Cannon project.

[Skinny 1950]

There seems to be some interest in Cannons here lately so here is my latest project.
Someone dropped this cannon off at the scrap yard where I work so I got it at a good price ( $1.70/Lb ). The barrel is made of red brass and the wheels are aluminium with red brass spokes the carriage is oak . It is home-made but well built and at present it is a non shooter as it is only bored out (.50 inches) to just in front of the trunnion. A hole was bored through the barrel to insert the trunnion which is a loose fit.
I am thinking of silver brazing the trunnion in place then boring it further and then inserting a stainless steel liner which would be bored out to about .36 Cal. or if that is too thin then .32 Cal both of which I can cast round balls for.
Here are some pictures:

 

[gallen270]

who dumps that kinda stuff at scrap yards?

 

[SigWig]

who dumps that kinda stuff at scrap yards?

Fools haha


Nice find.

The interest in cannons here as far as I know has always been this strong.

 

[mooncoon]

Be sure to use lots of support when you are silver soldering the trunions in. I would suggest making several cradles out of pieces of insulbrick (used in kilns). The temperature at which silver solder flows is only a few hundred degrees below the melting temperature of brass / bronze. I would also suspect you will have to quite a bit of cleaning of the trunion material and the hole in runs through, in order to get the silver solder to flow.

cheers mooncoon

 

[Skinny 1950]

Thanks Mooncoon..I will do a test on a scrap piece of brass before putting the torch to the cannon.
It is amazing what people drop off at the scrap yard,this is the second cannon that I have found...a couple of weeks ago someone dropped off a brand new gas generator/air compressor combination with one wheel buggered on it,came complete with manual and warranty registration.
Here is a picture of the other cannon:

 

[danadog]

Are there any laws on the ownership and usage of black powder cannons?

 

[Avalonthas]

Are there any laws on the ownership and usage of black powder cannons?

No license required, just a hunk of metal at the end of the day as there is no trigger

Store your powder properly, that's it

 

[plinker 777]

OP; would you consider leaving your brass cannon as is and just drill a touch hole into the existing bore? I'm wondering if brazing the trunnions in and boring to the rear is wise. How are you to know if the weld holds, and for how long? (failure at the trunnion when firing a projectile could be very bad). Unless its just going to be a noise maker (blank powder charges) in which case I think brazing and boring wouldn't be an issue.

 

[nessy357]

A properly silver soldered joint can have a tensile strength of 112,000 psi (IIRC) in comparison to an arc welded joint typically 70,000 psi . The clearance and fit are extremely critical, don't have the info in front of me (been retired too long) but IIRC 30 thou clearance is the correct fit.
BTW a once in a lifetime score congrats, pls keep us posted on your updates.
Cheers nessy.

 

[vagrantviking]

If you are putting in a liner of decent thickness then the trunions just need to be solid enough for recoil. If you can get it clean and hot enough for solder to flow right through it should be plenty strong enough.

Cute little thing. Nice fine!

 

[Skinny 1950]

I found a half inch stainless rod to fit in the bore.. I have a long half inch drill bit from an earlier project but need to find one to bore out the stainless. Finding fuse will be the next challenge.
I read somewhere that smokeless powder can be dissolved in toluene, if so maybe soaking some string in the solution and letting it dry may produce a fuse.

 

[rgbai]

Ive never tried this but apparently fuse can be made by putting blackpowder
on the sticky side or a piece of tape.
I would think using a paper tape like painters tape or masking tape should work best. i don't know if you roll it up in a tube or cut it in strips or what but it's probably worth doing some experimenting.