Hello,
Thought I'd post this as it might benefit other members embarking on a similar project.
Have had this sorry looking First war German 10.5cm in the collection for a while. It was badly painted, scuffed and had a split driving band. ...
I thought I'd spent some quality time bringing the old girl back to some semblance of decency and tackled the driving band issue, after stripping and tidying up the body.
Hopefully this method will make sense and I'll quickly describe each image in number order:
Pic 1. Split driving band
Pic 2. Close up of split
Pic 3. Pure Copper fine wedge made from an old coin, cut to drive band width.
Pic 4. Split filled with Locktite glue and wedge driven in as far as possible with hammer.
Pic 5. Excess of wedge cut off.
Pic 6&7. Fettling of offcut with needle file, Dremel tool, wire brushes to profile groove in band. The danger here is of getting too carried away and ending up with too perfect a groove (too squared off or filing too wide/deep).
Eventually time will darken the bright copper and it'll hopefully blend in well.
Job took 45 minutes. I'm sure there are easier and quicker ways to repair bands, but for me, this works and I'm content knowing the band is still purely 100% Copper.
Many thanks and hope it proved useful.
Cheers!
