jud

Few multi propose machines are worth the trouble it takes to make the conversion, they seldom do any of the advertised functions well. Some may find the tool useful but most would probably choose one function and leave it there. There are a lot of tools advertised that sound very good, but seldom get used, because they were intended for the unknowing gift buyer to purchase. This may be the exception, but I would be waiting to read several unbiased user comments before investing, especially if my budget was limited.
jud 

Few multi propose machines are worth the trouble it takes to make the conversion, they seldom do any of the advertised functions well. Some may find the tool useful but most would probably choose one function and leave it there. There are a lot of tools advertised that sound very good, but seldom get used, because they were intended for the unknowing gift buyer to purchase. This may be the exception, but I would be waiting to read several unbiased user comments before investing, especially if my budget was limited.
jud 

Lay out line down the center of the deck from bow to stern. Then start your planking in the center of the deck working out to the sides. Never start your planking form the bulwarks or sides and go towards the center. Sorry, but looking at the pictures, I ain't seeing no bend or warp.
 
 
mike 

What I might do is clamp a square guide to a board with medium sandpaper on it, then use the guide and sand one side of the dowel full length until there was a small flat on it. Then rotate the dowel so the flat is against the guide and sand a side perpendicular to the first flat just a little short of the desired depth, rotate and do it again until your first sanded side was brought down even with the rest. Now it should be close enough to fine tune by eye with the sand paper using the guide if needed..
jud

I suffer from flat surface syndrome, If there is a flat surface I'm not happy until it has stuff piled high.
 
At least this way I know about where everything is.

Shawn

Rolling your own always gives a warm and fuzzy feeling. Good idea jay.
jud

Use the push sticks and guards along with the rule, never to turn the darn thing on when distracted or thinking of something other than the job at hand. If still a bit cautious, 'good', stay that way. If frightened about using the thing, get rid of it and stick with hand tools.
jud

Do I design my own hull (which I am capable of doing), or do I use the hull plans of Ticonderoga.
Do your own design, using the Ticonderoga plans and anything else you can find for guidance, that seems the direction your are leaning and in the end would be happier with. Don't need to reinvent the wheel but you can use your own judgement that way.
jud

Little more than the weight of the rear of the gun on the screw, before, during and after firing. The initial beginning load on the screw will vary a bit at different elevations of the gun tube and roll of the ship. Don't forget that a recoil system is intended to spread the force of recoil over time and distance, the carrage with it's slide is a recoil system and the line running through the block and tackels is another part of that system. The breaching is a safety device to keep the gun in the area it is intended to be and seldom even has the slack taken out of it by the forces of recoil. The block and tackle at the side of a gun are used as dampers on the recoil as well as used to pull the gun back into battery and also used as an aiming device. The screw only controls the elevation of the vertical part of aiming the gun and supports the static weight of the gun. That screw being ridigly secured to the breach end of the gun by a threaded hole is free to move with the threads, the bottom end, unless provisions are made, just drags back and forth on whatever it is resting on  when the gun elevation is changed. Gun tube rotates and everything secured to it moves with it around the trunnion. This is a good discussion about a small but important part of those historical guns.
jud

More engineering calculations:
 
Based on the data in http://www.thenrg.org/resources/articles/The%20carronade.pdf, the muzzle velocity of a 32 lb carronade is 750 ft/sec.  Assuming that the explosive force, and therefore the acceleration, is constant, then the average muzzle force is 70,000 lbs.   A lot of this force will go to accelerating the mass of the barrel, but for the moment assume all of this force has to be counter-acted by the elevation screw (which would happen is the slide stuck, or the breech rope were too long and the fighting pin hits the end of the slot).   From the geometry of the 1812 design I described above, then the load on the elevation screw is about 25,500 lbs.  The drawings specify a root diameter of the screw as 1.25" (outside diameter = 2.125"), resulting in a stress of 20,000 psi.  The yield strength of wrought iron is in the range of 23,000 to 32,000 psi. It they used a heat treatable (hardenable) or cold worked steel, which was available, the the yield strength is in the 60,000 psi range.  
 
Since I've greatly over-estimated the load, a screw could survive with a good safety margin in "regular" use.  
 
Bruce

Thank you all for your research :-)
 
Another good hint came from Jörg/Chapman in our german forum:
 
He quotes Caruana´s Sea Ordonance saying, that the wedge was necessary for shooting as the spindle for height adjustment would be destroyed after some shots. It looks like there was even a square surface on the bottom of the barrel to properly fit the wedge. This small surface was also used for the serial number. 
 
He also claims that when the low trunnions were introduced, the side parts of the carriage had to be left off on the new carriage, thus resulting in the introduction of the elevation screw as handbars could not be used any more efficiently because of the missing leverage points. As the spindle was too weak, the wedge was placed just before the shot.
 
