New driving bands for my 17Pr shell.

[Stuka]

Over the years I've bought quite a few projectiles which are missing the original driving bands and I've been searching for options to restore them since. All the options I found weren't really satisfying, so I've always stuck with leaving my projo's as they were, without the bands.
Now I have decided to try something new, something I've been thinking about for a long time: Making real bands, from real copper. It will involve a little bit of surgery for the projo, but it is worth a try. If pictures of projectile-surgery are going to upset you, you might want to turn away for a little while ;-)

This is the patient for today, a 17pr APCBC shell that I bought years ago. The previous owner tried to putty the bands and painted them in copper colour. Looking good from far, but far from good. Step 1 is to remove the putty and measure the width of the missing bands.


After this I machined the projectile to a smaller diameter.


I made a ring from resin to make sand molds and melted scrap pieces of driving band that I saved from previous projects. I casted the molten copper in the sand molds and made two copper rings.


The inner diameter is turned to match the outer diameter of the projectile on the machined part.
I fitted the copper rings on the projectile and added steel rings. I welded the last steel ring to the projectile.


I turned everything to size, gave the new driving bands the right profile and added the groove to fit the case. A light coat of primer prevents rust while I wait for some time to restore the rest of the projo.

 

[M8owner]

Impressive welding bead. Very labor intensive process compared to swaging new bands into place.

 

[Weasel Pilot]

Very impressive!

 

[Fred]

Impressive work. If you don't like the idea of machining away part of the projectile, an alternative method would be to fill in the grooves so that they are flush with the rest of the body. This could be done with filler or maybe soft solder. Then a pair of neat fitting copper rings could be slipped over the body and glued in place. I have used this method on small projectiles, 40mm diameter with success.
Fred

 

[apfsds]

Everything about this was amazing. Envious of your machining skills.

Jason

 

[BMG50]

There are posts where you can form your own copper rings cutting the thickness width length from copper stock, forming the copper band that fits around the projectile snug not the band area, and gas weld the band but not on the projectile.
Yes you can gas weld copper to copper without flux, my advice is not to use tig as its too hot and forms bubbles in the join, gas welding heating till the join melts together, when cool it slips on the projectile in line with the band area and crimp on the band with tapered rings with a press, then lathe to profile of original band shape.

3inch 20ctw dimentions

Been re banding my 3 inch 20cwt projectiles with missing bands which have been very successful so far. Managed to master the welding of copper to copper making the banding rings with a gas torch and have been successful crimping them in place. Now i need the correct diameter of the 3inch...

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