Well here's some items I hope to have done by the end of February (hah! wishful thinking!).
First up is a 2.2 " bore bombard. This is the tube insert (0.75"w DOM tubing). The base it's sitting in will get fitted and then the gap between the insert and the sleeve will get filled with bronze. It'll then get several thick rings fitted on in addition. The breech (entire bottom third actually) will end up just over 6" thick. I'll scan in a sketch of the drawing of the proposed finished product and post here later.
This is a 1.2" bore that has one band fit and will get another. I had planned on this one being the forwardmost one over the breech, but I took too long getting it in place. Now the second will have to slipped all the way down the rest of the barrel to be placed in front of this one. Hopefully it won't get stuck halfway!
Here's a 1.75" insert and sleeve. It'll be almost identical to the larger bombard, only smaller.
This will be a kingsized 15th century howitzer based on some italian models. Right now it is 6" ID, but I will fit an insert to drop it down to about 5" or so (average Texas frozen grapefruit
). Just this section weighs in at 165 lbs! It was some sort of collar off some drilling equipment. It's 1.5" of 4140 with a cast core that was then honed and followed with a stainless liner. I had to roll this one over a 100 yrds at the scrap yard to get it to a place where I could load it into my truck! All I need now is some 6" round stock about a foot or so long and some really nice poeple with a BIG lathe! I want to have this one done by the 4th of July.
