Drilled Bormanns

[CarlS]

I was wondering if when the holes were drilled in the Bormann shells to convert them to paper time fuse if the hole was drilled tapered or was a straight?  I've seen a few shells drilled this way and the holes always seem to be straight sided but that could be just from someone drilling through the fuse to disarm the shell as I suspected a couple of the ones I've seen were.  Is there something to look for (besides patina in the hole)?

[Pete George]

  Carl, I'm pleased to have the opportunity to do something for the esteemed founders & maintainers of this forum... and in return for your recent assistance.  I have a battlefield dug drilled-through CS Bormann fuze support plug. My caliper says the hole is very slightly tapered... .45-inch on the underside and .465-inch at the top. You know I'm a stickler for super-precise measuring.  At the moment I don't have a nondug paper timefuze to see how much it tapers in 3/8-inch of its length.  Might be best to check that too.

  And of course, I hope some other folks here will have a drilled-through suport plug they can check.  Always good to get measurements from more than just one specimen.

Regards,
Pete

[Steve Phillips]

I have these in my collection. The upper left Bormann is from Tom Dickey's collection and the underplug under it are from Kennesaw Mountain and I think they were cut out by Tom and they measure.
Top of eroded Bormann .560 bottom .5
Underplug top .473 bottom.449

The upper right Bormann was found by me at Sulfur Trestle Alabama and measures.
Top .553 bottom .503

The other underplug measures  .473 and .455 and I don't know where it came from.
Both underplugs have six extra indentions and I don't know what purpose they serve. I'm sure Pete can tell us.

[emike123]

I own several also.  The one near at hand is the one shown on the bottom of Jones page 27 and is not tapered.  It is apparently from Fort McAllister near Savannah.  I have one for sale on the commercial part of the website that is clearly tapered, perhaps from being blown out of a shell or perhaps it was drilled that way.   I'll look at my others over the weekend and let folks know.

[Pete George]

Steve Phillips wrote:
> Both underplugs have six extra indentions and I don't know what purpose they serve. I'm sure Pete can tell us.

  Steve, please pardon the delay in replying. Something distracted me, and then it slipped my mind. (Gotten elderly.) The purpose of the six indentations (which are actually shallow drill-holes) was to expand ("seat") the plug's rim very tightly against the underplug hole's threads, so the underplug wouldn't spin when the big hole for the paper timefuze was drilled through it.

  It's "an old Machinist's trick."  A drillbit actually pushes some metal sideways as it bores down through metal.

Regards,
Pete