Chers, Daniel

Elevation screw movement.
ELEVATION SCREW.pdf

I looked at the drawings for the carronades provided on the CD from the USS Constitution Museum.  They provide two designs, one from the 1927-31 rebuild and another that is "1812 Era" (1985 drawing).  The first drawing shows two wooden "t-nuts" that fit in the slot in the skid and hook under the skid.  Each t-nut is attached to the slide with four 1.25" bolts. There is 1/2" clearance between the bottom of the skid and the hook edge on the t-nut.
 
The 1812 design just shows a 3.75" fighting bolt that runs in the slot and goes through a large (8" diameter) ring that runs under the base. There is no other block in the slot to stop the slide from rotating on the skid shown on the drawings.  
 
I did some engineering calculations to estimate the forces on the various components of the 1812 design. (I'll post them later).  Assuming the thrust force from the barrel is 1000 lbs, then:
     Compression force on the elevation screw: 350 lbs
     Tension (lifting) force on the fighting bolt:  260 lbs
     Force of the back edge of the slide on the skid:  540 lbs
 
There's a lot of friction between 1) the end of the slide and between the skid and 2) the fighting bolt ring that slows the recoil: assuming a friction coefficient of 0.5 (wood on wood and metal on wood), then the friction force is (0.5)(540+260) = 400 lbs.  Most, if not all, of this force will be transferred to the pivot pin next to the gun port.  (I wonder if this means more energy goes to the ball since the barrel recoil velocity must be smaller.  Also, since the recoil is absorbed over a period of time, it should mean less impact on the hull when the breech cable tightens up.)
 
As Jud showed in his drawing, the elevation screw is threaded into the cascabel, so when the screw is not 90 deg to the top of the sled then there is a bending torque on the screw.  However, since the bottom of the screw is just sitting on the surface, there is some friction involved, which reduces the bending forces by about 60%.
 
Going back to the original question of why there there is only one pin in the slot.  If the fighting bolt (pin) is not exactly under the bore then there will be torque that will twist the barrel sideways (looking from above).  This will happen also if the blast force is not symmetric to the bore or the friction between the underside of the slide and the top of the skid were not the same on either side of the slot (actually, this would be outright unstable), so I would think it would be a good idea to have a second slide in the slot.  
 
There are, however, several reasons why the slide will recoil straight back:
that the moment of inertia of the barrel is so large that it would take a lot of torque to make it turn as it recoils. there is a lot of friction between the breech end of the slide and the skid, which will limit rotation of the slide. the force of the explosion acts on the breech, so as long as the fighting bolt (pin) is out-board of the breech, then this force will push the barrel straight back.   These factors also apply to army artillery mounted on two wheels - they recoil straight back.
 
I have to think this out some more, but I think it's important that the center of mass of the barrel is inboard of the fighting bolt.  Overall, it looks like getting the geometry right does most of work, and friction helps to take care of the imperfections.
 
 
Bruce

Elevation screw movement.
ELEVATION SCREW.pdf

Hello Izzy and Jud,
 
not sure if I got you a 100% ...
 
Jud: I believe the elevation screw was actually used to adapt the height, as all carriages using wedges and therefor bars have the sides of the carriage made of wood and with those typical steps as silhouette. Those steps served for the bars to have a leverage point. If those side parts are missing, it is rather difficult to work the bars properly ...
 
Izzy: As I mentioned before, me too I wonder, if the screw was eased by a wedge while shooting or being lashed for sailing. Fact is, as long as the screw is used, I just discovered the wedges only in 19th century replicas so far, and not in contemporary sources. Not being a physicist, I do not know enough about the stability of 18th century iron rod srews of about 2" (guessed by the proportion; about 6 cm) and the forces of the shot pressing onto them. 
 
XXXDan

Hi,
 
Not wishing to hijack you other thread. I'll cont here but I realise that there is a metal plate for the screw to slide on but with several tons of recoil that would be like putting a biscuit under a wobbly table leg. The bar would still bend if not embedding in the wrought iron plate... At least digging into the wood at one side or the other. And if not in the plans surely a Wiley old sea dog would have realised this drawback and used something in his own redesigned version..
 
Being unable at the moment to actually read the entire thread due to my condition. But having spotted several words on the issue I feel that the gun be mounted I such a way that the pivot was able to slide but not able to rise. Either a removable spike through the pivot making it simpler to transport around deck if needed. Or a fixed system of some kind. Or else the same force that drives the back down would flip the barrel over. Unless you can find a loop hole in all three of newtons laws of motion.

