top are 2" long so the table could be 1" thick.

[David Dunlop]

Nice photo Dave. It struck a bell and I went poking in the Working Instructions for the Mk III 19-Set. Sure enough, in the 'group photo' at the back of the manual of all the Wireless Truck kit, there was the set of Mountings and they appear to be fastened together.

Just checked the spacing for the outer two holes on my Carriers, Sets No.21 and they are only 9 or 9.5 inches apart (they are starting to splay out a bit with age and I better address that soon), so for these Mountings, they seem to have spread the distance between the rubber feet to compensate for the wider load with the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 added to the mix.

Could you check one other thing while you have your Mountings handy? The 'standard' feet on my Carriers, Sets No.21 are 7/8" wide. Are the ones on your mountings the same width, or did they beef them up a bit as well to handle the extra load? I think I ran across one lone foot assembly years ago that was much fatter than any of the others I had with my 19-Set gear and I tossed it assuming it was not correct. Now I am curious to see just how dumb I might have been back then.

Cheers,


David

[cletrac (RIP)]

The feet are 7/8" wide.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks David. Guess I didn't throw out anything special after all.

Oh, they only used two of these mountings (a mount, 2 x feet, 2 x straps and four 1/4" hardware sets), one on each end of the Carriers, Sets, No. 23, to install it on the wireless table. Supplies were probably stocked as complete Mounting Kits bundled together, as well as on an individual item basis to be issued as needed.

David

[David Dunlop]

Yes, these are a required part of the kit needed to mount the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 to the wireless table.

As an aside to all, and forgive me if I mentioned this somewhere else on the Forum, in a Galaxy far, far away, but with regards to the little u-shaped rubber/steel foot assemblies used with these Mounts and all the steel Carriers, Sets for the 19-Sets, they need to be bolted down when under load. If they are not, over time, the load bearing down through the centre bolt spreads out towards the two steel foot plates, pulling on the two rubber pads in the middle. The first sign of this taking effect will be that the steel plates of the feet no longer sit flat on a table or bench but start to curl and point upwards. If left unresolved, they will simply tear apart. One way to prevent this is to cut two strips of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood long enough to reach both foot assemblies on one side of your Carriers. Countersink appropriate holes and from the bottom up, bolt the plywood strip to the feet. That will stop any further spread/disintegration of the feet and still allow you to move the set anywhere you want to as needed. The design of these feet in this regard seems to be a bit of a weak point. A better system is the round rubber donut assemblies used in a lot of electronics, where the load transfer is straight down and then out around the circumference of the donut equally.

Anyway. Save your feet. Bolt them down.


David

[David Dunlop]

Based on the information gathered so far on these mountings, I have drawn up the attached template of the probable hole pattern which should be found on any original Wireless Table that had the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 'Bread Board' mounted on it for the 19-Set. The template was drawn in centimetres, so the orientation of the holes to one another should be proportionally correct.

If any of you have original wireless tables for the WIRE-5 15-cwt Wireless Truck, can you check the table to see if you can locate this pattern of holes? If the top of the table is in tough shape, or bears a lot of holes, it might be worth looking underneath the table where the surface might be better protected. The top or bottom might also bear the shadows from the steel Table Mounting Strips used to reinforce these holes.

Should you find these holes on your table:

(1) Please confirm the dimensions shown for the hole spacings.

(2) Please provide measurements from the four edges of the table top plywood to the centre lines of the two vertical rows of Mountings holes and the centre lines of the foremost and rearmost horizontal hole lines. This will allow anyone restoring one of these tables in the future (or building a new clone) to correctly orient exactly where the Mountings, Carriers No. 1 should be located on the Wireless Table.

Best regards,


David