Civil War type motar project continued

Buzzer John

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Thanks to the Admn. for trying to find my old membership. I guess they are correct in thinking the software dumps you if you don't post on a regular basis. Since I seldom log on once the weather gets pleasant, I'll probably get bumped again come Spring. Anyway, my user name, "Buzzer John", derives from having been the secretary for many years of an organization called "The Beehive Club". All the officers had bee related titles. President = King Bee, Treasurer= Stinger etc. Note: We are not bee keepers. My interests are varied, but mainly are directed at trying to keep old mechanical items running or to get them running again and at as little cost as possible. At present, I am working on a model of a Civil War mortar. It is a section of a broken off well drilling bit. It is about the hardest material I have ever tried to machine. Two days soaking in the wood stove has softened it some, but it is still a tough piece of steel. John

I showed some of this project in the "introductions" section, but thought it fit better here for showing progress. Currently, I am threading the plug and having a problem trying to get the threads to fit together. The only way I have to check for fit is to unscrew the chuck with the plug and carry it over to the lathe with the barrel. I lost my infeed reference while doing the internal thread and am using the starting bore as a best guess depth. If you look at the barrel picture in the earlier thread you will see the setup is far from solid. The metal in the barrel is so hard that is is wearing my HSS bit almost as much as the bit is cutting the thread. I tried a colbol bit but it chipped badly. At present I have the thread starting by about 2/3 of a turn, so i'm getting close. Please feel free to comment and/or offer suggestions. John

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more pictures

I finally finished the threading and have drilled the sub chamber for the powder. At this point the project is being set aside until I finish up some other items on my "to do" list.

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