Thanks KABAR! I have my AOP plans but it will take some time to scale them. I am cross eyed from drawing now so I am going to save the swivel carriage for a rainy day. It should be able to handle a 3/4 steel ball that you can buy in bulk from McMaster Carr or some other supplier.
I'm not sure what color the swivel carriage is but i think it might be black.
[/color]Also I don't have a page with dimensions of the round part of the swivel carriage as seen in the cover page.[/b]
[/color]Modified the Cover page- It is VII. [/color]
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That's quite an ambitious project you have selected. If you are careful and figure out all the drawing elements first, and then write down a plan for making the parts, you will not only get it done, but it will look great too.
As to the questions implied in blue print above, the first is pretty simple. You're correct, black is the color. In Columbus, Georgia there is a modern replica of this very carriage at the National Civil War Naval Museum called Port Columbus and it sports an original 7" double banded tube. They even fire it with 5 Lbs. of powder several times during the summer months. Their carriage is entirely painted black. I visited the previous museum at this location quite a few times when I was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1970. It was called the Confederate Civil War Naval Museum at that time. I remember that they had it painted black too.
The reason that you "don't have a page with dimensions of the round part of the swivel carriage as seen in the cover page"is that the "round part" is not part of the naval carriage at all. This style mounting is a CSA land battery platform and was normally designed by engineers assigned to the local seacoast artillery unit to which the gun was assigned. In our extensive studies of these platforms, we found that no two were constructed the same, although they were similar. We have been unable to find a single drawing of these platforms.
With that photo and AOP #37, you should be able to get dimensions by interpolation and ratio so that you can build a very nice single gun battery with an accurate carriage AND platform.
Our very best wishes to you. You have chosen a challenging, but very cool project. If we can be of any assistance, just PM us as we would be glad to help out on a complex project such as this.
Tracy and Mike
