Lafette 42 questions

[bigbore]

I cant find the answer anywhere, and it may be silly but...

Looking at the mount from the front, the bottom pad, which is attached to horizontal support bar - is that supposed to be in a fixed position on the front leg(when set up for firing), or does it slide up and down?

I'm looking MYrvnags book, and cant find picture like this, with the bar on the bottom..

From what I can see, I dont see how those pads could have been installed after it was assembled, and the levers/ends welded in place. I dont see how they could be swapped around.

[bigbore]

There doesn't seem to be a date stamp on the mount either.

[42rocker]

Ok, here we go I just looked at a couple of mine. According to mine your pads are switched around. The pad that you have on top should have a lever on it that allows it to be moved. The nut is held in place with a pin. That pad should be under the other pad, towards the bottom. Yours looks like the lever has been replaced with a nut and bolt.
On the leg with the arm, mine do not appear to be movable. So fixed on mine.
Your bolt box latch is also different than what I normally see.

Nice looking Bren mark1 in the background.
If you get a chance post some more pics of the lafette. Pads look nice on it.

If you need more let me know and I'll look some more and take pics if needed.

Later 42rocker

[bbigbore]

the only other markings I can find on it is a btm on the front leg joint, and YV on the Search-fire mechanism.

[bbigbore]

various pics..

[42rocker]

In one of the pics of the search fire it shows a YV just under that appears to be a WaAmp. Nice. Scope with it. Nice again.
Don't know where, when, but it looks like you have a nice set up just redo the front top pad to under the other one and it's looking good to go. Sweet.
And it looks like a lot of neat stuff on the walls in the background.

Later 42rocker

[42rocker]

Also above your range scale you can see that you have the later model of top release, tab under. Therefore as stated by others before it might be a late model in which they did not take time to date stamp. Normally the date is in two different areas, on the back piece on top (see one of your first pics) and on the side of the search-fire. In your pics I did not see it dated on either. But I believe that it's one of the German lafettes not a yugo lafette.
We really need to do some studying on these lafettes some time.

Later 42rocker

[bbigbore]

but it looks like you have a nice set up just redo the front top pad to under the other one and it's looking good to go.

How can that be done? It seems like it was built that way. The pad with the bar is still free traveling, and the clamp on pad, on the top cant be slid off top of the leg, even if the leg is removed from the body of the mount...

[bbigbore]

June/July, I hope to have the missing part....

[42rocker]

From my first message
""Ok, here we go I just looked at a couple of mine. According to mine your pads are switched around. The pad that you have on top should have a lever on it that allows it to be moved. The nut is held in place with a pin. That pad should be under the other pad, towards the bottom. Yours looks like the lever has been replaced with a nut and bolt.
On the leg with the arm, mine do not appear to be movable. So fixed on mine.""
------------------------
That's the way that it is on 2 of mine. I'll go look at a couple more later.
Grabbed a copy of John's translated D 166/1 and on page 38 it clearly shows the pad on the top as having the moving arm, also page 39. Also look on the cover of Folke mg34/42 book and you can see it again. Two other nice side pics are on pages 230 and 231.
The pad that you have on top the one side you should be able to remove the release lever or in your case I think that it's a nut and bolt, slowly open the clamp and remove from the leg. Taking care not to brake it. Replace on the bottom. Good Luck.
Ok, I just took a look at 6 lafettes and all 6 of them are fixed top pad and movable bottom pad. The fixed top pad goes to the adjustable arm. I have a couple more that I can check but they are under a few things right now. Of the 6 that I checked I'm sure that 2 or more are German. Like I think that yours is. Might find a few mores marks under the paint but I think I would not remove paint to look for them.

That aside I still think that you have a super nice setup. Looks really good. I'm guessing that the top piece that you have coming in a few months will be FA. Good Luck on that.

Later 42rocker

[42rocker]

bbigbore
You asked how I would redo this. Look at the pics that I took of my mountain mg34 lafette.

