Dan Vadas

Thanks again to Kevin, Sjors, Mark, Janos and Aldo - I'm really pleased with the way the guns have turned out too. It was well worth the effort and expense of buying the barrels and capsquares, there was NO WAY that I could have made them as well as this , although it took quite a bit to "finish" them.
 
Here are a few pics of all the completed carriages. Rigging them up will be the next job :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks again to Kevin, Sjors, Mark, Janos and Aldo - I'm really pleased with the way the guns have turned out too. It was well worth the effort and expense of buying the barrels and capsquares, there was NO WAY that I could have made them as well as this , although it took quite a bit to "finish" them.
 
Here are a few pics of all the completed carriages. Rigging them up will be the next job :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks again to Kevin, Sjors, Mark, Janos and Aldo - I'm really pleased with the way the guns have turned out too. It was well worth the effort and expense of buying the barrels and capsquares, there was NO WAY that I could have made them as well as this , although it took quite a bit to "finish" them.
 
Here are a few pics of all the completed carriages. Rigging them up will be the next job :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you Robbyn and Mark.
 
Hardware
 
The final details of the guns are the various items of hardware - the five Loops for the Training Tackles, the eight Bracket and Transom Bolts, and the two Breeching Ring/eyebolt assemblies.
 
The breeching rings and eyebolts were the most difficult parts to make, as they are joined together but silver-soldered independently so they actually work. :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you Robbyn and Mark.
 
Hardware
 
The final details of the guns are the various items of hardware - the five Loops for the Training Tackles, the eight Bracket and Transom Bolts, and the two Breeching Ring/eyebolt assemblies.
 
The breeching rings and eyebolts were the most difficult parts to make, as they are joined together but silver-soldered independently so they actually work. :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thanks for looking in again Janos, Brian, Sjors, Grant, Mark and Ian.
 
Janos, the guns are cast in brass, not bronze. I've never used pewter so far, so I don't know anything about blackening it.
 
Drilling the Bolt Holes
 
Apart from the already drilled capsquare holes there are another 8 holes to drill in each bracket for various bolts and eyebolts. To assure precision placement of each hole I made a jig to hold the bracket from some pine board and scrap planking. I set the mill to the first hole, drilled all 16 of them and then reset for the second hole etc. There are three 0.5mm holes for the Breeching and Training Tackle eyebolts, and two 0.7mm holes for the Bed Bolt and Transom Bolt :
 

 

 
The jig was also used to accurately scribe the join between the upper and lower halves of the brackets using the back (blunt) edge of an Xacto. A pair of stops aligned the steel rule
 

 
:
 
I used the same setup as for the capsquare holes to drill the three 0.7mm holes for the bracket bolts :
 

 
  Danny

Thank you Robbyn and Mark.
 
Hardware
 
The final details of the guns are the various items of hardware - the five Loops for the Training Tackles, the eight Bracket and Transom Bolts, and the two Breeching Ring/eyebolt assemblies.
 
The breeching rings and eyebolts were the most difficult parts to make, as they are joined together but silver-soldered independently so they actually work. :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you Robbyn and Mark.
 
Hardware
 
The final details of the guns are the various items of hardware - the five Loops for the Training Tackles, the eight Bracket and Transom Bolts, and the two Breeching Ring/eyebolt assemblies.
 
The breeching rings and eyebolts were the most difficult parts to make, as they are joined together but silver-soldered independently so they actually work. :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Thank you Robbyn and Mark.
 
Hardware
 
The final details of the guns are the various items of hardware - the five Loops for the Training Tackles, the eight Bracket and Transom Bolts, and the two Breeching Ring/eyebolt assemblies.
 
The breeching rings and eyebolts were the most difficult parts to make, as they are joined together but silver-soldered independently so they actually work. :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

I have constructed all of the upper deck beams and glued them temporarily in place.  Most of the deck beams are directly above the lower deck beams.  Six of the beams are offset either fore or aft, some for obvious reasons (like a mast being in the way) and others for reasons I am sure I will figure out later.  Once I mark the centerline and carling locations, I will remove the beams so I can finish the lower deck.
 

 
The Swan class had one set of sleepers.  These are large knees that attach to the aft cant frames and filling transoms with 1" bolts.  These are made by cutting out templates to the rough shape and then sanding them to the correct shape.  As they are set at an angle, the two faces are not perpendicular to the sides.
 

 

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Quoin
 
Between the Bed and Barrel is a wedge-shaped piece called the quoin. It's function is to change the elevation of the barrel. This was accomplished with the aid of crowbars, and the quoin was either pulled backward to elevate the barrel or pushed forward to depress it.
 
I made the quoins from English Box for a bit of contrast. The handle at the aft end is a cut-off and lightly blackened brass belaying pin :
 

 
Here are some progress pics of one of the guns so far. All that's left to do is make 56 eyebolts and 16 breeching rings, and fit another 64 bolts   :
 

 

 

 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny

Thank you John and Grant - you ain't seen nuthin' yet .
 
Next trick was making the Chocks. The five lower Lower Capstan ones are 3 3/4" thick, the six lower Upper Capstan ones are 3 1/8" and both sets of upper chocks are 2" thick - keeping them separate was a trick .
 
The chocks taper inwards and are also bevelled for the scarphs. The upper capstan ones have a slightly different angle to the lower ones. I started by sanding one edge on the Byrnes disc sander using both the angle gauge and tilt table. Then I cut them all to width on the Byrnes saw using the angle gauge for the other edge, and freehand sanded the bevel into each one :
 

 

 
Then I glued the Whelps and Chocks to the Barrels :
 

 

 
 
I left all the chocks oversize on the outer edges at this stage. They will be turned down to size in the next stage :
 
 

 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny

Trucks
 
I gave a bit of thought on the easiest way to make the Trucks (wheels) without resorting to using dowel - the grain would run the wrong way, although at this scale it would be difficult to pick the difference.
 
The Trucks are 4" thick, the Hind Trucks are 10.5" in diameter and the Fore Trucks are 12" diameter. On larger guns they were made from four pieces of timber with the grain running crosswise to each other and bolted together, but a 6-pounder's trucks were made from one solid piece.
 
I started off by cutting a strip of timber a little wider than the required diameter. I set up a simple stopper jig on my mill vice by CA'ing a couple of pieces of scrap to the top and drilling the 2mm centre hole. Then I cut the piece off square on the table saw.
 

 
To hold the piece into the lathe for turning the outside diameter I used a spare mandrel from my Dremel accessories. The screw was only 1.7mm, so I turned up a small brass sleeve to give a snug fit to the hole. When tightened it held the piece of timber beautifully.
 

 

 

 
I found it difficult to remove the truck from the mandrel, so I drilled a slightly smaller hole than the truck in a piece of scrap. By placing the piece over the hole I could easily remove it by pushing it into the hole :
 

 
There was a burr on one side of each piece after turning it, so to hold the rather awkward round piece without damaging it while sanding I drilled another hole in my piece of scrap which was slightly larger than the diameter of the truck and a bit less than it's thickness. The piece protrudes slightly from this hole, and a couple of wipes with a sanding stick soon removes the burr :
 

 

 

 
A view of the progress so far. The carriage sits on top of a 5 cent piece :
 

 
  Danny