I haven't posted for a while, because I haven't really had anything to post about.
That all changed recently when I took delivery of my first cannon, built for me by a friend.
What I have so far is a bare steel barrel, for which I'm going to make a carriage and various associated accessories etc.
This is going to be a slow project, as I don't have much free time to work on it at the moment. The plan is to make slow but steady progress, and hopefully have it finished and ready to fire on July 4th
This thread will be a placeholder, and I'll post updates as the project progresses.
First, some statistics:
Bore: 1"
Material: 1018 steel
Length: 14.5" (including cascabel)
Width at breech: 3"
Width at muzzle: 2.25"
Width across trunnions: 4.5"
Weight: Bloody Heavy (I don't have a scale...)
All dimensions conform to safety guidelines, ie. breech is three calibers, trunnions are one caliber etc.
Apart from the trunnions and the cascabel (which is a curtain rod finial!), the cannon is machined from one solid piece of steel, no liners, seams or welds in the barrel to keep me awake at night.
And now some photos
I don't have a can of powder, so I've included my keyboard in some of the photos to give an idea of scale.
(Sharp eyed members will notice that I am using a keyboard with my laptop. Those who have used a mechanical keyboard will understand why)
This cannon is an exact replica of a one-of-a-kind gun aboard a ship that was tragically lost at sea. The exact details are lost to time, and we can only guess what the carriage must have looked like
What this means is that I can build the carriage any way I please.
This is good, because it will be the first carriage I've ever built, so I can pass off any mistakes as 'design features' without fear of ridicule
In the next post, I'll be posting links to videos of the construction process...