Fitting the Loader.

by John

The bracket is now bolted to the chassis. The arm is stainless steel, and the top bracket is silver soldered to the arm. The loader cradle is bolted to the top bracket, the angle being determined with a neat fitting rod inside the bore. The rod looks interesting, no? I will turn up a projectile to sit there.

Then I fitted the bracket which restrains the movements of the elevation gear lock-release…

This is the “locked” position. The handle drops into a recess. The bracket looks a little rough in this magnified view. A bit more filing and sanding required. A simple curved piece encloses the handle. I will make and fit that tomorrow.

So those are the last major parts to be fitted to the cannon. Oops. I forgot. I need to make the aiming sights, and bore the holes in the barrel to hold them. None of the cannons which I have inspected have exisiting sights, presumably stolen-souvenired, but some 19th century publications have good diagrams which I will be able use to make scaled versions.

I will add a rear wooden platform, and the eye bolts.

Then a complete teardown, painting some parts, polishing others.