Member postings for Buffer

I hope this doesn't become a debate on illegal firearms. It is not going to be a working model as it will not have a vent drilled. My intent is to make a good quality scale model of a cannon on a pivoting carriage and not to make a working illegal firearm. Just because it looks like a cannon doesn't make it any more of a weapon than a piece of blocked up scaffold pipe or a bar with a hole in it. Its going to be a good quality model.

Thanks

Hi

First of all thanks for all your advice. I will look for a piece of cored bar as Hopper suggests and then use the drill extension that Rod and the others have mentioned.

It is a through hole and it is for a cannon barrel. I am probably going to have a go at the type shown below.

It needs a through hole so I can put riffling in it, the breech end will then be blocked up with a screwed on cascabel. The real ones had the cascabel screwed into place also.

Thanks again.

Rich

Jason

I have just done a quick search and drills that are too small and too short are crazy prices some over £100.

Is there any other way you know of?

Thanks

Rich

Hi all

Does anyone know how to drill a 20x300mm hole in cast iron when I don't have a very long drill and I cant fit that and the work between centres in the lathe anyway so it will have to be in the pilar drill.

Could I make something like a D bit or other cutter from silver steel? Would it last long enough and what shape should I use?

Has anyone extended a drill bit and if so how did you do it, was it a success?

Could I extend a blacksmith type of drill?

Thanks for any help you might be able to give, I appreciate it.

Rich

Clive

I got the picture from a google search I think it is Fort Henry in Ontario. I have actually only seen these mortars twice. One was in the army museum in Lisbon and one in Guernsey. The drawings I made were from scaling various photos from google. There are so many different variations of the same piece that its difficult to make an exact scale model unless you visit one with a tape measure. That's why the grey block looks different as I would have copied that from a different picture.

Thanks

Rich

An update on the mortar, its now finished so I have uploaded a few photos. I hope you like it!

Next will hopefully be a Victorian Rifled Muzzle Loader on a pivoting carriage.

Vic

How will he clean up the bit of barrel between the trunnions and get it as nice as the turned bits at either end?

Rch

Clive

Many thanks, I like your models a lot too.
The bed was drawn on autocad and is made of 8 pieces of steel. I then sent the files to Malcolm at ME Laser who cut them for me. I then tig welded it all together. It was the only way I could think of other than screwing them together which seemed a lot more work. As I was painting this model black I was not too concerned about using welds.

The fillets were a real pain in the bum. As you know they have curves in awkward directions and seemed to me to be impossible to machine so I filed them. I first bored the hole for the trunnion into the fillet. I then pushed blutac onto the barrel and made a blutac filet. After carefully taking this off it gave me the shape I needed to file. It was very tricky but I did get a half decent fit in the end. They were then attached with an epoxy metal from b and q and a small amount was needed to fill some small gaps. I doubt this would be any good for you though as you are probably not intending to paint your brass model but I am going to paint mine.

If you do find a way let me know, I can only think of casting a complete barrel but thats not much help.

Regards

Rich

Having not seen nearly enough artillery models built I thought I would post a picture of my first model. Its a fairly simple scale model of a 10 inch Mortar from the Victorian era. If anyone is interested I can put up a few more pics as it progresses.

Is anyone else building this kind of thing?

Thanks.

I spotted the error with the 30mm hole and did it to the correct size but unfortunately I did not pick up the next error which is to mill the flat sides to a wall thickness of 3.75mm. I did this without giving it too much thought and guess what, it dont work with a 28.2mm hole! I am just under 2mm short now.

I am a bit miffed that this is given as a beginners engine but the description has these errors in. I know I could have worked it out from the drawing but I am the beginner they talk about and I didnt. I guess the first lesson learnt here is dont rely on someones description.

David, maybe you could print a correction each fortnight in ME and then us beginners could just build a fortnight behind and hopefully get it done without too much scrap.

Thanks