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Making minature cannons.

ibrich

Plastic
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Location
sc usa
I am looking for plans for minature cannons, all types. I am new at all of this and need some projects to learn on.
Thanks,
ibrich
 
Decide what you want to shoot (if anything) and find a piece of 4140 or any piece of quality steel and bore it for your ammunition source. Make your own design---you might be surprised at your results. You can do it just be careful.
 
I am afraid of of mystery metal on this type of project. A piece of stress proof is good quality metal but lacks hoop strength for a cannon. You might end up with a pipe bomb. I have had good results with bronze and brass as well as 4140.

Make sure you only use BLACKPOWDER ONLY.
 
Buy any set of cannon plans and just scale the dimensions down. I got a set from Dixie Gun Works back in the early 70's. The pic shows 3/8 scale and 1/2 scale cannons next to the full scale mountain howitzer. A couple ship cannons in the foreground. You can make them any size you want from the full size plans. All you need is a calculator.
 

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making small cannons

do you think I could find some plans for a breach loader cannon? I am trying to get a lot of ideas. My friend said the black powder cannons were very hard to keep clean.
ibrich
 
yes you could find some eather through the information provided on several threads to you or searching the web.

Muzzle loading cannons, especially minature ones, are not hard to clean. Cap and ball revolvers are a PITA to clean.

Just mix up some vinegar and windex and it cuts the blackpowder residue real easy, watch out for the smell though,
 
I believe a breech loading cannon would be considered a destructive device by the ATF and subject to regulation and tax.
 
Here's my Naval 24 Pounder I'm currently building. Barrel is 9 1/2" long x 1 5/8" dia. with a .500 bore. Barrel and turnings were made on my 9" South bend lathe and the Jatoba carriage parts were milled on my Pratt & Whitney #3 bench miller. Have a lot more work to finish it.

Joe
 

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cannons

That is one good looking cannon. Are you making it to shoot? If so are you going to use black powder? Is it made out of a special brass?
Thanks
ibrich
 
Yes I'll fire her a few times with blackpowder then it will decorate my den.
It was made from 1 5/8" 360 half hard brass.

Regards
Joe
 
what do you consider "miniature"?

That is the question.

Someone had a really nice little .44 (IIRC) on here recently.

Miniature could be the golf-ball mortar my uncle made 10 years ago...Or the one-pounder he made more recently.

Or it could be the 12-pounder Napoleon from Hern Iron Works:
http://www.hernironworks.com/cannons.html

The other critical thing to keep in mind is that when scaling plans, some measurements that scale linearly (powder charge), might require others to scale exponentially (Wall thickness).
 
Based on personal experiance, I am going to advise against the use of golf balls as ammo.
They thed to ricochet and that makes the final point of impact unpredictable. You never want to explain why the projectile went somewhere you did not intend it to.

My advice is to locate a reliable source of inexpensive ammo and select a bore based on that. Back when I built my toy, 35 mm film canesters full of concrete were considered. That was when film canesters were common, but those days are gone.

Also, locate a formidable backstop before touching you toy off, and dont stand behind it. They move around more than you might expect.
 
Joe, I tried to look at the pictures, but couldn't. Any chance you could put them here. Also, l have some questions.
Ibrich
 








 
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