I made this award to say thanks to the volunteers that have given almost 200,000 hours of work on the USS Iowa since 2012; they truly are the heart and soul of the operation.
Instead of clamping the piece and possibly damaging this historic piece of steel I decided to use 5 rare earth magnets, with 75 lbs holding power each, to hold the piece along the edge. I used a long bolt to be able to peel the magnets off the slice without damaging it if needed.
The shape of the base was inspired by the angled superstructures of the new Navy, I like the contrast between the new designs and the old big gun Navy.
This award is made out of a slice from the center barrel of the #2 turret of the 16 inch 50 caliber Mark 7 gun, the barrel is #287. This barrel was removed and sent to Hawthorn NV during Iowa's 1956 refit. In 2011 the Navy decided to scrap all the barrels they had and opened the bidding on over 3,000,000 pounds of naval guns. Luckily a scrap dealer decided to save about 4 feet of the muzzle end of the barrel, that I acquired and donated to the Iowa for their museum space. I also purchased this 1.5 inch thick slice of that barrel and donated it back to the Iowa to be used for this award.
I will post more pictures when we get it installed.
Instead of clamping the piece and possibly damaging this historic piece of steel I decided to use 5 rare earth magnets, with 75 lbs holding power each, to hold the piece along the edge. I used a long bolt to be able to peel the magnets off the slice without damaging it if needed.
The shape of the base was inspired by the angled superstructures of the new Navy, I like the contrast between the new designs and the old big gun Navy.
This award is made out of a slice from the center barrel of the #2 turret of the 16 inch 50 caliber Mark 7 gun, the barrel is #287. This barrel was removed and sent to Hawthorn NV during Iowa's 1956 refit. In 2011 the Navy decided to scrap all the barrels they had and opened the bidding on over 3,000,000 pounds of naval guns. Luckily a scrap dealer decided to save about 4 feet of the muzzle end of the barrel, that I acquired and donated to the Iowa for their museum space. I also purchased this 1.5 inch thick slice of that barrel and donated it back to the Iowa to be used for this award.
I will post more pictures when we get it installed.
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