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finished another salute cannon. :)

beergut

Plastic
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Location
keene, nh
just sharing completion of my latest cannon project. (i know it's not the most complex project- just a fun project ;) )100% made on my smithy 1340 granite combo (i know, i know- everyone hates'em, but for a humble home machinist it's great ;) ) the brass is 5" dia. by 12" long with a 1 3/4" bore and a 1" gunpowder well at the bottom- solid naval brass. stainless, pewter and brass accents. brass trunnion and trunnion caps, oak sled carriage, 6" oak wheels with 3/4" brass axle and brass axle pins. a stainless fuse holder with a pewter skull fuse cap and replaceable stainless fuse hole prevents the fuse from burning the oak & brass on its way to the powder well.
I fired it with "ffg" black-powder and newspaper wadding. it was truly magnificent! a deep thunderous crack that echoed for a good 5 seconds around the lake- it weighs about 50lbs. dimensionally speaking, it's not historically correct- so more of a contemporary design.(the stamped name on the cannon rim breech "North American Cannon Co" was the name of my short lived cannon making business a decade ago- just not enough time in the day, but maybe someday...) such a wonderful and rewarding hobby.
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Very nice. I once turned the barrel for a buddy at the big shop (on my own time) and later found I could have been fired for doing that.

I bought a mill and surface grinder from a fellow who did get fired for making a handgun at GM.
 
I have a 1" bore cannon and use lawn clippings as wadding and then packed sand to provide resistance to build the pressure up for a louder boom.
 
Nothing fancy, but I got a 5/8" bore noise cannon along the way somewhere. Last 4th my kids and I were setting it up in the dark and my wife's new cat ran up and stuck it's nose right in the barrel as I touched it off.

The replacement cat we got on the 5th is doing well.
 
I usually just spray the trees with 30 or 40 rounds from the AR-15. I have no idea what wadding it uses.
 
One of my sailor customers back in 70 stopped by and wanted to show me his stainless cannon. He was getting out of the Navy and on his last deployment aboard a tender he found the stock that was not being used, so with time on his hands he made it. He said that one of the older crew said that that piece of stainless was on the ship when he served on her during WW2!

It was a large one about 3-4' long.
 
The ones I mentioned were about 3 feet long with a 1⅛" or so bore. They make a hell of a boom. I used black powder and newspaper wadding also. Rammed down tight with a little ramrod I made to go with it.
 
hmmm- that's a great idea. I never thought about packing with lawn clippings- sure would save time on cleaning up the fodder! lol
 
Golf ball mortar

Here's a golf ball mortar I made. It barks pretty good. I haven't been able to find a fired golf ball though. I'd like to try it on a lake to look for the splash........Bob
 

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Nice mortar!
You may be surprised at how far it will shoot. My little cannon with the 1" bore has a barrel of about 8" long. I made some projectiles out of annealed 3/4" copper pipe caps that were half filled with lead. They were a little loose in the bore so a cloth patch was used as well. One early morning, while on a camping trip at a lake that was a mile wide I arose early while the lake was still glass smooth. I loaded the cannon with the usual 2/3 full film can (remember film cans?) of 2fg and a copper pipe cap slug. Elevation was about 45 degrees and I sat directly behind the gun with my 10x binoculars. It went off and while the boom echoed through the valley I watched carefully for the splash. I figured maybe mid way across the lake so was watching that area when I spotted a small geyser close to the far shore. Then another and another as it skipped finally running out of water or so I assume. I would have never guessed it would shoot that far.
 
here's a quick video of another shot- loaded with newspaper- it blew the deck baluster apart into several pieces and landing in the lake 75' away! newspaper! my wife wasn't as amused as I was :D

 








 
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