Full scale civil war field carriage

[dominick]

Here are some photos of a full scale [all metal] field carriage I recently completed.  The wheel diameter of this model is 52".  The barrel in the photos is 3.6" bore of bronze construction and is approximately 150 years old.  It was imported from the country of Nepal so it is most likely of British design and manufacture.  If you have a barrel and are interested in this type carriage , I can build to fit your barrel specifications.  I am also in the process of developing a wheel that more closely resembles a wooden wheel. This type wheel would be an option at extra cost and is available in 12 or 14 spokes.  The cost of the type carriage shown in the photos is 3000 dollars, less implements  I can be contacted at dwc414@hotmail.com  Thanks,  Dom

[EL Caz 66]

Dom, Noise,Smoke & Fire Please!!!! Nice Job...

Ed

[dominick]

 No smoke and fire quite yet.  When we mounted the barrel, I tried to check the length of the implements in the bore and when I placed the safety rammer in the barrel, it went back about halfway.    The  owner and I then tilted the muzzle down and a cannonball followed by a very old  live  round of some type fell onto the ground.     Back in gently with the safety rammer and we found another cannonball stuck in the bore and we are still nowhere near the breech.  We have no idea what's behind that, so he's taking it home, soaking the barrel in water and then working on it from there.

[Tropico]

Quite an impressive piece., The carriage is awesome.

[shooter2]

Dominick,
            You can't be too careful with old weapons.  Down here is OZ (Australia) I was asked to repair the stock of a flintlock rifle that had fallen from the wall of a historic mansion, allegedly been there for 150 years untouched. 

As old safety habits are hard to break I checked the bore with a ram rod and came up short.  Using a self tapping screw on a rod I removed the ball and a good sized solid block of 150 year old black powder.  I lit the powder for the trustees when they came to visit and inspect the restoration, it burned very nicely thanks very much. 

I was asked to check every other firearm in the building, but that was the only one left loaded by the long dead 'lord of the manor'.  It was just sitting there quietly waiting for someone to stuff up, lucky it wasn't me.

Lovely old Gun and carriage if I may say so, I hope you get her firing soon.

regards
Shooter 2

[Max Caliber]

dominick,

Do you have any close up pictures of the barrel? Looks interesting.

Max

[Tropico]

And the Carriage !!!

[dominick]

Thanks for the compliments.  Here are more pictures.

[dominick]

  A few more pictures.

[GGaskill]

If you fire that gun with real shot, you will be risking bending the elevation screw with the link and the elevation screw at an angle to each other.  The downward swing of the barrel due to the below center trunnions will bend the screw to the rear instead of pushing along the screw axis.

[dominick]

George, your right.  A design oversight on my part.   Solution:  I can make the links extend above the cascable to form a bellcrank, place another adjuster screw at the top to push against the top of the cascable or back of the breech and this would transfer the energy that otherwise would bend the adjuster. The adjuster is 1" diameter allthread.  Any thoughts on that?  Thanks George.   Dom

[Rickk]

The adjuster wants to be in the same plane as the tangent of the arc that the cascable makes (I know I said that funny, but I'm en engineer, and sometimes it comes out that way).

Can you make the threaded "nut" part that is inside the frame be mounted so that it can pivot(aka... have trunions of it's own), and get rid of the flexible link on the cascable? Just have a simple clevis on top, and let the part that the screw threads into on the bottom rotate.   

It wouln't exactly do what I tried to describe above (except maybe at exactly one elevation), but it would be a closer approximation of it.

[GGaskill]

I don't know if this is an acceptable solution but I would relocate the elevation screw and nut down the trail so that it is almost vertical under the cascable; not quite vertical but moreso than it is now.  As the elevation changes, the angle of the link will change but as long as it is almost the same as that of the screw, the bending force will be small.  If you need a drawing, I can supply that later.

The adjuster is 1" diameter allthread.

That sounds OK to me.  I usually use the Acme all thread as it looks more like the square threads that the old timers used.

[dominick]

 

Can you make the threaded "nut" part that is inside the frame be mounted so that it can pivot(aka... have trunions of it's own), and get rid of the flexible link on the cascable? Just have a simple clevis on top, and let the part that the screw threads into on the bottom rotate.   

  Rick, That is somewhat similar to my first design which  would work fine. The difference is that I had a tube with trunions at the trail  instead of a nut.  The reason I didn't do it that way is the customer wanted a capture nut on the bottom to lock the barrel tight in both directions [elevation and depression] and also use his brass adjuster wheel [which is why the 1" diameter thread].  That would mean I would have to cut a large cavity in the bottom of the trail for reaching inside to tighten the bottom nut or leave the pivot tube extra long and slot the bottom of the trail for movement. I didn't like the idea of cutting a large opening in the bottom of the trail.  Also, I did't have the barrel when I build the carriage, just measurements and that's why I kept the adjuster lower on the trail to make sure it cleared the bottom corner of the breech.  In doing that, I inavertently created the angle in the link and adjuster. Right now it has a 1 1/4" x .120 wall tube thru the trail which is a slide fit for the 1" rod. The adjuster wheel is on top of the trail and a nut on the bottom.  Ultimately, George's idea is the proper method for salvaging the link arrangement as it is. The bellcrank arrangement I mentioned earlier would prevent the link from moving rearward and causing the adjuster to bend, but that would be another adjuster screw too keep tight.  I'm inclined to try shooting the gun and seeing if the breech exerts sufficient down pressure to cause a problem but that's no guarantee that there would be problems in the future. Thanks for the suggestions Rick and George.   I'm going to think about it a bit and let you know what I do.  Dom

[Rickk]

It would be pretty hard to install now that it is fully assembled, but...

do you know what the powder disk on an RCBS powder measure looks like?



The picture doesn't show the cavity adjustment screw (which is on the back), but if you have ever seen one, you would know what I mean.

[dominick]

do you know what the powder disk on an RCBS powder measure looks like

?

 No Rick,  I built a bellcrank arrangement this morning.  It works well.  I'll have pictures soon. Thanks for the ideas.  Dom

[dominick]

Here's the bellcrank.  It transfers the energy that would otherwise bend the adjuster rearward into the back of the breech.  In the future, all of the adjusters I install will be vertical and not 90 degrees with the trail.