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Inland XB 271

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m1a1fan View Drop Down
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Got Para?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote m1a1fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr 09 2018 at 8:58pm
Yup, the wagon wheel found on an M1A1 butt plate. Can you check and see if correct? Think there is more information. If so, we should start a new thread so the blanks can be filled in.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tenOCEE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr 09 2018 at 9:35pm
I can't compare it one today. Could take closer pics of the wheel on the housing if someone else wants to compare. My camera isn't the best.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote New2brass Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr 09 2018 at 9:45pm
SMI (Saginaw Malleable Iron) was the supplier of M1A1 buttplate castings.
Their symbol looks like a wagon wheel.
8 spokes instead of 6, but 6 spoke wagon wheel seems consistent in their castings


The wagon wheel is not an indication of Armasteel, it is the foundry symbol of SGMI. SGMI had different formulas and Armasteel was one of them.
 
Red BAR trigger housing
 
 
Notice the 9 instead of the 3 in other picture. Hmm, sound familiar?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote m1a1fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr 10 2018 at 8:58am
A wagon wheel, B-197491 and then a number. Great find! Fonts looks similar to those on a butt plate
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote arthur Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr 10 2018 at 1:02pm
m1a1fan, is there a number on the bottom of the gas cylinder?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote m1a1fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Apr 10 2018 at 7:47pm
@navinator - thanks for the link

@arthur - I have seen the gas cylinder and barrel flat marks on #18 but this one doesn’t have any of them. No markings on the gas cylinder. No markings on barrel flat. Piston nut looks like a type 1. It is unstaked. Piston has four circular marks on it but is unmarked.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tenOCEE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 09 2020 at 10:46am
My sig: Seen an IP or S'G'? Add it to my registry. We'll check consecutives.
https://grandrapids.wufoo.com/forms/zzlnt0519k86xs/
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote m1a1fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 10 2020 at 8:22am
Hmmm....The number before the wagon wheel is different, 2,3 and 9.

PMI=Pearlitic Malleable cast iron. ARMASTEEL was a registered trademark (#0393916) GM used starting October of 1937.

Here's a 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10:


Small Arms Review

Some snippets (I need to go back and read the Doerfner CCNL article).

In 1919, General Motors bought the common stock for 1.1 million dollars acquiring three plants: Malleable Iron, Grey Iron Foundry, and Saginaw Steering Gear. GM called the acquisition Saginaw Products Division of General Motors Corporation.

In 1936, Malleable Iron developed a pearlitic malleable iron formulation suitable for casting automotive parts trade named Armasteel (sometimes seen spelled ArmaSteel in GM documents).

In November of 1941, due to some GM management shuffles, William Doerfner, generally credited with being the driving force behind the development of Armasteel and the General Manager of the Malleable Iron Division, became the General Manager of Saginaw Steering Gear.

Conventional wisdom has it that the U.S. was totally unprepared for WWII – which is not completely accurate. The Industrial Services Division of the Ordnance Department was shopping around for non-traditional producers of weapons as early as 1937 applying the lessons learned in WWI regarding the traditional commercial and government facility’s inability to mass produce firearms and everything else needed in wartime. Saginaw Steering Gear was approached about the manufacture of machine guns and agreed to undertake an engineering study contract and provide sample weapons, drawings, tooling and the production data necessary to set up a plant for air cooled Browning .30 caliber machine guns. There was only one problem: the War Department had no funds available to pay for these services.

When Saginaw began working on cast parts an interesting situation developed. In the normal order of business, parts drawings were produced at Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) or some other ordnance facility and sent to the various manufacturers. Since RIA had no experience with cast small arms parts Saginaw produced the drawings and sketches in their own drafting room and sent them to RIA for review and approval. The Ordnance Department had no procedure for filing drawings received from contractors so they did the next best thing; they hand wrote the drawing number of the affected part and filed it away with their own drawings. Many of these Saginaw produced drawings were archived on 35mm film along with official Ordnance Department drawings and survived to this day.

While Saginaw was busy designing and implementing the cast parts, it was also making parts by the traditional forge/machining method as nothing was allowed to interfere with wartime production quotas.

Eventually the idea of casting parts caused the Ordnance Department to issue specifications for several different alloys of pearlitic malleable iron Class A and Class B each used for slightly different purposes. Saginaw is the only known WWII user of cast parts for the M1919’s. One reason for this is that about the time that castings started to be used in mass production about the last quarter of 1943, Saginaw was the only manufacturer in regular production of the .30 caliber ground type air cooled Brownings.

Post WWII, RIA and its sub-contractors continued to cast parts for maintenance spares, overhaul and production of new weapons. The cast parts are fairly easy to spot because in unfinished areas they exhibit a pebbly or grained surface.

While Saginaw ceased production of machine guns in mid 1945, The Malleable Iron Division, later known as the Central Foundry Division, continued to use Armasteel principally to cast crankshafts for Pontiac and Buick. Armasteel cranks are thought by some gear heads to be stronger than drop forged crankshafts. GM stopped using the name Armasteel in 1966 when the lawyers at GM thought the term misleading because Armasteel is not actually steel. The Armasteel trademark expired in 2002 and was not renewed.


Edited by moneawon - Aug 18 2022 at 12:02am
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