What to do with 45Lbs. of brass and a golf ball????

[Halger280HVMag]

So sorry all!

Long story short...
I injured myself while working on my house, way back in July.
Then developed a staphylococcus Aureus infection that laid me low.

Turns out that this particular strain of the bug is Antibiotic resistant.
Now many moons have passed...I am still on antibiotics for another 28 days.
After many failures, my Saw-bone found something that works.
I am informed that the mortality rate for this nasty hitch-hiker is 25%

Not quite out of the woods yet.
It may be a while, until I am able to get back to the lathe and the cannon.

Please stay with me Eh!.

soooo....

where is Halgers cannon....?

Curious if any further work has happened to this project

 

[Klunk]

a near death experience is no excuse....

 

[jpc]

So sorry all!

Long story short...
I injured myself while working on my house, way back in July.
Then developed a staphylococcus Aureus infection that laid me low.

Turns out that this particular strain of the bug is Antibiotic resistant.
Now many moons have passed...I am still on antibiotics for another 28 days.
After many failures, my Saw-bone found something that works.
I am informed that the mortality rate for this nasty hitch-hiker is 25%

Not quite out of the woods yet.
It may be a while, until I am able to get back to the lathe and the cannon.

Please stay with me Eh!.

Get well and play safe.

Looking forward to seeing more when you are up to it.

Merry Christmas

jpc

 

[trevj]

So sorry all!

Long story short...
I injured myself while working on my house, way back in July.
Then developed a staphylococcus Aureus infection that laid me low.

Turns out that this particular strain of the bug is Antibiotic resistant.
Now many moons have passed...I am still on antibiotics for another 28 days.
After many failures, my Saw-bone found something that works.
I am informed that the mortality rate for this nasty hitch-hiker is 25%

Not quite out of the woods yet.
It may be a while, until I am able to get back to the lathe and the cannon.

Please stay with me Eh!.

Heyzoos dude!

Another (un)lucky pick-up at the Hospital?

Take care eh!

Cheers
Trev

 

[canadianfencible]

Before you think of making a cannon from a chunk of unknown composition brass, beware. Gun metal is 85% copper which is quite malleable whereas
brasses from propellors are just as brittle as cast iron (think grenade)

 

[smellie]

Brass is a funny metal.

The Romans were mystified by the stuff, called it "orichalcum" or "gold-copper".

Their idea was that it is a kind of hard gold which, if you melt it and keep it molten long enough, turns into copper.

What they were actually doing was boiling off the zinc, leaving purer copper as time went on.

They used brass mainly for ornaments and for one coin only: the Sestertius or quarter-denarius. It started as a big brass coin about the size of a toonie and almost twice as thick, but it shrank and lost weight over the years. It was the only brass coin they made. Rich Romans reckoned their fortunes in millions of Sestertii. In theory, a Legionary was paid a denarius (4 sestertii) a day, but there were always deductions..... We all know how that works.

Cartridge brass is 70/30 by weight: 70 copper to 30 zinc. It can be melted down and the fumes of the zinc collected on a cold iron sheet, the dust worked into wool-grease.... and you have a really decent sunburn lotion. Marco Polo in his "Travels" describes the Chinese doing this with zinc ore, 800 years ago. OTOH, the copper will tend to separate out simply by its great weight differential. Doing it with cartridge brass, you are left with copper which can be used to alloy other brasses until you have the ductility you need.