Thanks very much OBW.

I spent this last weekend cleaning up my old pen turning lathe. As near as I can tell I have not used it since 1995. Back in the day though I turned a lot of wooden pens with it.

I went on line and found a government manual on the Mark XIII. It was written in 1942 and contains all the drawings and technical information you could want concerning this torpedo. What I found out was that I was wrong in what I thought I knew. Turns out there is only one section of the torpedo, which is called the air flask which is the same diameter at either end. The war head tapers very slightly from the air flask section forward. I also found out there is more detail on the surface of these torpedos than you might think. I'm not going to be able to duplicate all of it. I just want to make sure the overall shape is correct.

Here is the drawing that I'm using.

If you ever do have a problem with the belt here is where I have always gone to get odd sized belts and bearing (they even can get me the 92" belt for my 40 year of Massey-Fergusen lawn tractor) http://www.bearing-sales.com/ If they won't do internet or phone sales let me know, the local one is four miles from my house.
Foo

Nice clean work as usual!! Looking good

check with someone selling replacement belts for unimats and the like, the urethane belting comes in almost every cross section type, differant degrees of flex and stretch. they just weld to the correct length.. always have a spare, its one of those things that break at the worst times..http://www.tomstoolstore.com/servlet/StoreFront

Today I turned the after section of the Mark XIII. I told myself it was just like turning a really big pen. I was a little rusty at turning after all these years. But it is like riding a bike, you never really forget.

I wanted to explain that casting a solid part does not mean I intend to use it for the finished torpedo's. I am going to try and make a hollow part as the final step. I just need a solid part to cut the details into the surface. I could try it with the wooden master but I would have problems with the wood grain and I tend to make a lot of mistakes. I think it will be better to try these details on a resin duplicate first.

Nice work Grav!!

Thanks K, it was good to get the old lathe going agian. I always wanted to learn metal turning but never did. The things you can do with a metal lathe are magic.

Nice lathe work.

Sure was!

You made that look awfully easy Gravman.

I cast a resin copy of the aft section of the torpedo. I drilled the indents in the body of the air flask. I also added these to the aft section.

All I can say is WOW!