Motorpool spares boxes

Question and opinion regarding Living History / Reenacting.
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Radioman_1943

Motorpool spares boxes

Post by Radioman_1943 » Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:34 am

Anyone have any good photos of the kind of spare parts boxes, crates, etc. you would see in a field motorpool area?


johnseidts
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Re: Motorpool spares boxes

Post by johnseidts » Wed Apr 26, 2017 5:32 pm

I have the 1942 Department of Commerce shipping regulations for everything packed for the War Department to ship overseas in WWII. In it are every size and shape of crates you can imagine for crating everything from a tank hatch to a tracked crawler. I don't think you can go wrong with any size crate for motor pool spares. Also, a while back I came across some artillery crates which were re-purposed for shipping drive shafts.

Here is something to consider; most of the original WWII spare parts I have and have had in the past came in cardboard boxes. I still have a crate of original Coleman lantern mantles; there are 30 or 40 mantles packed in individual boxes within a crate. I also have a box of 772 Martin B-26 Marauder flap and landing gear gauges which were packed in individual boxes which were then crated in a single crate. I think that most of the vehicle parts repair items would have been packed in large crates to protect things such as, 50 headlights or 20 GMC generators heading overseas. Then, when it got overseas, they would break it out of the crates and distribute them to the units. I don't think a truck battalion needed 20 GMC generators at once. But they could use the original crate for the 50 headlights or 20 generators to carry a GMC generator, a few headlights, fan belts, electric wire, inner tubes, etc. back to the unit which you are portraying.

I wouldn't go crazy designing and building crates. If you have any industry around your area, like I do, there are crates which are usually discarded with the pallets that move machinery around. Most times that I have had to ship something in a crate, there was an even chance I would find a size I needed somewhere before I had to construct one. If you absolutely can't find any crates, grab the pallets and build crates from pallet wood; the surface wood on the pallet looks like most of the wood I have on original crates in my possession. Then stencil something interesting on the crate, like "Contains 100 coils, 6 volt, Autolite."

One last thing- ship lap. I have had a number of original crates which were built with ship-lap wood. It is basically a tongue-in-groove style of construction and adds to the strength of a nailed-together crate. If you look at one of the hardwood flooring places, they might have tongue-in-groove ends available from over-runs of flooring material.
John K. Seidts RN:
Wanted to Buy any aircraft parts or aviation items
Wanted- WWII US Medical and Engineer Items

Radioman_1943

Re: Motorpool spares boxes

Post by Radioman_1943 » Sun Apr 30, 2017 7:24 am

Thanks for the advice, John!


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