Daz recreates a howitzer toolbox, imperfections included

The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum pairs painstaking sheet-metal work with Ron's Chaffee journey home to Victoria.

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The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum Story of November 8, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

A German Factory Pressed This in Seconds. It Took Daz Two Days

Video summary

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0:35Daz shows the recreated toolbox lid and explains its bent waterproof lip.
5:39Relief scores, clamps and hammering help turn the cover plate's edges into right-angle flanges.
9:07Steel strips are cut and bent around a pipe to create curved corner rims.
11:17Daz tack-welds the corner pieces into place and checks how the lid fits.
14:09Rusted original fragments provide clues to the hinges' placement.
16:11Heat, a punch and a hydraulic press help free and straighten the surviving hinge pieces.

A few imperfections can be part of getting a restoration right. Rebuilding the rusted toolbox on a captured German howitzer, Daz wants the replacement metal to belong on a century-old gun, not look as though it arrived yesterday.

"A German Factory Pressed This in Seconds. It Took Daz Two Days" drew about 163,000 views, the largest audience for the Australian Armour & Artillery Museum's two new uploads. What survives of the toolbox supplies the clues: a waterproof lip, folded corners and original hinges worth salvaging. Without the right segmented press-brake tooling, Daz scores and bends the steel by hand, then forms curved corner pieces around a pipe.

The grinding comes with a little self-deprecation. "That's what the grinder's for, to make me look good," Daz says. Viewers pick up on that workshop humour, while others discuss rivet lengths and how comfortably he explains both the work and the reasoning behind it. The episode ends with the team's first hot-riveting experiments, where the description cheerfully acknowledges more error than success.

The other upload, "Ron Drives a Chaffee Home. 4 Days, 3,000km, Zero Oil Used", swaps the bench for a military-truck journey. The Chaffee travels on the back, rather than under its own power. Once home, Ron tackles fitting a British FV432 steering box into the American tank, then repositions it after a middle-of-the-night rethink about shaft angles.

Ron's journey currently has the strongest daily momentum, with October's "KV-1S: Finished? | Workshop Wednesday" close behind. Across the channel, weekly views reached roughly 1.2 million while subscribers held steady. Today's viewing is below half the usual daily level, though the museum drew a substantial weekly audience alongside The Tank Museum.

For the KV-1S, the attraction is a different stage of restoration: leaving the workshop for the museum floor, with rare original track to fit and an engine deck yet to arrive.

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Where next?

Also in Military, weapons and geopoliticsThis week on the channel +699K views this weekA rifle-round revolver brings Fallout connections to Royal ArmouriesJonathan Ferguson examines a Philippine museum piece whose unusually long cylinder comes with serious questions about practicality.Channel: Royal Armouries · Story of November 8, 2026

A different discovery todayA video worth knowing"What's the score?": Jon Stewart's midterm week, from pool talk to a sweepThe Daily Show's 48-minute compilation runs from Stewart's warning against counting on a blue wave to Michael Kosta covering the Democratic sweep.Channel: The Daily Show · Story of November 8, 2026

What viewers say

Watching this video, I was really struck by how comfortable Daz is on video these days. He does a great job of explaining what he is doing and why. Well done!
@krmouldSee it on YouTube
Really liked Daz's comment of "That's what the grinder is for". I had a top welder on one of my projects who had a sticker on his hard hat that said "I may not be the world's best welder, but I am a wizard with a grinder".
@ronkluwe4875See it on YouTube
Grinding and paint make me the welder I ain't. We've all been there Daz...
@joseignacioalcantaraSee it on YouTube

3 more comments

Nothing gets Wednesday mornings started better than a fresh Workshop Wednesday. Thanks guys, you always deliver and it is very much appreciated.
@MatSpeedleSee it on YouTube
Daz's metal working skills and artistry never cease to amaze me.
@RichFoster-zk3joSee it on YouTube
I always love how all of you figure out how to get around issues and problems that rear their ugly heads from time to time. great video.
@MrBrewskSee it on YouTube

Public comments from the video's page on YouTube