The Cross Bow Cannon

Stolen Art No.2

The Art piece was stolen from Shurgard Maastricht Noord whilst in their safe area.
They were unwilling to look through their security video because the manager said the disk was full, but actually he just couldn't care less.
No claim was entertained and the police didn't even bother to take finger prints.
Excluding the materials, a total loss of well more than 4500 hours of work spanning over some 20 years.
Tough times.

A art piece that I made after finishing the Dragon Cross bow.I just imagined a kind of cross bow that was mounted on wheels and would be used in a war zone where the Dragon Bow, Fodiator bow, Pterosaurs bow and all the other fantasy pieces come into play.

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In reality though, I start with a basic sketch.

I had some Rhodesian Teak which is a very hard wood so I cut the first template out of that. If you have read the Dragon Bow and the Fodiator bow builds then you will be familiar as to how I build my miniature cross bows.

Filing the central groove where the cross bow bolt ( arrow) will lie.

I cut some 3 mm stock for the sides and front.

Drilled some holes and bolted them to the sides.

Filing the rough shape in.

I also cut a piece of an old wood saw that I was scavenging for the cross bow actual bow.
This saw was the perfect steel for a project like this.

Fitting the bow . Ultimately, this was a bad idea, because the bow could not be fitted tightly. As in, there was no easy way I could screw the bow down.

Re design. The bow attachments to hold the bow in place.

I filed them in a more elegant shape.

This was the way I eventually fitted the bow.

Working out the trigger wheel.

I made various different designs.

Fitting the wheel. I hadn't finalized the design of the wheel, but the diameter was established, so I could carry on.

This is a very hard wood, but I have a 15” round coarse bastard file that make short work of sizing the hole up.

Sizing the trigger wheel hole so that it spins freely.

So basically this was the blank finished. Now it was time to get fancy.

So I sketched out the trigger. Like I said, fancy.
I wanted this to be quite 3D so I needed a piece of brass about 4 mm thick.
Problem was I had none such material in stock..

I did, however, have some brass shot.

So I melted some up.

Into my plate ingot.

Then I rolled it down to about 4 mm thick.

And I cut the fancy doo da design out.

And then fit it to the trigger wheel.

Trigger fitted into the stock/cannon body.

Now I started filing and carving the body sides.

Fitting the bow..

Now it was time to make the wheel struts.

I melted up some more material and designed a set of struts.

Cut them out of the plate. I always roll the plate down enough to stop any micro porosity.

I filed the struts in a rounded shape.

I needed some wooden wheels so I turned some from the teak wood.

Two wooden rings. You got to be careful with this wood, it chips easy and burns your chisel fast too.

Making some hubs for the wheels.

I drilled holes in the wood and then stuck some threaded rods though and screwed them into the hubs.

First light.

The spokes had to be trimmed off a bit.

The wood needed some rims.

Fitted the rims and I also turned the spokes and axle more fancy.

But later on I discarded them and made other ones.

I cut up this back part that adjusts the attitude of the cannon, but I discarded it later as well

Then I decided that the cross bow was to weak, so I cut some more material..

When both were joined the bow was really strong.

Then I made the lever to draw the bow string back and hook it behind the trigger wheel.

I made the levers out of 2 mm brass stock.Most of the bolts were capped with gemstones.

The vertical lever pulls the horizontal levers back.

So the horizontal lever grips the bow string.

Move the vertical lever back and the string is pulled back and automatically hooks behind the trigger wheel..

Then the hooks are disengages and the levers are folded all the way back.
I also discarded those fancy rear supports and made more simple ones.

Here's a close up of the rear supports.

Then I turned some battle collars for the axles out of stainless steel.

And I also turned some gold coloured spikes .

I like the gold and silver contrast. These spikes are there to prevent the enemy from attacking the bottom of the cannon crossbow.

I made a stainless steel end lug to hold the wheels in and then I set a 6 mm rhodolite garnet in it. I also finalized the gem nuts in between the spokes.
There are 5 mm citrine, garnet, peridot, aquamarine,topaz and amethyst set in them.

I made a silver backing with two twisted horns and a silver tube to set a 15 mm amethyst in.

I faceted the amethyst out of some nice Brazilian rough that I had bought many years ago.

Kind of looks mean and angry in the bow.

I made some cross bow ammo tubes on either side of the cross bow cannon.

Here are the basic tubes just out the pickle. I will pave set 3 mm garnets in the rows.

Now I come to the part where I take everything apart, and clean and polish it.
Then I coat is with a UV resistant clear protective coat that stops any tarnishing.

I also set little diamonds in the wheels at the end of the spokes.

I also faceted a 20 mm smoky quartz that I set in a sliver tube decorated with silver twist wire. It is locked into pace with two gem nuts and keeps the two rear supports rigid..

Re assembly is taking place.

Showing the diamonds set in the wheel rims and the cross bow ammo tubes.
There are three bolts on the left and one specialized bolt on the right.

Loaded with a bolt in place.

So once all that was finished, I made a display case for the Cannon Cross bow.
I used gray stained glass as the bottom.
I figured that at a later stage, I might light up the bottom.

I made some hinges and a latch for the display.

I made two wheel holders that are affixed to the bottom.
I also put a lock on because, you know, security.

From the back.

Random close up 'cause I think the look cool.