Civil War Canon

This is a detailed model of a civil war cannon.   I have printed and assembled 4 of these cannons and the design is quite well refined.    The finished cannon (if you don't scale it) ends up 12.5" long, 6.25" wide and about 6" high.    It is a great looking model when finished and makes a great coffee table conversation piece.    I made solidworks drawings from sketches found on the internet in numerous locations (images included).    Most parts should be printed 100" filled to ensure good screw hole structure.   If you reduce the fill to save time and material, examine your slicer output to ensure that the holes have fill support attached to them.    It may be necessary to ream out some of the mounting holes to accept 2-56 bolts and if the printed hole (tube) isn't secure it may break away when you ream it.    100% fill is best. FRAME: The center frame is printed in two pieces to fit my WANHAO i3.    There is a 0.3" hole in the pieces at the adjoining surface that accepts a short piece of carbon fiber archery arrow to align and strengthen the frame halves when glued together.    You may use a 1/4" dowel rod instead but align the two parts carefully for best appearance.   The two frame halves are bolted to the center frame through the frame spaces (6) using 2-56 x 1/2 hardware.   The trunnion plates bolt to the perimeter of the frame sides using 2-56 x 1/4 hardware.   A 2" piece of carbon fiber archery arrow is used as the pivot shaft for the barrel and can be slipped in through the barrel after the frame is assembled.

WHEELS The wheels are printed in two halves and glued together.    This gives the printer an optimal flat surface to build the wheel from.   Use a cut piece of carbon fiber archery arrow for the axle to align the two wheel halves when gluing them and clamp the two halves together until the glue dries.   The black wheel rim and black hub rims are a good press fit on the finished wheel but you may glue them if need be.

BARREL The barrel is printed in two halve as shown in the slicer image included.   It may be necessary to add weight to the rear half of the barrel to ensure that it wants to tip down in the back against the elevation screw.    I printed the barrel at about 10% hex fill and dropped bb's into the fill cavities as the rear half printed.   (Don't put bb's in the barrel cavity itself just the fill cavities.    Occasionally dripping a bit of CA or gorilla glue into the cavity to glue the bb's in place.

SMALL PARTS Most of the small parts can be printed together but should be printed solid fill.    They are then glued to the frame pieces as shown in the included images.    The barrel brush is made by stringing 10 of the bristle pieces together on the handle at random rotation angles to simulate the brush.    The elevating screw is a 6-32 x 1/2" screw run through the screw lift spindle and into the elevating screw base.   The base is then glued onto the top of the center frame just under the rear of the barrel.   The curved tow hook piece is glued conformed to the rear of the center frame as shown.   The two lift handles can be glued or bolted to the rear frame.   The two small square plates are bolted to the sides of the center frame with 2-56 hardware.    Those plates protect the frame from the caisson (or linder) wheels when the gun is being horse towed.    The coiled rope is made from any course string that will approximate the scale rope. LINDER TO FOLLOW:    The linder (horse drawn towing vehicle) is shown in a couple of the attached images.    I hope to upload the linder parts as a separate offering soon.

COST: This model took a lot of engineering efforts on my part to refine and I believe my asking price is reasonable given that effort.   Please consider purchasing these files so I can continue to develop more similar models.    Thank you.