My MG34 Fortess Mount

[philip turland]

excellent

really interesting

well done

philip

[Grossfuss]

MG34 Fortess Mount

Hi,
A fascinating piece of equipment, I've seen photos of these restored before.
All you need now is a bunker!
Only thing I've got against it - do please have some slotted head screws made to replace those out-of-place cross-head horrors. Or are they temporary?
Good work!
Grossfuss

[Madboat]

The cross slotted parts are temporary. They are metric but not correct. I need to get back on the hunt for the slotted metric screws. There is one other temporary nut and bolt on the lever that unlocks the retractable top part from the base. I also have to make a scale that fits on the base to show the gunner the angle the gun is aiming, much like the scale on the lafette tripod.

[Ronnie Fry]

Great story, Madboat.. Keep us posted on your progress. A member of this forum, "bergflack" is Norweigan. You might email him for assistance. He's a nice guy, and likes the old Wehrmacht items, of which apparantly there are a lot in Norway. He sells some good stuff on ebang now and again.

r

[IanC]

Thanks for the very informative and fascinating thread.

Cheers

Ian

[Madboat]

UPDATE: since I first posted about this, a major improvement has been made. As I may have mentioned in the original post, a major component of this mount was missing. While I have been unable to find the missing piece, I have been lucky to get the next best option: an exact copy made. The piece that was missing served as the attachment point of the gun to the mount. This part not only holds the gun in place, it also acts as a "soft mount" and allows for the MG34 to recoil on a spring system much like on the lafette mount.

I had several people tell me they could make one if I could get the dimensions. Yeah, right. While I have seen one and taken pictures of it, I did not know how ti functioned or was constructed. Luckily, a friend of mine in Norway had a mount in his collection. He also had a friend who is a machinist. The machinist felt he could remove the original and reproduce it. The machinist, Alex Tangen, succeeded beyond all imagination.

Here are a few photos of his machining effort. You can check out the entire process here: http://d6150237.u27.surftown.nu/about.html


original mounting piece removed from a fortress mount





A few pictures of the process to replicate this item. It is a complicated piece and I am always amazed at the engineering/manufacturing that the Germans did in WWII.

















Here it is attached to my mount: it was a perfect fit!





It works by inserting the 34 and using the rear position bipod attachment on the mg34 barrel jacket. The gun is inserted into the mount and the rear bipod attachment slot is lined up with the mount attachment. When properly aligned, the wingnut looking handle is turned on the mount and the rearmost part of the mount spreads apart to capture the MG34 barrel jacket bipod attachement point. This attachement point is not bolted to the fortress mount, but is attached to the front section of the mounting piece by two rods and springs. This allows the gun to recoil on a soft mount system like the lafette tripod and dampen the felt recoil to the fortress mount.

Oh, I also replaced the cross hatched (phillips head) screws with correct slotted ones:




barrel jacket mounted in place



Lame video showing the recoil motion

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...t=MVI_3637.mp4

Now to tackle the next major missing piece: the azimuth scale

Please note that I could not figure out how to edit my original post so I just had to do all this as a reply. I am not too good at this internet thing. Sorry.

[Alan Smith]

Wow - that is some great machine work from your new friend in Norway. Also, it is really nice to see how collectors in other parts of the world have shared their time and collections to help you get your fortress mount completed.

Thanks for the update.

[Grossfuss]

MG34 Fortress Mount.

Well done!
The slotted screws were the least of your problems!
An excellent job on the 'soft mount' - a really fine example of how collectors can help each other.
Excellent workmanship overall - typically over-engineered, that's what makes their equipment so interesting. Greatest example being "Schwerer Gustav" the railway gun monster, closely followed by the V2 (but what a different world it would be now without von Braun's efforts - but let us not forget the suffering at Mittelwek and Dora).
But back to the matter in hand -
Best regards,
Grossfuss

[IMBLITZVT]

I would love to see that at the range!

[Mat Holloway]

superb piece

im very interested in buying one of these for a sensible price if anyone knows of one?

[KM-NZ]

very well done ! Thanks for sharing !

[Madboat]

I am in the process of making the azimuth scale. I am trying to find someone who can take a close up picture of the markings on the scale so I can see how it is graduated. The only other person I know of with one of these can't help as the azimuth scale on his mount was exposed to the elements and has no markings left.

Lousy cell phone picture. I made the scale with only simple hand tools and am obviously not talented like the gentleman that made the soft mount.