looking for advice for building a cannon

22Charlie

22Charlie

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Black Diamond, Alberta
I am at the very begining of the idea of building a black powder cannon with a buddy of mine. Any advice - does and dont's or plan ideas would be very welcome. (We are not building a mortar for golf balls or beer cans.)

Cheers,

Andrew
 
Depends on what you want to use it for and how big you want to make it. Small ones of say 3/4" bore you can make out of most anything; mild steel, stainless, monel or brass. At that size you probably want a breach around 2 - 21/4" diameter and drill the barrel so that the breach is integral with the barrel. On mine I have silver soldered the trunions on using the high temp silver solder
On larger guns with moderate charges, you can find seamless tubing with a wall thickness of roughly 1/2" and thread your breach plug into that. Build your outside diameter up with rope and finish with Bondo then paint it mat black. On mine I welded sockets onto the barrel and put the trunions into the sockets with a friction fit because I did not have the clearance on the lathe to turn the barrel with the trunions in place.
The hardest part is actually the carriage

cheers mooncoon
 
"...so is the ID exactly .44?..." You should look into muzzle loading a bit more. Machining a lot more. A .44" object will not fit in a .44" hole. The hole has to be a wee bit larger or the object a wee bit smaller.
Commercial .44 calibre lead balls, made for muzzle loaders, vary in diameter from .433" to .454". A .44 calibre BP pistol can have a bore diameter from .424" to .470". They're loaded with a patch to make up the difference.
 
I do not know if it is okay to refer you to another forum. Moderators??
There is a wealth of info on another site.(days of reading)

If you pm me I will name the site for you, I would rather send you to another site than see anyone injured.

SORRY!! I did not take the time to read the part about not wanting a larger cannon.
 
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cedarboat said:
I do not know if it is okay to refer you to another forum. Moderators??
There is a wealth of info on another site.(days of reading)

If you pm me I will name the site for you, I would rather send you to another site than see anyone injured.

SORRY!! I did not take the time to read the part about not wanting a larger cannon.
Click to expand...
It's OK to post the site
Were you perhaps thinking of this one ?

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com
 
No, greybeardsoutdoors, then the bp cannon and mortar forum. There is tons if info. there. Dangers of welding,types of steel, chamber szes for mortars or howitzers, you name it.
Hope this helps some.
 
Brought back a memory of an incident at a football game at our loical university many years ago.
A Fraternity had purchased a small cannon from a reputable maker. It was fired every time their team scored a goal. Unfortunately the proper use of said cannon was not by the book. The instructions being word of mouth passed on down.
The LAST time it was fired the person loading it wanted a bigger bang, so he stuffed a wad of newspaper on top of the charge AND COMPOUNDED the idiocy with ANOTHER WAD OF WET NEWSPAPER ON TOP OF THAT. He might as well have just WELDED THE MUZZLE SHUT:eek:
The result was predictable and a piece of the barrel badly injured one of the spectators.
Some things are fool prood but they are not DAMM FOOL proof
 
Loyalist Arms down east has cannons and barrels if you are looking to buy.

The Fort in Lethbridge has the original cannon and I have heard that they recently got a reproduction also. The Black Powder club in Lethbridge has 3 or 4 cannons (including mine) that get used now and then also. Might be worth your while to go take a look at those ones. The BP club is on hiatus till April though.
 
Just my 2 cents worth, but a 50 cal would probably be easier to get a good supply of balls for, unless of course you have a good supply of 44 stuff. Cannons can be lots of fun (I have 6 from 1/4 pea shooters to 1'' fun stuff) but don't forget to play it safe!
 
22Charlie said:
Thanks for the replies, I want to be able to shoot a .44 ball so is the ID exactly .44?
Click to expand...

Oh I get it. You don't want a cannon. You want a little model.

I've got one that shoots 50 caliber balls, weighs less than 20 lbs.

IMG_1984.jpg


If you just want to have a little one, get it from multinut.

If you want to build one, then you are already a machinist, and I'd get advice from multinut.
 
make sure you use only seemless pipe if your building a cannon, went thru this with our build, good seemless with any kind of thickness is hard to come by, check with your local scrap yard and ask them to notify you when some comes available. we waited almost a year for some with many false alarms in between, but it was worth the wait. get a certified welder to do any welding, and take your time it will be worth it in the long run. we are still working on ours 3 years now but its a labour of love and beer... maybe if there was less beer more work could get done! nah thats just crazy talk!
 
I would suggest threading the breach plug in if you are using seamless tubing. Both the 1" naval cannon and the brass artillery gun have threaded plugs. For small cannon you can often buy heavy walled silicon bronze tubing at Budget Steel although it is expensive. Think about $11 or $12 per lb.

3cannons.jpg


DougDevb.jpg
 
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