Front drum brake slipper

Well....I'm working on my brakes. God three months is old- you guys live in a fast paced world. I'm retired- sometimes it takes me three months to remember to oil my chain. But while were on old posts I have some questions. I'll back up. Monday I changed my tires from the Speedmaster front and K81 to the Avon RoadRiders. I don't know why it took me so long- I've had those Avons sitting in the garage for a year, but wanted to get some miles out of the Speedmaster which I had just bought from Baxter prior to buying the Avons. BTW the Avons look great, the 3.25-19 front is much wider than the Speed. I actually had to kick the fender a bit to get clearance on the left side. It looks wider than the 100/90 on the rear. And decided to change the fork oil and take off the gaiters while I was at it. I also had a new drum I bought from Baxter that I didn't replace when I changed the front sprocket and chain. Anyway changing two tires by hand and all the other stuff took me all day and I was crippled on Tuesday- couldn't even close my hands. Part of the ordeal was the new rear drum had the bolts secured by some punch that looked like a rifle slug hitting a steel plate- spall spraying up and away. The nuts that hold the shoes on kept snagging it so it wouldn't turn freely. It is now in the vise and I'm slowing grinding the excess spall away. The old drum is on the bike. I'm going to order new shoes from Baxter and I'll change it when I get them.
What are you talking about with the sandpaper. Oh I did look up the part 28 on Old Britts and saw the slipper. I guess it refers to the end of the shoe slipping into it. Has anyone tried the Old Britts backing plate for the front drum brake, I thought I saw someone on the forum who did and it sounded like a Hell of an improvement. It looks like it would be quite a bit of work for me.
Bruce
69S

You must have the original front mudguard. Was wondering how large a tyre would fit under it. It's my thought that most of the early front mudguards were thrown out in favor of larger tyres.

I've seen that extra backing plate for the front drum, it's a bit pricy and a lot of the parts need replacing which is what drives up the price. I haven't heard a lot of people that have used it, but I'm sure some have.

Sanding. Well, I glued (tacky glue from the sewing shop) some #60 grit sandpaper in the drum, cut to width and installed new shoes, sit on ground by front wheel, turn and tighten the adjuster to sand down the shoes to sand them in to same arc as drum. Make sure the rod that links the shoes is correctly set up so you get both shoes sanded. I did this with my old brakes and I would say it increased my front brake availability from about 10% to 80%. It was a drastic change. When I put on the new shoes I did it again, it takes maybe an hour and a half. Make sure when doing this too, you center the shoes by tightening the brake when tightening the axle nut.

With the new shoes, I had to remove the slippers until I had the shoes ground in a bit. I keep thinking about doing the rear, but that would be another project.

I'm retired too, and the time goes by so fast 3 months is nothing.

Dave
69S