Author Topic: full scale mountain howitzer project (Read 1855 times)

rampa room artillery · « **on:** February 09, 2011, 01:48:43 PM »

well i paid for a peice of 8x38 1018 hot rolled steel today, and it will be here in a few days. I am building a full scale mountain howitzer. i guess we will see how it goes.

rick bryan

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #1 on:** February 09, 2011, 02:14:04 PM »

WOW, and on a 13x38 lathe!

It can be done, with some ingenuity and good engineering.

rampa room artillery · « **Reply #2 on:** February 09, 2011, 02:36:23 PM »

yep, i have to cut the steel down to 37.5 and I am afraid that i might have to take the steel to my buddys lathe to turn it down to 7.5 so i dont rub on the cross slide. but we will see when i get it here. I have to load the steel in the lathe with a engine hoist. it will be a learning experience for me. I will be sure to post pics.

rick bryan

lance · « **Reply #3 on:** February 09, 2011, 02:38:18 PM »

With steel you can avoid this problem: After Cold Harbor the bronze Napoleons of the Richmond Howitzers, wrote Robert Stiles, "looked as if they had smallpox, from the striking and splaying of leaden balls against them. Even the narrow lips of the pieces, about their muzzles, were indented in this way. One of the guns, i think of Manly's battery, was actually cut down by musketry fire, every spoke of both wheels being cut"................keep an eye on your wheels

rampa room artillery · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2011, 03:11:31 PM »

no not those poor wheels, I guess, they could just make new ones tho. unlike me who has to buy them from the amish.

VA Rifleman · « **Reply #5 on:** February 09, 2011, 03:19:30 PM »

Rampa Room Artillery,

Will the Mtn Howitzer be the recipient for those pretty new wheels I saw at your place?

rampa room artillery · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2011, 03:31:37 PM »

I am not sure yet, I really really want a limber, so I might have to make another trip up to Penn. for two more, it just might mean more candy brought back for the wife. to keep her happy. If i do build another carriage, i am not sure if i will build the first or second model praire carraige, i already have the first model so i guess, i need the second model now,

so many choices and not enough trees.

rick bryan

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2011, 03:35:04 PM »

Quote from: rampa room artillery on February 09, 2011, 02:36:23 PM

yep, i have to cut the steel down to 37.5 and I am afraid that i might have to take the steel to my buddys lathe to turn it down to 7.5 so i dont rub on the cross slide. but we will see when i get it here. I have to load the steel in the lathe with a engine hoist. it will be a learning experience for me. I will be sure to post pics.

rick bryan

I have a steady-rest just like yours if you need to borrow it.
Did the manual get there?

rampa room artillery · « **Reply #8 on:** February 09, 2011, 03:45:55 PM »

yes, thanks i got the manual, I rebuilt my steady rest, and works, ok, but I will not be able to bore the gun myself, I will be sending out to a friend that has a vertical gun drill to bore it. so i wont? be able to use the steady rest the barrel will be too big. I cant wait to get the steel to the house, and man handle it to the lathe.
rick bryan

GGaskill · « **Reply #9 on:** February 09, 2011, 08:42:12 PM »

I cant wait to get the steel to the house, and man handle it to the lathe (a piece of 8x38 1018 hot rolled steel.)

That's about 525 pounds in case you haven't weighed it.

dominick · « **Reply #10 on:** February 10, 2011, 02:22:08 AM »

Rick,

Just a thought, have you considered boring the round first. I used a bull nose to hold the barrel in place while turning the OD. I also welded the rear plate and breech knob.

rampa room artillery · « **Reply #11 on:** February 10, 2011, 10:11:49 AM »

hey dom, i had thought about it or just using a peice of tubing and using a breach plug, but this gun will be for my personal collection, and that is why i have decided to make this peice out of one solid steel round. the only thing that will be welded will be the trunions. before it is bored. I know being bored first would make it alot lighter. but I dont want to risk warping the bore when welding the trunions on. I need every advantage i can get when shooting against 24lb field howitzer. at 100 yards. I want to be able to load this gun up and shoot it up at grayling.

rick bryan

partsproduction · « **Reply #12 on:** February 12, 2011, 09:33:32 AM »

I keep seeing these "Mountain howitzers" with a reduced diameter at the breech, right where the pressure is greatest. What's up with that? The parrot rifle with a larger diameter at the breech makes more sense to me.

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #13 on:** February 12, 2011, 09:56:36 AM »

The powder chamber being reduced in size gives adequate thickness of metal. And the rest of the bore needing less thickness can be much larger in proportion. The combination gives a very light weight barrel shooting (albeit for shorter distances) a large bullet.

Cannoneer · « **Reply #14 on:** February 12, 2011, 10:12:42 AM »

partsproduction,

In that era of artillery one of the goals of the military (our's and other nation's - that's a French design) was to have field cannons that would be as light/mobile as possible while still remaining safe, and this is especially true of what is known as mountain artillery. That Howitzer has a reduced powder chamber, so the outer metal around the chamber was removed (to be more specific, that's how it was cast) from the straight profile of the tube for the sole purpose of making it weigh less.

partsproduction · « **Reply #15 on:** February 12, 2011, 12:07:45 PM »

Reduced diameter chamber, that makes sense, back to bombard technology. It brings up a flaw in my understanding of the reason behind the powder chamber, I assumed part of it was the extra material around the chamber, so instead it's there for some other reason.

moconfed · « **Reply #16 on:** February 24, 2011, 01:56:06 PM »

Now that's a chunk of iron! Our 6pdr was machined out of a section of a ship's propellor shaft, with the finished tube weighing in right at 900 pounds. I could imagine what the steel weighed before machining!

rampa room artillery · « **Reply #17 on:** February 24, 2011, 02:09:03 PM »

500 lbs round abouts. fun fun.

rick bryan

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #18 on:** February 24, 2011, 02:16:39 PM »

Quote from: rampa room artillery on February 24, 2011, 02:09:03 PM

500 lbs round abouts. fun fun.

rick bryan

And to think that you are going to throw away most of it in chips!

BoomLover · « **Reply #19 on:** February 24, 2011, 08:09:47 PM »

Speaking of throwing most of it away in chips, you know, a Diamond cutter "throws away" about 70% of the stone in cutting a round, brilliant cut, stone....so you could look at your 8 x 38 steel as a "Mt. Howitzer in the rough"....