So it has been just over a year since recovery of the 2 guns, and I have been meaning to post a bit of an update. I selected one of the guns to begin restoration and have pretty much dis-asssembled it as far as I am going and begun repairing the caisson.
Disassembly was not too bad, with the exception of course of the breech. After oiling and heating, I finally just removed the tube and breech, and ran them over to the press for disassembly. Much quicker and no damages that hammering would have caused. Much thanks goes to Rob Nixon who advised me through the process. I did have a bit of a hiccup on the muzzle brake though. I warmed it up a bit, and managed to get half a turn before it stopped. I asked Rob if it was left hand thread and he responded that it turns clockwise, so I thought that meant right hand thread. I had about 8 feet of bar through the brake, with the wife standing on the end and me whacking the bar with a sledge....almost no movement. So I reversed the direction of the pipe, put the tractor bucket against the pipe and with a single whack of the handle, the brake just spun off. Looking back at Rob's advice, I guess clockwise is subjective to which way you are standing.
Photos will tell it better than I can.
Last edited by rob love; 24-08-17 at 19:40.
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