To Rusty or anyone else with knowledge about the Iowas, how are the upper Class A and lower Class B belts connected together? They seem to be offset somewhat because I think the Class A plate has some 2" of cement between it and the 7/8" backing STS plate. I haven't been able to find any information on how the two belts are joined together.
Iowa Class A and Class B joint
- Thread starter Radical
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RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
Keyway "slots". The lower Class B armor is first installed (obviously). The top edge is a miter type slot on the inboard side. The heat treatment of the Class A is done such a way as to leave all edges "soft" for machining key ways, drilling bolt holes, etc.
Thank you, you're simply an encyclopedia.
Which way do the slots run? In the traverse or longitudinal direction? I ask this because the method that the Japanese used to attach the upper and lower belt consist of just using rivets, which made it notoriously weak, so I'm wondering how the Iowa joints the upper and lower belt to see if it has this problem as well.
RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
Well, on the port & stbd longitudinal armor bhds the keyways are longitudinal of course so the upper belt does not slip off into the void inboard of torpedo bhd 3. The transverse armor bhds at frames 50 & 166 would be transverse, of course, in relation to the centerline of the ship. Besides, those two bhds are set vertical anyway.
I have a book or a photo somewhere in this house that has a photo of shipfitters waiting at the top edge of the Class B lower belt for the crane to bring in the upper Class A upper belt. But I do not feel like looking for it now. I only have a few hours a week to be in my own home. I'm supposed to be at my daughter's home laying in bed and waiting for pancreatic cancer to kill me.
Bull Crappy! I've got better things to do such as this morning and 2 days ago I'm out in their back yard with a chain saw cutting up some old trees they don't want anymore. Yesterday I bought 20 lbs of mortar mix to fix some seam and butt cracks in their block wall. Still have to clean out some of the cracks with an electric hand grinder or a pneumatic chipping gun. Well, I have the tools, I might as well get as much use out of them while I can.
Oh yeah! Last month I turned 81 but think I"m 41 after having a couple of gorgeous blond nurses at Memorial Hospital. Well, I'm a widower now (since last December 15th) and allowed to at least flirt now.
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Keep up the fight, Dick!
And go get those nurses!!!
And go get those nurses!!!
RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
It was '93' in San Diego. I proudly display the plaque the ship gave me for such an enjoyable day.
You see, I was already on the ship officially finishing up the repair of your cargo-weapons elevators. But I went off the clock to play Santa and hooked your Captain into sing-along with 12 Days of Christmas. Then I went back on the clock for the next few days to finish up the elevator repair.
I was determined to get that screwed up hunk of Litton Industries steel abortion back on duty if I had to push it away from the pier myself.
Then my last week of employment with the Navy was in January of '94' at a FEMA center in Van Nuys helping disaster victims of the Northridge earthquake fill out their forms. I retired on February 1 after over 39 years at LBNSY and coincidentally on my wife and I Silver wedding anniversary.
RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
Oh how I would "love" to have one of them as my Hospice shower nurse.
At MY age? Just kidding (I think).
But I'm back to driving on my own again and no longer have to ask a relative or a friend if they have the time to take me home to check on my mail or pick up some more tools to repair my daughter's block wall.
Thank you for the response, I do hope you'll get better.
Sorry, I'm still having a bit of trouble visualizing. So you're saying that there's a slot like this on the upper edge of the Class B belt?
Or is it like this?
I'm not very familiar with what a miter type slot is. If it's the second, then I'm a bit curious how you would fit them together, since the only way would be to slide it in longitudinally. Are there any pins, bolts, or rivets in these slots to hold the connection together to prevent sliding?
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RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
Thank you for the response, I do hope you'll get better.
Sorry, I'm still having a bit of trouble visualizing. So you're saying that there's a slot like this on the upper edge of the Class B belt?
Or is it like this?
I'm not very familiar with what a miter type slot is. If it's the second, then I'm a bit curious how you would fit them together, since the only way would be to slide it in longitudinally. Are there any pins, bolts, or rivets in these slots to hold the connection together to prevent sliding?
No. It's more like simple cleat lap lumber for your house siding. But the "groove" is on the inboard side of the class B so the class A does not slip off.
As for my health, the heat wave here in Southern CA is murder on everyone. Even my Hospice nurse today was an hour late because of suffering patients she had before me. Though I can drive by myself, that %#@& truck of mine has its master cylinder going out. Plus the transmission doesn't know if it wants to stay in drive or shift down to 2nd gear so it jumps back and forth on the slightest "hill". Not good as a close friend of mine is coming down Monday from Montana for his radio club convention. Heck, I had smoother driving with those old Studebaker 2 1/2 ton Rheos that had to be manually double clutched.
I'm don't know carpenter terms, unfortunately. From what you're describing, I've attempted to draw it on paint, does it look like this?
Also, what is the thickness of the holding bulkhead abreast of the turrets and powder magazines? I've read some reports that it's 1" STS, but I haven't been able to confirm with blueprints.
