Artillery

[Frank DolmanParticipant @frankdolman72357]

     Absolutely super!  I can’t express my delight and admiration.

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

 

I used to be interested in 1/10 scale rifles. An acquaintance of mine was building a WW1 13 pounder in 1/5^th scale and showed it at a local model show. He was nicked and given 6 months by the local beaks. He actually did 9 months in the lockup as he then went to Crown Court where the Judge directed a Not Guilty verdict as the gun was incomplete, could not chamber any known round and the use by the local police of a technicality of being a dismantled weapon was ridiculous. Had he finished the thing before he showed it and had sent it to a proof house and got a certificate of ‘Inability to Prove’ it could not have been a gun. By the way a certificate of ‘Deactivation’ is no good because to give this it means that the thing must at onetime been able to fire.

When he asked, in court, for the thing back, as it was not a gun, he found that the ‘beaks’ had ordered its destruction along with all his books, drawings etc about guns. The Prosecution claimed that the man ‘had an unhealthy interest in guns’.  Her honour the judge nearly ate her own wig in her anger. So be warned. Those who now manage us do not know or care about the law. I got rid of all my books PDQ on guns gun-smithing and any related subject I trashed all my models etc.

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

I am searching my memory for this one, but I think it was during the 1980s that ME published an article by a reader who had built his own .22 competition pistol. The usual rifling twist for a .22 is one turn in 14 inches, and I seem to remember the rifling was produced by using 14 tpi gearing set up backwards (with the smallest gear wheel at the leadscrew end). The lathe was then driven from the leadscrew – possibly by turning it by hand.

I think the grooves were cut one at a time with a long boring tool of the writer’s own design.

Maybe someone with a better memory than mine could dig out the article – if only to prove me wrong on the details!

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Hi

 

A quick question re this page, is anyone else getting a phantom picture frame being displayed that covers some of the above posts and stops access to parts of the page under it??

 

Is this yet another quirk/problem/frustration associated with this site.

 

Cheers

 

Martin

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Yes Martin ,  it goes from the third line of Speedy’s post to just below the header on Dougie Swan’s post, saw it there last night, Thought odd, but I’m on a new old computer, and I don’t know if it has any bugs and gremlins, but seeing I’m not the only one, I seem to be OK that way,I don’t tend to worry too much about little hitches. Ian S C

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Yes Martin ,  it goes from the third line of Speedy’s post to just below the header on Dougie Swan’s post, saw it there last night, Thought odd, but I’m on a new old computer, and I don’t know if it has any bugs and gremlins, but seeing I’m not the only one, I seem to be OK that way,I don’t tend to worry too much about little hitches. Ian S C

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Hi Ian

 

Thanks for that as I was wondering whether I had a gremlin lurking in the bowels of my system!! I only really noticed it when I tried to access something within the boundary.

 

Minor gripes over the real thing is that Dougie’s rail gun is a triumph of model engineering. I could never aspire to producing something of this complexity and quality. So I will have to sit back and just admire the finished result of his dedication and hard work.

 

Cheers

 

Martin

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

I have never seen that frame!

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

Kwil have a look at the words ‘Eccentric Engineering on this page.  The frame starts just above those words ind it passes between the ‘ee’ in Engineering.

[steve milnerParticipant @stevemilner53244]

Dear Mr Dougie Swan,

 

Uploaded a photo album containing some photo’s of an 1887 155mm Howitzer manufactured by the De-Bange company. Modeled at 1 3/4″ – 1ft for fitment onto a Pechott Well Wagon in 3 1/2″ gauge. Completed last year. No where near your masterpiece. You need to look at doing the Pechott wagon mounted naval rail gun next !

 

Regards,

 

 

Steve.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Richard, your ghost is on the opposite side of the page, and half a page lower than Martin or I see it, but I would’nt let it worry you. Kwil proberbly only a few see it, but wer getting off track. Ian S C

[MongoParticipant @mongo]

Mr. Swan

 

I joined this sight after seeing your incredible work on you miniature cannons.  Is the coastal defense QF 6″ gun based on the J.H.Pollard plans from 1912?

 

I am trying to figure out the handle mounted on the left side of the gun that looks like it is on a shaft that pass to the right side and is connected to a spring. I’m guess this was a manual ejector?

 

BTW Love the rail gun work too.

[Howard JonesParticipant @howardjones35282]

if you guys ever want to model a pistol can I suggest modelling, even at 1:1 scale, a Very Signalling Pistol. the type used in WW2 to fire recognition colours.

In australia you do not need to licence a Very Pistol at all so it would make a quite interesting model engineering exercise and it would be legal.

[adyParticipant @ady]

While rifling is a seriously kewl project in itself, and not unlike an internal leadscrew thread, if I wanted to build a projectile firing unit I would focus on a smooth bore and a projectile which was self stabilising.

 

Gerard Bull used the same approach…however being too good at ballistics, and being ambitious can get you into a lot of trubble.

 

A naughty boy who ended up being assassinated

 

G6 howitzer

 

 

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Hi Mongo and thanks for the comments.

The coastal gun is based on a picture and drawing in the book “model engineering” by Henry Greenly

The shaft you ask about is part of the ejection system, the shaft acts as a rotary trip to a spring powered ejector, the spring visible on the outside is only there to pull the trip back into the locked position when te ejector is pushed back into the closed position

Regards

Dougie

[MongoParticipant @mongo]

Mr Swan,

 

Thanks for the reply. I ordered a copy of the book. Is your model able to fire or is like the rail gun? Luckily here in the USA I can generate working versions.

