On to Machine Shop Special Projects - Sub-scale Muzzleloading Artillery

A great source of information including plans for both the carriage and barrel is the Naval Historical Center - Detachment Boston that supports the USS Constitution.  They have a CD-ROM for sale ($15) that contains engineering drawings for most, if not all, of the systems of the ship including the armament.

The plans I started building from have some errors or omissions, so if you decide to build one of these guns, I strongly recommend getting the above-mentioned CD-ROM from the Naval Historical Center.  Their dimensions are full scale but there is no reason to make it wrong when the data are available to make it right.

The carriage consists of eleven major wooden pieces and a number of metal pieces, mostly bolts and screws.  Original carriages were made from elm for resistance to shock and splitting but elm is hard to find in commercial channels so I used white oak.  Commercial channels also do not carry full thickness lumber; so-called eight quarters lumber is only 1.75" thick and nominal one inch lumber is only .75" thick.  It's best to find a small saw mill that will cut lumber to the dimensions you want; you might also try eBay as some sawmills sell there.

Continue to making the carriage.

Back to the start.