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RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
Like your 2nd drawing. NOT THE ONE SHOWING IN THIS REPLY. Don't feel bad about carpentry terms. I'm not a carpenter either but have done it when I had to. I'm better at cabinet making or restoring Battleships.
Interesting. Is the key a part of the Class A plate, or a separate piece?
RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
Part of the class A plate. Not hard to do as I said previously, the edges are NOT face hardened (kept "soft" with wet asbestos during heating) so they can be machined as key lock edges or grooves (fwd & aft edges) for separate keys or drilled for Class C armor bolts.
blidgepump
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Following the discussion....
Following the discussion....
Mr. L,
I've been following the discussion about the Class "A" & "B" steel and have been waiting for someone to inquirer about the type of weld.... ?
After the steel is prepared, i.e., the heat applied, is this a straight forward "lap joint weld" or is the metal ground and built back up as in a "grove weld" on both sides of the "lap joint" ?
Following the discussion....
Mr. L,
I've been following the discussion about the Class "A" & "B" steel and have been waiting for someone to inquirer about the type of weld.... ?
After the steel is prepared, i.e., the heat applied, is this a straight forward "lap joint weld" or is the metal ground and built back up as in a "grove weld" on both sides of the "lap joint" ?
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RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
It all depends upon the thickness of the plating as to how extreme the "gap" has to be to have a FULL penetration weld on REVERSE polarity. Reverse polarity has the POSITIVE end of the arc in the BASE METAL (the plate itself) so it is the BASE metal you are fusing together and the welding rod is just the filler.
We had a BIG problem on the Tarawa class LHAs where the private shipyard who built them hired welder "trainees" from Alabama and taught them to weld only on straight polarity which only piles welding rod on top of the base metal. This is also called "SHORT ARC" welding and is strictly vorboden on ship's main hull framing. It took the Navy years to wash out all of the short arc weld filler with #5 scarfing tips and re-weld the proper way. This short arc welding was discovered when the Saipan had her stbd bow caved in during an Atlantic storm and the Belleau Wood had her port bow caved in (same year) in a Pacific storm. Both incidents in 1991.
On the Iowa class ships, there are some reports that holding bulkhead 4 (the final one) is 1.5" thick next to the turrets and magazines and 25# by the boilers and machinery spaces. But the booklet of general plans seem to list holding bulkhead 4 as #25 everywhere. Do you know what the thickness of that bulkhead is by the turrets and magazines? Thank you.
RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
To be truthful, I never needed to go that far fwd or aft to look at bhd 4. It is true that along the machinery spaces from the 2nd deck on down is "only" 25# plate with watertight doors in it. One problem I noticed, however, was that at the Oil King offices on the stbd side, the door was always open and the space outbd of bhd 4 was used for paper stowage. If GQ is ever sounded, I hope the crew remembers to close that door and dog it down VERY tight.
RustyBattleship
In Memoriam
GAWK! CHOKE! SPIT!
Any way this crow can be made to taste better?
In cleaning up all of my manuals, notes and plans to donate to the Iowa (or throw out) before I kick the bucket, I finally found a (somewhat blurry) sepia copy of C&R Basic drawing No. 351341 ---BB-61 & BB-62 ARRANGEMENT OF ARMOR. This plan shows the general arrangement of all of the Class A & B armor and its thicknesses.
Section 5-A shows the joint between the A & B armor belts. Well, sort of. That section is only 4 3/4" high and very blurry. Remember, this is a sepia copy of another copy of the oilskin original (maybe) that in turn was a copy of the original paper drawing. So a lot of fine detail is lost.
BUT, it seems to show that in fact the keyway slot is in the center of the top of the class B and the bottom of the class A. It shows no finite detail which would be on the reference drawings (of which I know I do NOT have any copies). There are 10 reference drawings that would show that detail: C&R dwgs 351342 through 351383.
Now, I'm having enough problems swallowing solid food (no front incisors, only two fangs) and if my cancer doesn't kill me, this crow will.
Any way this crow can be made to taste better?
In cleaning up all of my manuals, notes and plans to donate to the Iowa (or throw out) before I kick the bucket, I finally found a (somewhat blurry) sepia copy of C&R Basic drawing No. 351341 ---BB-61 & BB-62 ARRANGEMENT OF ARMOR. This plan shows the general arrangement of all of the Class A & B armor and its thicknesses.
Section 5-A shows the joint between the A & B armor belts. Well, sort of. That section is only 4 3/4" high and very blurry. Remember, this is a sepia copy of another copy of the oilskin original (maybe) that in turn was a copy of the original paper drawing. So a lot of fine detail is lost.
BUT, it seems to show that in fact the keyway slot is in the center of the top of the class B and the bottom of the class A. It shows no finite detail which would be on the reference drawings (of which I know I do NOT have any copies). There are 10 reference drawings that would show that detail: C&R dwgs 351342 through 351383.
Now, I'm having enough problems swallowing solid food (no front incisors, only two fangs) and if my cancer doesn't kill me, this crow will.
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