Thanks for all the likes and for the kind wishes for Judy.
 
i read right your an Englishman abroad with skill,s like yours i,d say Sheffield lol
 
Gary, well it was St Marys Hospital Paddington right next door to the Great Western Railway Station. (or as some say God's Wonderful Railway) Then I grew up in Acton W3 in West London..... trial and error is a wonderful teacher, I have lots of scrap boxes that have accumulated over the years, and also encouraged by the right folk when I was young.
 
Michael

Good to hear Judy is up and about, nothing to restore oneself but a well loved activity.
 
Again some marvelous work MIchael. I was nearly drooling like a dog over it's favourite bone, closed my mouth just in time.

Patrick, Druxey, Mark T, Germanus, Row, Jack, Igor, Carl, Bob, John, Gary, Mike, Dan, Denis, Ed, Mark.
 
Thank all so very much for the well wishes, it is indeed great that Judy is well enough to be home and she has even gone back to work at the Library, (it is a small rural one and Judy is the Librarian  Manager she was looking forward to getting back so much.
 
P.S. : the Most Honourable and Noble Swiss Watchmakers´ Society at Geneva would be pleased to send you their application form.
Germanus this made me smile, They are way way above my league, but as a kid I wanted to be a watchmaker..... it is a funny world we live in. When I was 15 I had 24 chiming clocks in my bedroom all sort of them, picked them up in junk shops in England, they would be hard to find these days, but in the late 50's early 60's they were a dime a dozen.
 
I am almost sure that if to fill in couple of drops of gasoline in this engine it will start working.
Igor, as soon as she is ready that is what will happen.
 
The cover plate for the cavity on the top of the head, took for ever to fit, but it had to be precise and snug before I could drill the holes.
 
After the blank was fitted I flipped the head upside down and clamped it in the milling machine on top of a sacrifice block of brass, I used brass so that the plate had something the same density so that the hole would not form a bur on the drill exit.
 
The set up included using a couple of the original integrated spark plugs as drill bushings to act as guides for pilot drilling the holes in the plate
 

 
After the .078 hole was drilled the bushing was removed in order to then drill out a clearance hole for the spark plug which is .136"
 

 

 
The head was then indexed over to line up the second hole this was done by trial and error, by raising and lowering the .078 drill until it slipped into the hole easily. I did ensure that the upside down bit ran true before doing the set up.
 

 
Then drilled out the second hole.
 

 
Then repeated the clearance hole for the plug.
 

 
I made a couple of large .031 brass washers to act as the small circular covers these will get mounted to the oval plate with four small 00x 90 round head screws.
 

 

 

 
It is great to get a bit more time in the shop, and I am spending more with Judy now that she is back on her feet.
 
Thanks for all the likes as well.
 
Michael
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

That would be 3 right hand lay ropes made up into a left hand lay cable.  Anchor cable was never wormed or parcelled except for a temporary service clapped on at the point where it passed through the hawse holes to prevent chafe.  Too much water would be trapped in the rope if it was wormed and parcelled and that would promote rot.  Sometimes a length of chain was used for the first portion near the anchor in order to help set the anchor and reduce damage from the cable resting on the sea bed.

Suspect there is more than a round bolt in the slot. Would expect to see a traveling "T" arrangement. That would do two things, one to hold the slide in alignment and the other to keep the upper and lower part of the recoil system attached in case of an upset.
jud 

Hi Joshua.
When I have a LOT of bevels to do I make a jig out of some scrap softwood.
The scrap timber should be flat and wide.
Using a bench saw cut a slot in the scrap timber at the angle you want.
Then the timber you are sanding fits into the slot at the correct angle.
Now I pass it through my drum sander.
The result is perfect bevels on my timbers.
 
Regards Antony.

Hi
 
 
Even better would be 1/8" dia. piano wire. It will not bend like tube will. I have used it inside king posts and other ribs and frames that need the strenght. I have just drilled a hole that it will go into and glue it in place. Works great on basswood frames and bulkheads that have thin tops that are in the area that has planking that puts preasure on them. And supports them before the planking is glued to them,when you can just touch them and they will break off.
 
Use a sharpe drill and drill the hole into the solid section at least 3 x the wire dia. or even more if possible.
 
Keith

Have a light box that has a clear glass top 27" X 37" using 4 florescent tubes, commercially made that I acquired years ago as surplus, think it was USACE. It was mostly used to bring out the lines and lettering on old blue line copies or sepia prints of old surveys so the data could be gone over with pencil and used. Also has been used for artsy things to large to hold up to a window for tracing. Your kids should have some fun with the box you made. Keeping mine around, I might be using it.
jud

Thanks for the pics Anton and the history.  Yes, my father also received the Willems Order, personally given to my mother by Queen Juliana.  She managed to tell the Queen "this doesn't bring my husband back."  Yeah, there was some bitterness but a short time later Queen Juliana personally bailed us out of a difficult situation.
 
Cheers,