This project is a teaching project for me. I am the Teacher and I am the student. I am using the carriage building techniques put forth in Damian Siekonic
Building 18th Century Naval Artillery and laminating thinner wood to make thicker wood.
As I mentioned earlier, I am rewriting thissection. I said this was a teaching project and I meant it, I had a major teaching moment.
A comment here on hardware on the original carriage, it appears that each piece of hardware was made to fit the precut wood. The pieces of hardware are not interchangeable with each other. Angles are all slightly different. I should have been forewarned about this. The two trail/cheek pieces are not the same shape. They each are slightly different. This applies to the metal also. When I took the gun down I should have noted which cap square went with which trunnion plate went with which caps square hook. Each piece has been individually fit to the other and are not interchangeable.
Siekonic suggests cutting the pieces of laminate material before gluing up to make the deep holes through the wood.
In order to do the layout for the Cap square bolts holes, I assembled the capsquare, hooks and trunnion plate and laid it all out on center laminate cheek piece to make sure everything aligned. With everything aligned, I traced the bolts and cut away the material for the slots on the band saw. Then laid those pieces out on the bottom laminate.
Siekonic recommends using lag screw on inside layers to add strength to the laminate. It seems to me that it would be useful also for holding the small pieces in place. I am using deck screws in place of glue on this plywood mock up as it is, so that is something I will incorporate in the oak assembly for interior parts.
Also when I did the tracing, I used a forstner bit as a transfer punch to mark the various cross bolt holes. I used the marks as points to place my deck screws and hold everything together. When I am ready to do cross pieces I will drill these holes out for my cross bolts.
With these pieces tied down, time to check and see if the hardware fits.
I did this and then assembled everything to the axle. Teaching moment number one. The cheek would not go on the axle. i had to widen the relief.
When I made this cut, I made the cut on the outside or air side of the line. I should have made the cut on the inside or carriage wood side. Told ya I was no carpenter.
Nope capsquares don't fit either. Capsquare is on backwards. I had to do some minor fitting of the new front hook, that was expected. Machinist vise and heavy ball peen hammer make these delicate adjustments simple. I turned the Capsquare around and everything was fine.
The only thing that did not fit is the Trunnion socket with the barrel trunnion. It is to snug a fit. For the other cheek I will use next size larger forstner bit to make the hole. If that fit is to lose them I will just use the first bit, that is trunnion diameter to make the trunnion socket and fit the trunnion with chisels and grinder into the oak. This is a good example of the value of making the mock up.
Time to make the other cheek.
Now we really learn.
To do the layout of this piece I assembled the hardware as before and put the rear hook through the axle housing. I then set it the cheek in place a traced everything.
I cut everything out and screwed it together. Added the hardware and ended up with the capsquare misaligned. I should have checked that when I did the layout and tracing. This was simple to fix just change angle of the slot a bit.
At this point it has become real evident that I have the parts mixed up. I had to swap the capsquares around and get them properly mated to the trunnion plates and the find which hook went with which cap sqaure. The other problem was using the left cheek/trail to do the tracing. That was fine for the left trail/cheek hardware. That didn't work for the right trail/cheek hard ware.
I am also learning Bandsaw on this project. First of course was blade. This saw came with a skinny 1/8" fine tooth blade. Nice for circles, but not good for long straight cuts. I finally ended up with a 3/4" course tooth blade. This served well for most cuts. Another thing I have learned is that a 3/4 HP motor struggles to cut 2 inches of plywood, wonder how it going to do on 3" of red oak?
When laying out the project for cutting, you have to plan out each move-each cut. I layed out my cheek and traced it, then started cutting. Everything worked fine, until I got to the axle cut and found the length of my wood block by the saw-housing.
When I did the second cheek, I put that cut on the left side. But that brought up a problem with the 3/4' blade. That wide blade is difficult to turn and cut to a sqaure corner.
Another good reason for the mock up in plywood. When I do the round trail rub plates and the axle relief, I will do it with the little 1/8" blade.
One other thing I am going to do when I make the tracings of the sides, I am going to use the hardware for that side to trace in the area where it fits.
Here is where we are.
My goal right now is to get this carriage mocked up so I shoot it Sunday and ring in the spring.
