"Bren Carrier Pivot Mount" at last Switzer's Auction. Anyone familiar with this part?

[Beezer]

That is alot more indepth then what I did. I never made an adapter to hold the rear of the gun, as the guy never requested it. I made it fit in the existing 1919 pintle.

[Kev G]

It looks to have undergone some serious moding. Do you have any other photos kev? I'm wondering if they are new made to a M2/Bren pattern, even the head looks seriously modified, the only unmodified parts look to be the feet.

Its an Indian 1943 design 'based' on the .30 cal M2 tripod.Tubing of legs is from sheet steel and machining reduced to a minimum so as to fulfill lightweigh spec for para use and simple enough for bicycle works manufacture.
Sorry not that not much savy with US tripods, so not much in common with the .30 cal M2 tripod then ?

ATB Kevin

[Brit plumber]

It looks very similar but I guessed it was new made as there is so much that would need to be modified from a M2 tripod that it wouldn't be worth converting one. I remember Tom B commenting on these quite a while back. I take it you don't have one Kev, it must be on your hit list though! Beezer, thats some nice machining there!

[tombear]

If you like machining mounts I ended up scanning in a lot of the drawings at the Pattern Room library before it was dumped on the Royal Armouries. The complete sets for the Mk I and II Bren tripods were missing from the envelopes of half plate negatives but I copied a full set for the folding Mk 3, the Indian version of the Mk 3, various tree mounts for the Bren, adapters to fit a Bren to a Vickers tripod, 7.92 Besa to vickers and Bren tripods, also a prototype emergency bipod for the Besa along with butt and iron sights, Vickers Berthier to Bren tripod adapter, er what else? At least one vehicle ring mounting for the , Bren, several AA mounts including one for 4 Brens, complete sets for the Straddle and Motley and others I can't remember off the top of my pointy head, Kevin G will know better.

Happy to send them down the wire to anyone who fancies making any of them!

ATB

Tom

[Beezer]

Beezer, thats some nice machining there!

Thanks but I can't take too much credit since the top portion is an actual Bren tripod pintle that I ordered from the UK. The riser is made of a piece of DOM tubing that had just the right ID for the pin on the pintle. I just needed to heat up the tube abit to get it to expand and the pin just dropped it. Once it all cooled down it wouldn't budge. I then turned a V relieve between the two parts so I could weld it up. My original idea was much more complicated but after thinking about it for a couple days the light bulb in my head went off and I came up with this much simpler idea. It has since been parkerized and shipped off to the new owner.

Unfortunately in Canada we are not allowed to have functional Brens, even in semi, since we are not allowed to use re-welded receivers. If someone would come up with a complete semi only receiver, built from scratch, there might be a chance we could get the government to approve the design. I would love to have one.

[Kev G]

I take it you don't have one Kev, it must be on your hit list though!

.......Oh the list only gets longer,never shorter !

the top portion is an actual Bren tripod pintle that I ordered from the UK

I thought I recognised it :-)

[Beezer]

I thought I recognised it :-)

HEHE....It worked out perfectly Kev. Really saved me alot of work.

[Kev G]

When Toms says " I ended up scanning in a lot of the drawings at the Pattern Room library " .....a great deal more emphasis should be placed on "A LOT" !
Goodness knows how many weeks were spent processing and scaning all the material but Tom is the man for gleaned DDE's (plus heaps of other info) if you need it.
Cheers Tom for making all your hard work available.

ATB Kevin

[tombear]

The MoD staff then in charges attitude was if it wasn't pressure bearing or being used for commercial perposes it was public domain so I signed out and copied at home over a thousand sheets of drawings. Unfortunately I only had a domestic scanner to do it with so some like the drawings for the Brens battalion spares chest are very feint ( but if your prepared to zoom in all the dimensions are there),

Happy to share especially when folk are talented enough to make stuff. All I've ever done, well I didn't actually do it all myself come to think of it, was turn a Mk I* cleaning rod and half of a Lewis rod into the two piece Mk I chamber cleaning rod by fitting some new turned ferrules onto the Lewis rod. Oh and cut down a Mk I bren brush to make a Mk I Besa one as per some instructions I found.

ATB

Tom