Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Mould is Made!

Work progressed pretty rapidly this morning with the mould of our Bounty cannon completed. Phillip Smith from the Museum of Tropical Queensland has been working away with local Lee Irvine to make the mould, and will now move on to making a cast. The cast will then be painted up and used on our display while the original undergoes conservation treatment. All this work has been funded by the National Library through the Community Heritage Grants Program.

On Friday afternoon Phillip and Lee shook hands after finishing off all the fibre-glassing - they are working ahead of schedule. That meant that this morning they could begin trimming the edges off the fibreglass and pop off the fibre-glass shell. They then peeled back the silcone cover, turned the cannon over and the same procedure was repeated. The result is two perfect moulds ready for casting. The cannon was put back up onto a table ready for conservation work to begin after the cast has been made. 

Our photos tell the story - exciting progress!

Covered in fibre-glass with toggles on the top side


Prising off the fibre-glass


The fibre-glass comes off
The silicon gets peeled off

















The silicon gets laid in the fibre-glass mould

















The cannon gets turned over
The fibre-glass is removed



































Two moulds ready for casting
















The cannon gets put back on the table ready for conservation work

No comments:

Post a Comment