Armstrong RML model No 2 Finished!

by John

Well, 99% finished. I still intend to make sights, a base, and bumper components. But it now looks finished. A few pics.

It has a few differences from the first one of these which I finished for last Xmas. It has side platforms, handles for positioning the carriage on the slide, minor design changes in the rear wheel brackets, minor changes in the elevation wheel, and probably a few more that I cannot remember.

The explosive projectiles would never have been placed on the side platform. The noses contained impact sensitive detonators, and I doubt that the gunners would have risked them falling off.

The positioning gears work well, as does the elevating mechanism/gears, the elevation lock, the clutch and brake.

Oh yes, some fasteners for the rear platform too… And engraving text on the recoil tube cap, and the muzzle mouth. OK, 98% done.

Now, I am getting on with my next project too. Yes I will eventually finish the Armstrong RML cannon. But I am getting impatient to be doing something different, so I have started on the bronze version of the Ottoman bombard.

This PLA 3D printed breech is 230mm long, plus thread, and 107mm max. diameter. Still deciding whether to refine the design and print another. For one thing, the threaded section is constant diameter, whereas the original had a tapered thread. Yet to 3D print the barrel. It is 280mm long. That is a lot of plastic to burn out prior to bronze pouring. Maybe I should use transparent PLA in case the black dye (whatever it is) damages my burn out oven, or my lungs.

For another thing I have been unable to get my CAD program to convert the Ancient Arabic Script into vectors. But, I have been able to get V-Carve Pro to recognise them/

That is a tracing from the photograph. A couple of hours of effort doing the tracing. Then scanned the tracing, and imported the scan into V Carve. That worked, and I hope to remove 0.5mm of the muzzle bronze, leaving the raised script and stylised designs. V Carve predicts that will take 5 hours on the CNC mill!! Watch this space.