17th Century Naval Cannon - 1:12 scale - by DocBlake [COMPLETED BUILD]

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Just a little diversion from my other projects. This will be a 1:12 scale model of a 17th century naval cannon. The plans were drawn by Jeff Staudt and are available at Navy Board Models. https://www.navyboardmodels.com/sites/default/files/documents/plans/cannon-1-12.pdf

This is the same gun and carriage plans we used for our 17th century battle station build. The scale is much larger, and my plan is to turn the cannon out of hard maple. I have a midi lathe and have done some turning of furniture parts, but the cannon should be a challenge. The photos show one sheet of the plans and my own turned furniture parts. The columns on the tall clock are mine turnings, not the stairway balusters!01.JPG02.jpg03 (1).jpg
 
The plans for the gun and carriage print on standard 8-1/2" X 11" paper so the next step was to decide on the wood species and start cutting! I chose swiss pear for the carriage body and axles, and boxwood for the trucks. As mentioned, I'll turn the cannon out of hard maple. The parts were cut out on the table saw and scroll saw and carefully sanded. I used my Byrnes saw and a thin kerf blade to cut shallow grooves to simulate the brackets being build in 2 pieces as well as the base. I cut the trucks using a circle cutting bit on my drill press. This left a 1/4" hole in the center of each truck, which I widened to the 5/16" I need. I wanted to add the bolts the held to two halves of the trucks together, but I'd already widened the hole for the axles, so laying out the 6 bolt locations would be tricky. Since I'm trying to learn TurboCad, what I did was design the trucks in the CAD program, with the locations of the bolts noted. I printed these out and rubber cemented them to some 1/8" thick plywood. These were cut out out and sanded, and holes drilled at the appropriate points for the bolts. These 2 templates let me transfer the bolt locations to the boxwood trucks. The bolts themselves are toothpicks dyed black. The dollar bill in the photo gives a sense of scale.


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Thanks, Uwe!
The carriage is held together with long bolts. I settled on 3d finish nails as the simulated bolts. The heads are about 3/32" in diameter - about right at this scale. I cleaned them up and blackened the heads. The brackets are inset from the edge of the base by 1/16". I used double sided tape to tape some 1/16" planking to the brackets to maintain this spacing. The brackets were double sided taped to the base Then I drilled up into each bracket through the base. The simulate bolts were cut short but still function like real bolts in holding the structure together as the glue dries.05.jpg07.jpg06.jpg08.jpg09.jpg
 
following along on this Build.. I built a firing Civil War brass cannon and carriage for a buddy years ago. I build Firearms and custom firearms parts so I turned the Naval brass cannon on my lathe. Built an oak carriage and used small screws and bolts that I ground into square heads and Gun blued Black to look like Iron fasteners and Trunnion caps. I have been Itching to build one for myself, but I'd much rather have a Ship type Carriage and Cannon.
 
G'day mate
As Uwe stated a very interesting idea.
I've got an idea, can you turn ivory on a lathe? Is so, my don't you make the canon from ivory? It would look great.
Just a thought
Happymodeling
Greg
 
I carefully attached the axles to the carriage base with double sided tape. I then drilled through the base into the axels. Two 3d nail "bolts" hold each axle to the carriage base, but I did cut them short. The axles are glued into place. Next is the stool bed and support, the transom and mounting the trucks.

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I finished assembling the gun carriage. I added the transom, and the stool bed with it's support. The forward end of the bed is drilled through for the ling horizontal bolt that supports it. The trucks and their linch pins were installed. Last, I carved the quoin's handle out of boxwood and assembled the quoin. All the rings and eyebolts are completed. I'll fashion the cap squares after the cannon is turned. That's the next job!


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Beautiful work Dave.
It's a pity about the cost of ebony, but what I have heard ebony is a bi##h to work with.
Foot in mouth moment: I'm not saying that you are not capable of using ebony, I understand the cost is too expensive. That is why I haven't use it before.
Me and my big mouth, I think I'm getting deeper. My mouth is going to get me in trouble one day!
Havagooday and happymodeling
Greg
 
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