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Right the where I left last time was just finishing off the underside of the barrel now I need to seal up the front end. I have chosen a really awkward shape a stepped bend paten but threes no turning back now.
So I have cut up 5 smaller pieces and bent them into a basic shape to fit inside and then fitted them in place
Once all the pieces are in place I have put it on a really old backing tray and put it in the over to heat it as hot as possible so I can get a head start on the brazing
Little Bit messy but with a quick file down you would never know
Side Panels
Now I would like to do the sides of the barrel but I can’t do that as I’m still waiting for the plastic to arrive! And I can’t finish the top till the side panels are finished as they flow into the barrel top. So onto the side panels and I will have to finish the barrel off once they are done. The side panels are made up of 3 main layers a 3mm laser cut aluminium face plate, a 3mm red tinted plastic and mostly 25mm aluminium box section.
As you can see there are loads of pieces of box section this took a long time to mark and cut them all down.
One by one was cut down to smaller parts.
After a lot of cutting I was left with theses
Now I need to clean up the hack saw marks so I can get a better/cleaner join for this I used this really handy angle rule tool with a digital display and lock.
Then they come off the mill there small areas that rub off easily or come off with a Stanley knife as the aluminium is very thin
Smooth...
Now of all the other parts
Now one of the pieces to stand out are on the side of each panel there is a single 30mm area so I had to order a 30mm box section and mill down one side to 25mm so that it would meet up flush with the other parts but still be the full 30mm wide.
Drilled holes after careful alignment some I had to do with the hand drill but the mill managed most of them.
After a lot of milling and fine tweaking I got all the parts together with the back support for the side panel and a lot of bolts (this will be cut down later)
A Little strip of aluminium for a little extra support
Now to braze all the joints together, I really wish I had the money for an oxy/acetylene torch but this new butane torch should do the trick.
After a few joints couldn’t resist but try it out on the cannon body but still a lot of work to do.
Now my next post may take a bit longer as I have to make another one of these panels and there almost exactly the same but I will include some parts that I left out in this post like the 3mm red plastic.