A 221mm radius and a homemade jig save a WWI howitzer's recoil housing
Daryl and Jesse cut a captured war trophy back to good metal in Cairns, and Ella's camera follows every bend.
The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum
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WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY: Replacing the Corroded Recoil Housing on a WWI Howitzer
Among the military and history channels nearest its size, the Australian Armour & Artillery Museum gathered the most views over the past seven days, a little ahead of the Royal Armouries, which is having an unusually busy stretch of its own. The museum in Cairns got there at roughly its normal pace, which says more about how big its normal is.
The new episode of Workshop Wednesday picks up a captured WWI howitzer that the team caught, as the description puts it, just before its corroded carriage collapsed. Flipped over, the housing that once held the gun's recuperating spring is rotten along the bottom. The press brake can't make the right bend, so Daryl (Daz to the crew) builds a jig from a length of 50mm pipe with a nut welded on, braced with box section so it won't deform, then works through scrap until he is close to a 221mm width. After that comes the part the chapters call nerve-racking: cutting into the original steel. An old impact has warped the metal, so it is heated and clamped back true, and Jesse welds and blends the join until old and new are hard to tell apart.
The episode drew more than 120,000 views on its first day, and its comment section reads like a fan club for the two fabricators. Teachers send students to watch, hobby welders call it an apprenticeship, and one German viewer writes about ancestors who served with guns like this one. Several also want Ella, who films and edits, to get her turn at the intro.
The other video still pulling well is an eight-day-old Short about the Falke, Dmitry Bushmakov's restoration of the only surviving German infrared night-vision half track, now past half a million views.
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What viewers say
Daryl and Jessie are great to watch at work. Real craftsmen. Great video Kurt.
@richardedkins8856See it on YouTubeWhen they build a colony on the Moon, they’ll need these guys there, because these guys are the only ones with the tenacity, ingenuity and creativity needed to keep things working.
@peterseager6738See it on YouTubeFrom the U.S.A. here. I’m 76 years old and disabled. I love old tanks and artillery pieces. One of my regrets is that I will never be able to visit your museum. Thanks for these videos from the bottom of my heart.
@johnkeagy5971See it on YouTube
7 more comments
As a German whose ancestors also fought with this equipment during World War I, it makes me very happy that captured weapons like these are so highly valued and restored in Australia. You are keeping the memory alive for both sides.
@christianm.9960See it on YouTubeCome on, get Ella to do the "Workshop Wnednesday" intro, she deserves her time in the sun
@Bad.BadLeroyBrownSee it on YouTubeFabrication.....a voodoo science of precision engineering and belting things with big hammers. Love it.
@leamillership61See it on YouTubeDarryl definitely has the hands of a man who has worked for a living.
@keithhaycraft3765See it on YouTubeAs a novice metalworker and welder, I learn so much by watching you guys. It's like an online apprenticeship! 👍
@solinvictus39See it on YouTubemy 2-year-old grandson was fascinated by the "fire" from the grinder. He loves watching you guys!
@garythomas4914See it on YouTube“Measure twice, cut once.” Darryl and Jesse demonstrate yet again the wisdom of the old adage on this latest amazing restoration project.
@GrantThompson-m1kSee it on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum right now
- Subscribers
- 343,000 ▲ 1,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 1,655,869
- Videos published this week
- 2
- Video published
- October 7, 2026
- Video views so far
- 151,865
- Views on its first day
- 122,484
The numbers
Here is how the museum's channel did over the past seven days.
💡 Test your knowledge
The Sd.Kfz. 251 half track, the base of the museum's night-vision Falke, served in which country's army in World War II?
The Sd.Kfz. 251 was the German Wehrmacht's standard armored half track in World War II.