19th century field gun by Bedford scratch build at approx 1/12 scale FINISHED

[Bedford]

I have wanted to make a field gun and wooden wheels for ages and now that I have a hex ER collet block I thought I'd give it a go. This is a generic design of my own inspired by pics found on the net. It's as much about the exercise and learning opportunities such a project presents as anything else.

 

 

Basic shape turned

 

Mounted in square collet block to drill trunnion holes at 180 degrees

 

Back in the lathe to finish turning

 

Trunnions pressed in

[GrandpaPhil]

Excellent!

[Papa]

Nice work.

[Bedford]

The Carriage, this is made from an old block of river red gum I've had for three decades and use little bits now and then. It's a very fine grained hard wood that finishes very easily and when waxed could be mistaken for a cast resin fake timber so I always leave a few very slight imperfections.

 

[Edwardkenway]

Beautiful workmanship, the wood looks fantastic!

[popeye the sailor]

very nice start!  

[Kevin]

i love the way you say that you leave imperfections so it doesn't look like resin

[Bedford]

Next came the wheels, these are the tricky bits.

First glue up a hex drum with a dowel centre that can be held in collets to allow all the processes required.

Turn it to a nice round shape deep enough to cut two rims from then remount in the hex collet block and drill 2 rows of 6 spoke holes before resetting in the collet block to allow drilling of the next set of holes. This took a lot of fine measuring to get right. As a result the wheels have 12 spokes.

 

 

 

 

[Bedford]

Then the hub and spokes, the hub was done in much the same way as the rims but instead of drilling holes I milled slots, again the resetting to allow the second set of cuts required a lot of measuring, checking and re-checking. The spokes where round stock (Tasmanian oak as with the rest of the wheel) which I set up in the square collet block to machine a 3mm square section before mounting in the lathe to round out the rest of the shaft. It was messy and Tas oak tends to splinter in the lathe so there where a few that ended up in the bin.

 

The spokes are not glued to the rims or the hub. The built up body of the hub combined with the alluminium tyres hold it all together much like the real thing.

 

On the subject of the tyres, I just happened to have a piece of alluminium stock that was just big enough to turn for the tyres at 110mm O.D.

The tyres where heated in the oven to expand them prior to fitting. They are very tight on the rims and no glue was used.

 

[Bedford]

The hub hardware was simply turned from brass stock and a few rings and some chain left over from ship models

 

[Old Collingwood]

Amazing work  - truly  museum quality.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

Simply beautiful, love the metalwork....

 

You going to dress her out for combat or leave her as an exemplar?....

 

Way beyond my talents..... Very Nice....

 

EG

[Bedford]

4 hours ago, Egilman said:

You going to dress her out for combat or leave her as an exemplar?....

 

More a display piece I think but it will have some of its associated equipment

[Bedford]

How about some trunnion clamps for want of a better word.

 

I clamped two pieces of brass together in the mill vice, drilled through on centre, separated them and used them as press molds to shape the clamps before bending the brass around to form the hinge. I then filled the rolled brass hinge section with solder before running a drill through it to get a nice round body for the hinge pin. The fixed part of the hinge was milled from bar stock and drilled before being cut off with a slitting saw.

 

[Bedford]

A little bit more hardware, the screw jack and socket for the arm used to turn the gun when aiming (so the vertical and horizontal aiming system)

Yes, the wooden handles are belaying pins!

 

[Bedford]

In the last pic above you can see two brass studs with conical heads. I have used these throughout the build and they are the small brass nails that come with ship kits. The heads on them are awful so I have reduced them in size and centered the heads by turning the angle into them.

 

To do this in my lathe was difficult because even the jacobs chuck that fits the headstock would not hold them. After I bought a set of ER32 collet blocks and chuck I still couldn't hold them because they are only 0.87mm but I remembered a cheap old dremel knock off I had and the collet chuck was very easy to remove so it is now in the lathe tool kit and does a great job.

 

[popeye the sailor]

amazing work inventing the wheel...........really nice work!   the brass work is super.....WOW!   

[mtaylor]

Beautiful and impressive work.  Way out of my paygrade that's for sure.

[Old Collingwood]

26 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

Beautiful and impressive work.  Way out of my paygrade that's for sure.

Same as me.

 

OC.

[Bedford]

A lot of the ability comes from the machines and patience

[Egilman]

51 minutes ago, Bedford said:

A lot of the ability comes from the machines and patience

And Lot and Lots of practice......

[Baker]

Beautiful  work 👍

[Retired guy]

Brilliant metal and wood work and the scale really brings it all out 👍

 

Regards

Richard

[Bedford]

I've been a bit quiet on this one lately but here are a few more details taken care of.

 

First, it must have a name but I don't know it so I'll call it a maneuvering arm which I guess would have been used to aim the gun and given my gun is designed to similar proportions and centre of gravity etc I can tell you there is very little effort required to lift and turn the gun using the arm.

 

The brush, sponge and rammer are also made. The "sponge" is a small dremel polishing felt cut down a bit and the brush came in a set of pipe brushes of various sizes I got online and cut down to suit.

 

[Bedford]

Once I had the accessories made I had to mount them so I hammered down some annealed 1mm brass wire to give a flat of 2mm width. Then milled a piece of scrap brass to make a former. The flat was clamped between the former and the vice, wrap the wire around a drill bit then work it into the curved rebate to give the "crook" shape. Then milled a 2mm wide slot into another brass off cut to hold the hook securely while drilling the holes.

 

[Bedford]

That left the holder for the maneuvering arm which is made of square brass tube ground to an internal radius at each end on a bench belt sander with another piece of the same tube slightly flared at one end soldered to the first and attached. The upper support is the same process but a section of round tube was soldered to the square base then worked to the open cradle shown.

 

Next job...................................................a wooden bucket, I hope!

 

[popeye the sailor]

look'in even better with the added accessories  

[Bedford]

The bucket consists of 10 wedges of mahogany cut to an angle of 36 degrees and glued together on a 3mm MDF backing plate. I then used a 25mm holesaw to cut out the blank for the bucket, glued a dowel arbor into it to mount in a collet and drilled out the centre before running a 12mm end mill into it. Then with the compound slide set at 6 degrees ( scaled from a plastic bucket I have ) I cut the interior surface before cutting the exterior then I cut the bucket away. I used a plug cutter to cut a disc from some 0.8mm ply for the bottom and glued that in with a little CA from the underside. Next I mounted some brass stock in the lathe and repeated the process to achieve a hollow 6 degree cone in brass which I parted off to create the two bands. Solder a few tabs on, bend up a handle and there you have it.

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Bedford

[Edwardkenway]

Superb piece of artillery, the detail you've added is simply stunning.

Excellent work!

[Canute]

Beautiful field piece. Nicely done bucket!