In the last pic 3, I would remove the pin (somehow) that is locking the nut, remove the nut and the lever and the carefully open the "clamp" like area till I could remove from the leg. Reinstall it lower. I believe that the direction is correct on mine the lever/nut is on the same side as the adjusting lever on the pole.
In pic 2 notice to me what looks like either welding through to fix the pad in place or where it was plug welded to fix in place.

Like I have said before a nice setup looking for the top piece. Can't wait to see the pics after you get the final item that you showed the serial number of. FA I hope for you.

Just looked at the dust that shows in the pics, sorry about that have not clean the knob creek dust off from it yet.

Later 42rocker

[42rocker]

Also on your pic 6 with the range table, which looks good to me, look at the thumb placement area of the left and on the stop on the left. The stop seems to have a WaAmp and the thumb area has several letters. Seen several stops with WaAmp's don't recall seeing the letters before in the thumb area, something new, interesting.
Hope that someone that knows range tables more than I do agrees that it looks original.

Later 42rocker

[bbigbore]

Thanks for the pics. If you get a chance, whats the measurement from the weld on top piece of the front leg, to the top of the pad bracket? I might tack a couple welds to hold it where it belongs. Yes, the gun is NFA. The seller sent me all the accessories, to torment me until the form 4 is approved. Its going to be a long 6 months of waiting for this one...

[42rocker]

I'll get the measurement off from 2 different ones and try to post it later tonight for you. Well at least you have something before the big boy gets to you, hopefully the paperwork will go faster and you get it sooner. I've heard that they hired more people and things are moving a little faster in that area.
I checked mg34.com and they don't seem to have any pads with the lever part. You still might want to call them if you want a lever to replace that nut bolt, or call Brian at brp about it also. Or just set it up for you and keep it that way. I believe that it was adjustable so that several different size folks could have the pleasure of carrying that 48 pounds.

I also have looked and looked for those WaAmp's on the lafette's. Good Luck on that.

Is the FA a bring back or a rebuild done before the cutoff?

Later 42rocker

[42rocker]

Well one of the pics is nice, but was not holding the tape perfectly, but. The good pic is of the mg34 mountain lafette. The other pic is of a lafette that may or may not be German. That said both measurements were around 2 and 3/8 inches. That was to the larger tube line not the weld area. Now I don't believe that I would use that alone. The is a slot in the tube that goes to the pad it's about 1/2 inch long, don't know why I did not measure it, but, see it in pic 1 just below the tape. Anyway the final measurement that I would use is what makes everything lock together when it's closed. It other words after you deal with moving that one pad, then close the bottom legs up and find the position that works best. "Tape" it in place and open and close again then check to see if it's around that 2 and 3/8 inch or not. The mountain lafette closes tight, others that I have are loose. Good Luck, if you need any other pics or measurements let me know.
Please if you see me starting any posts asking about information on lafette please share your information with us.
Also check

http://www.bergflak.com/lafette/Lafetteindex.html

I think that your going to have a real nice setup with everything. Do you have the box with the scope? Lighting and battery box? If so sometime some more pics. I wish that I had the full set up. Someday?

Later 42rocker

MG34 Mountain Lafette

MG42 Lafette

[bbigbore]

Thanks for the pics. I swapped them around and epoxied the top pad in place. If the glue wont hold, I'll weld it.
No box for the scope, or battery.

[bbigbore]

Got the missing piece to mount on the top now. The seller threw in about 1K rounds of ammo, unfortunately its nothing I'd trust to shoot, as its all dated 1943, but fortunately the display looks a lot cooler with original ammo in the belt:)

The only thing I can find wrong/missing on the Lafette is, it doesnt seem to have ever had the lever attached that hits/activates the search mechanism.

[42rocker]

Nice group pic. Sometime post a pic of the area where the missing part is.

Later 42rocker