Keith Black

I don't wanna get all gushy but the thought process behind arriving at the hand wheel solution blows my tomato.

Coming along quite nicely Paul 👍, glad to hear your weather is warming. It's good to have some extra workshop time but not under current circumstances, may this end soon for the sake of everyone on Earth. It's warming up here as well, just a few days away from putting the battery in the lawn tractor and start working our little piece of heaven into shape after what seems a very long winter.

Yes, congratulations Rob, she's a beauty. Thank you for letting us tag along for the ride.

Ladders, fairleads, bollards added. Redoing the pin rails will/sould be next.

Five total, two XI smoothbore Dahlgren converted to VIII rifle (shell weight 65 LB), two 100 pound Parrott Rifles (shell weight 100 LB) and one 60 pound Parrott rifle at the bow (shell weight 60 LB) The buckets appear to be metal with rope handles.

Pat, it could be but I'm not sure they would have wanted to lug around a greased 65 and 100 pound shell (even if just the base of the shell were greased) from a central location to the individual gun stations. That would make some sense to do it that way but let's say they did. Then tell me what the four buckets are for. See, my guess answers two questions I wish Roger Pellett would jump in and add his thoughts.

Nice metal work Pat, I wish I had the skill sets to do likewise.

Please observe social distancing 😷

Myself...revision in thinking about grease canisters. After muling this over through the night, a canister at each firing station is a heck of a lot of grease and would have been awkward to access in the heat of battle. What few views exist don't seem to support my first thoughts to a canister being at every firing station. I do think that the unknown canister is a grease canister but it's the only one and is the main distribution point of grease for all the guns. I now think that grease was transported in a bucket to whatever firing station a gun occupied. I think the four buckets hanging underneath the flying bridge are grease buckets, one for each gun, four buckets, four guns. The 60 pound Parrott on the bow would have been excluded from this arrangement due to distance, it's grease requirement would have come from elsewhere. So it'll be just the one canister to replicate but now I have to make the four buckets that hang beneath the flying bridge as seen in the picture below.

Thank you to all for the compliments and likes, it makes the work go a lot easier. I went down a few rabbit holes trying to determine what the canister in question is, in searching I came across the following from Gunnery Catechism by J.D. Brandt published 1864..........PG 97 regarding riffled ammunition, "The base of every rifle projectile shall be greased before putting it into the gun". https://books.google.com/books?id=S2cDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=quill+tube,+capped+by+a+percussion+wafer&source=bl&ots=2lD2_WedlF&sig=ACfU3U23-gMKr0IomCT7G3Lyr4UNVJOzzA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk9LHX5qPoAhXZG80KHXC2CHsQ6AEwAHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=quill tube%2C capped by a percussion wafer&f=false All the guns on the Tennessee's main deck are rifled, I think this is a grease canister for projectiles and carriage. One would think that grease would be made available at every firing station, not in a bucket to be stepped in or fouled with sand but something like the canister in question with a narrow neck with the opening being above deck so as not to be contaminated. This is my best guess and unless someone has a better one, I moving on. This is "what is it" prototype at .20 wide and .45 high. There needs to be a little tweaking before going into a nine piece run. Thank you again to each of you.

Pat, I'm working at 1:120 and while it can be very tedious, a lot of items less than 6 inches even 12 inches, depending on how intricate an item is, gets left off with the "sometimes less is more" thinking. Do you find at 1:72 you're compelled to replicate more so than not?

Pat, I don't think that'll be an issue, just remember, I'm like Target, he's like Harrods. As far as the object in question being a crane, I don't think so for two reasons. One, location. That would make for a very awkward position between the two rifles plus it's awfully small for a crane. Second, see the photo below (you've got to be able to enlarge the heck out of it). There are only six lifeboats in every picture of the Tennessee that I've come across. But forward of the main there appears to be a set of davits on either side for another possible set of lifeboats or that's what I thought for a long time till I saw your comments somewhere herein on the subject of cranes and ash hauling. I now believe those are not supposed to be davits but are in fact used as cranes for offloading ash. The position makes sense because it's forward of both Dahlgren and Parrot rifle stations yet far enough to the rear of the bow Dahlgren so as to minimize wayward ash getting into the rifle mechanisms. I'm going to make two of the little buggers so stay tuned, we'll revisit the crane possibility afterward. I tried searching NMM Collections>Ship Plans>Equipment for drawings ZAZ6825 and ZAZ6824 without success? Thank you for the complement!

"But try to understand, try to understand Try, try, try to understand, I'm a magic lathe man"

Buddy, my heart goes out to you.

My dear wife and I went into self imposed isolation last Thursday evening at 6 PM. It's a different world than it was a month ago for all of us. Keith, to you, yours, and to everyone here at MSW, I wish you all the very best in these difficult times.