Page 18 - Abraham Lincoln Hearse Narrative

FIRST PROGRESS UPDATE ~ AUGUST, 2014 ~ ERIC HOLLENBECK
Hi All
I am proud to report that The Blue Ox Mill Veterans program project is underway.
Monday will be the start of our 5th week and already these boys have done more different
things than they ever would have imagined.
You will remember from our platoon reunion that we were going to be part of building
the reproduction Hearse that carried Abraham
Lincoln in 1865. The first step in this project was to
scale everything from the one existing photo of the
Hearse. Here is a photo of the five of us working
on the shop drawings from this scaling process.
You may notice the smoke pouring from our
ears!!! This is because of the angle of the picture
not being a perfect side view. This means that
measurement in the vertical scales correctly, but
because of the optical distortion every horizontal
measurement has a 25% error that has to be
accounted
for. Once we had our shop drawings we started on
the column finials (the decorative piece just below
the column). To be more precise, we started on the
corner finials. These look to be the most difficult of the
castings we will be making. The original finials were
cast in brass and 24K gold leaf. Our finials are cast in
aluminum and will be 24K gold leaf. We know what
was silver and what was gold from two 1865 newspaper
articles that the historians working on this project
Barry Alton (USA, 101), Eric Hollenbeck found. To do this we first had to make a wood turning
(USA, 101) and Andrew Olufsen (USMC) the shape and size we
needed.
This was done on the lathe. We determined the shape
from the picture, but for the size we had to use “Shrink Rules.”
There are shrink rules for each type of metal. Each metal, as
it is poured and cools into a solid, shrinks at a very specific
rate. By using the proper shrink rule to make the moulds
measurements, the final product comes out the desired size.
Each one of us made a mould and we chose the best.
Once the wood mould “base” was made we drilled
“lock holes” into it and then covered it with polymer clay.Into
this clay we carved the ornate design that we saw in the photo.
When done, we bake the mould in the oven at 275� for an hour
until the clay hardens, thus creating our finished mould. Anthony Becerra (USAF)
From here we go to the FOUNDRY ROOM. I first have

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