[rob love]

Thought I would toss a couple photos for an update. With the impending return to work (the Covid threat is low around here right now), I decided to take advantage of the weather and get some sandblasting and painting done. I had the basic carriage repaired and painted last fall, so this spring's work included the hubs and brakes, the traverse and elevations mechanisms, and the barrel. The barrel had been cut in it's previous life and reasonably welded closed again. I filled a lot of the small holes with mig, and profiled it as best I could. You can see the area if you look for it, but it doesn't jump out at you.



Everything gets sandblasted and POR-15 before getting a coat of Gillespie 33070 paint. All the bolts and holes are rethreaded with appropriate BSF taps and dies, and silver antisieze applied before assembly.


I have run into a problem where I have misplaced one of my brackets to hold the shield in place. I believe it to be buried in the sand in my sandblast shed, but after shoveling and probing, it is not showing up. So I have borrowed the bracket from the other gun for now. In a few weeks I'll completely dig out the shed with the tractor and put cement on the floor.



The current tires are just temporary. They are a Michelin on a drop center rim. They came from the UK, where they were apparently a modern replacement for some of the ceremonial guns in use over there. Problem is they are too wide to allow the gun to fit onto a trailer. I think I discussed these a few years ago when I went to pick up the second gun at Bob's.


I added a photo of one of the bolts for the counterweight. Complete with property mark, part number, and inspectors marks, they must have been expensive.