Brought a Kit home

[keith44]

Beautiful jeeper1.  That's the finish I was thinking of on the bloodwood zulu mentioned.  That would look good in polished brass as well as black.

[Zulu]

Beautiful jeeper1.  That's the finish I was thinking of on the bloodwood zulu mentioned.  That would look good in polished brass as well as black.

Cannoneer is the one who mentioned bloodwood.
Zulu

[keith44]

Oops

I guess my memory skills are showing again, sorry 'bout that

[Cannoneer]

Thanks Dan, this is the finest gun that I've got, so far; when I opened the box and examined the barrel, I was so happy about the quality and condition of it that the damaged axle didn't even really phase me. The person that owned this gun must have just admired it on a shelf, because theres not so much as a scratch on it, and the bore is as pristine and polished as the outside of the tube. The only thing that bothered me was that the seller (who said he picked it up at an estate sale) had polished all the patina away.
The barrel's 16 ½'' OAL and it has a .91 caliber bore with an angled 3/32 vent.


Zulu,
You may be right about the reason for making the axle the way 'Valley Cannon Works" made them; I'm not arguing against your judgement, but I was thinking that the reason might also have had something to do with a surer way of making certain that the four trucks sat even on a flat surface. I've only made two carriages, both naval four truck mounts, and on both builds I've had a little difficulty with "rocking horse syndrome".   I had to perfom corrective emergency surgery on both carriages, and hide the scars as best I could.


Your memory is in fine working order, Douglas; I did remember jeeper's purpleheart mortar bed, because the beauty of that wood really struck me at the time, and I don't think I'd ever heard of the wood before that.
Purpleheart would be another fine candidate for the choice of carriage wood. I've also recently learned about an incredible African wood called "Pink Ivory", and while I wouldn't like the pink shade for a carriage, it can also sometimes have a beautiful red hue.

[Zulu]

Cannoneer,
"Rocking horse syndrome" can be an issue on a four truck carriage.  Sometimes it can be alleviated by slightly oversizing all the holes.  Once the carriage is assembled on a flat surface and tightened down, it usually works out and the carriage won't care that the holes are oversized.
Zulu

[Cannoneer]

Zulu,

Believe me when I tell you that I know all about the "ole increasing the hole size in the trucks trick" for trying to get the carriage to set level. I fashioned these axle trees and arms out of solid pieces of 'live oak', and I must have been a tad off on the arms (no lathe), so those trucks ended up riding real loose on the arms.

[Zulu]

Zulu,

Believe me when I tell you that I know all about the "ole increasing the hole size in the trucks trick" for trying to get the carriage to set level. I fashioned these axle trees and arms out of solid pieces of 'live oak', and I must have been a tad off on the arms (no lathe), so those trucks ended up riding real loose on the arms.

Cannoneer,
Do the bolts that hold the axle tree to the side rails go all the way through the sides and also secure the cap squares?
Nice work!
Zulu

[Double D]

As a side note, most of these carriages I have seen had one cap square bolt that goes through the axle and the second goes through the the cheek behind the axle. Both are tied together by an angle brace.

Rocking horse  syndrome can be dealt with as mentioned by slightly over size hole in the wheels. When making the carriage don't make joints to tight.  When assembling the carriage leave all bolt loose until fully assembled. Then with weight on the carriage tighten the bolts only tight enough to hold everything together .

[Cannoneer]

Thanks, Zulu.
Each axle is attached by four brass machine screws that I cut the heads off of, and epoxied in blind holes that go up into the cheeks about one and a quarter inches. I got a little fancy with the bevelled brass plate that fits over the two screws on each side.


Douglas,
This is the first carriage I made and there are a lot of mistakes, but the worst one is that all the wood mated surfaces are glued up. The axle tree is glued to the cut outs in the bottom of the cheeks with the top of the axle tree glued to the bottom of the front transom, etc., and I will never do that again, because if you build it properly then glue is unnecessary.
"When making the carriage don't make joints to tight.  When assembling the carriage leave all bolt loose until fully assembled. Then with weight on the carriage tighten the bolts only tight enough to hold everything together." Your quote is right on the mark, that's why the originals were made that way. Gluing the wood pieces on my carriage caused me a lot of grief.