WW1 Cannon Restoration Project - St. Paris OHIO

Hello everyone! My name is Jared Shank. I am a 2002 Graham graduate and an Army artillery veteran (3-319AFAR 82nd Airborne Division). I'm a history buff and love historical research. I was recently made aware that the cannon on display at Harmon Park in Saint Paris, Ohio was in poor condition and needed to be restored. Funding is always tight in small villages so I volunteered to take on this restoration project with no cost to the village.   I plan to do the majority of labor myself, but wanted to use this platform to raise some funds for items needed for the restoration process.  As a veteran of Afghanistan, I feel a personal connection to military history and see the value and importance of remembering the past. This World War One cannon will be a portion of the larger veterans display at Harmon Park. I have multiple family members listed on the WW1 & WW2 memorials at Harmon Park and I view this as another way to honor and remember their service to our great Nation. My goal is to try to keep uploading pictures and some videos to keep the local community informed of my progress(done on the Facebook page @stpariscannonrestoration).  I plan to try to use all USA made products for the restoration when possible.  I will also post pictures of receipts of the costs incurred so that people can see exactly what money has been spent.  The largest single cost associated with this project will be the wooden wheels.  I'll break down cost estimates below: 
 
Wooden Wheels: Approx $400 a piece (x2), shop is located in Eastern Ohio so will need to take wheel hubs there to drop off.  Also need to print plans and pictures for the shop to use to accurately reproduce the wheels.   (Total estimate, $950)

Equipment Rental: Use of rental trailer to move cannon multiple trips/uses (Total estimate, $120)

Part Replacement/Fabrication: Various bolts and screws are missing and will need to be replaced.  A couple cannon specific items will have to be fabricated.   Brass chain pieces from several areas are completely missing and will need to be replaced.   Thread-locker liquids (loctite) will be used where possible to secure screws/bolts and to help prevent potential theft. (Total estimate $200.....this could increase depending on fabrication costs) 

Items for Cannon cleaning:  This includes various paint stripping chemicals, rust surface cleaner, countless numbers of paint removing pads for angle grinder, sander, and dremel tools. ($500....this might go up depending on how difficult paint removal is)

Items for Cannon painting:  This includes rust inhibiting paint (on parts susceptible to rust), primer, and main paint coat ($150)


Those estimates are all my best guesses at the moment, with the exception of the wheels where I have actual quotes.  I have left out costs associated with welding which will need to be done because I have a couple volunteers who should be able to assist with no additional cost.  However, if that ends up not happening, then there might be some potential costs for areas that need to be welded.

Any donations are greatly appreciated as I move forward with this project.

As for a timeline.....I plan to go as quick as I can, but I do have two small children (1 & 3 year old) so "free time" is a little hard to come by sometimes.  The builder for the wheels said they would typically take 6-8 weeks to complete.  This paint removal process alone is going to require lots of manual labor and time.  So realistically I'm probably looking at June-August time frame for completion.

If there are any funds left over at the end of this project, I plan to utilize those for beautification and location prep for the cannon location at Harmon Park.

Thank you all!


Jared Shank