 

What tool are you using to upset the rivet? Are you bucking them or using a squeezer?  BTW thanks for the link to the supplier, for some reason I can not find a supplier in the USA on the net for the 1/16″ rivet so I might have to import them from England.

 

Have you ever done a sliding breach style of miniature cannon?

 

 

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

 

Mongo –Hi  I have partly made one.  It was a 6” QF (Mk XXIII I think). I found many of the bits in my scrap boxes when I got over here. I thought I had dumped the whole lot in the 90s. It used a variant of the Krupp sliding block.  The little pin on the breech handle fits into the notch in the lower part of the breech. As you rotate the breech handle the breech slides to the right.  The cut out on the breech was to allow the one end of the tails of the ejector fingers to rise up as breech block closed stuffing the cartridge into the seating on the block and pushing the ejector fingers down. When the breech had moved to the right, clear of the spent cartridge case, the breech block pushed ends of the ejector fingers down, which started the ejection process. A good breech worker could yank the breech open during the recoil phase which helped sling the red hot case out. There are some pics oi the album called Krupp

There is another way of spiral cutting groves inside a hole. This is by broaching them. The broach has the reverse image of the grooves and lands. It is cut on the ‘skew’ so that as it is pulled through the hole it will rotate. The broach was fixed and the tube was allowed to rotate, or vice versa. The rate of turn was determined by the angle of ‘skew’. I think you can figure it out for you self. I made some broaches for a friend of mine (who had a real works but gave me the right to skip dive his scrap bins). The broaches were to cut oil grooves down some ½ meter long rollers which were always wearing out or seizing solid from lack of lubrication. The broach was faced with tungsten carbide which was brazed on.

Mr Swann – Where are the recuperators?

[MongoParticipant @mongo]

Richard – I uploaded some pictures to my album for you to see. The first group is some Solidworks modeling I’m doing on a sliding breach design. I am currently redesigning the striker system in it to make it much more friendly. The second set is some firing models people have made in the States. The first 2 in the album are interrupted thread breach designs from a Modeltec magazine article in 1945. I was able to get an original copy of the magazine and will be scanning a clean copy soon. I’ve uploaded the less than stellar copy have right now. I am going to do a little redesign on it and make it a bit more friendly to the user by adding an extractor system, buttress threads for the breach, and other minor changes.

 

The other is a sliding breach design is by a gentleman that passed away in mid project. Apparently he was going to use a clip on electric solenoid to hit the firing pin.

 

Here is a little video of my  SW design.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mongo63a?feature=mhum#p/u/13/N_Qgn52IbfU

 

Edited By Mongo on 19/11/2010 22:06:09

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

 

I am afraid I have totally given up on these things after my experiences in the U.K.  I still have knowledge and was writing a booklet on the way in which RMLs were rifled, but I dumped the lot on the fire, but my second wife found some notes which I had forgotten. They have now gone up the chimney too.  I have deliberately suppressed my knowledge although the sources still exist, I can do nothing about this. I will admit that I made a the necessary tool and tried it – it worked. Enough of this it is all forgotten!

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Hi Richard,

which model are you asking about?

 

On the coastal gun the recuparators are the three tubes below the barrel

 

The railway gun has the recuperators built into the cheeks either side of the barrel plus a larger one underneath the main barrel

 

There are lots more pictures of the gun here

 

http://modelengineeringwebsite.com/Railway_gun.html

 http://modelengineeringwebsite.com/Railway_gun_2.html

[Dougie SwanParticipant @dougieswan43463]

Hi Mongo

All the rivets were formed with a hammer and rivet snap, it didnt take long to get a rythim going and was quite enjoyable, I had to make a stand to fit on my bench around the vice so that the plates were supported while I did the hammering.

Unfortunately, here in the UK, you can get into all sorts of trouble really quickly if you make something that can fire and could be considered a firearm, so like the railway gun the coastal gun cant fire

I’ve never tried a sliding breech but you never know what might take my fancy

Regards

Dougie

[adyParticipant @ady]

I am afraid I have totally given up on these things after my
experiences in the U.K.  I still have knowledge and was writing a
booklet on the way in which RMLs were rifled, but I dumped the lot on
the fire, but my second wife found some notes which I had
forgotten. They have now gone up the chimney too.  I have deliberately
suppressed my knowledge although the sources still exist, I can do
nothing about this. I will admit that I made a the necessary tool and
tried it – it worked. Enough of this it is all forgotten!

 

lol

 

I had a blog of British history from a personal perspective going back to the sixties, concerning the politics, social changes and technology from back then through the 1970s 1980s and into the 1990s. Mainly the birth of the computer age and the transitions from a command economy to a command society.

It took me eight years to write.

 

I erased all copies about 5 years ago, not a sentence remains.

 

Knowing too much can be a bit of a booger.

 

edit: I bet you felt a huge sense of relief as it was destroyed though, I know I did.

 

Edited By ady on 20/11/2010 21:04:59

[adyParticipant @ady]

I’m re-reading Spareys -The Amateurs lathe- at the moment.

My favourite passage is from  -installing the lathe-

 

Another point which is often neglected is the provision of an earthing lead to all machines. It is quite a common occurrence, especially in damp weather, for the operator to experience an electric shock, of more or less severity, whenever the metal portion of the machine is touched. Apart from being extremely disconcerting, this can be dangerous, as it may cause the operator to “jump” on contact. Sudden uncontrolled movements such as this should never be made near revolving machinery!

 

I presume that more recent editions have been updated for the period.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

There is a good picture of a 1:3 scale 1893 Gatling Gun in Post Bag  ME 4216  – 5 March 2004

[MongoParticipant @mongo]

I have added some pics of the 3D model I’m generating in my photo album called mini cannon.

[Author]

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