The Yankees Won't get our gold!

If you've got a cannon and soldiers, they need something to do. In our case the rebs are trying to protect a treasure shipment on its way back to Richmond from some Southern sympathizers up North.

Our wagon is being built mostly from scraps we had lying around.

Using some of the nice wagon wheels we picked up on sale from Harbor Freight for $12 each and some scrap 4x4s and assorted wood:

A pair of 37" long 4x4s made up the front and rear of the frame, and a pair of 40" long 4x4s - mounted to the bottom of the frame made up the axles. A pair of 6' long 2x4s made up the sides of the frame.

The front axle is mounted with a 1/2" x 7" carriage bolt through the center with several washers, allowing it to turn. 7/8" holes are drilled into each axle to allow 1/2" x 6" long threaded steel pipe sections to be inserted into the axles. The steel pipes will have end caps on the ends to hold the wheels on, and have 1/4" x 4" long bolts inserted through the wooden axle (4x4s) to secure the steel pipe in place.

Below you can see Christopher Clark assembling the frame;

And here's the frame with wheels loosely mounted. We still have some trim and accessories to add to the wagon (not to mention planks across the frame) but you can get an idea of how it's coming along:

And some pictures after we put the planking down on the frame:

And finally just before paint and stain:

That bugger sure got heavy. Moving it out into the yard is going to be a CHORE!

More to come...