Thread: Canons?

Originally Posted by Localman

Mythbusters put a bowling ball through a house by accident and they were only using compressed air, no black powder needed.

Yeah, air is cool as.

Black Powder Matters

As a teenager I worked as a fitter & turner for a hydraulics manufacturer. We made the full range of products including snap couplings. We had a test rig that the finished couplings were put on and run up to several thousand psi. One coupling got through production with the ball stop ring machined a bit too thin and the 1/2" ball blew out near the top of the test pressure. It went across the drive at shoulder height and completely through both walls of the next door business without touching any person or piece of equipment. Nothing rusted in our workshop as it was instantly smothered in vaporised hydraulic oil!

Originally Posted by gundoc

As a teenager I worked as a fitter & turner for a hydraulics manufacturer. We made the full range of products including snap couplings. We had a test rig that the finished couplings were put on and run up to several thousand psi. One coupling got through production with the ball stop ring machined a bit too thin and the 1/2" ball blew out near the top of the test pressure. It went across the drive at shoulder height and completely through both walls of the next door business without touching any person or piece of equipment. Nothing rusted in our workshop as it was instantly smothered in vaporised hydraulic oil!

Holy crap.

I like it!

Originally Posted by 40mm

Would is name start with a T?

And surname rhymes with eye-ler?

Oh cryptic Tyler maybe now to book my seat on mastermind

Originally Posted by zimmer

The olden days proof charges used powder of the day which was less powerful than our modern black powders.

That is interesting, the BP of old over here was more powerful than the modern stuff.

There is a former powder mill in Bergen as well as a magazine by the sea.

I made a cannon once. I was about 15 yrs old from memory. Found an old heavy duty marking pen at dads work (ag machinery). Was made of seamless steel tubing, and had a screw in front and back. The front fitting screwed into the body had a 4mm hole in it that held a balsa wood nib. The back fitting was for putting the die in. The interior was full of fluffy stuff to soak up the die. It was used for writing on the plywood packing cases stuff turned up and, and then readdressed to NZ addresses.

Looked the part. Chromed outside and about 'mini cannon' long. Best of all was its inside diameter was 'Mighty cannon" diameter.

Remember those years.... actual proper fireworks???

Anywho, a few evenings in dads carpentry workshop had it mounted as a 'cannon'. Nib had been drilled out and was where the firecracker fuse came out. projectile: well bugger me if marbles wern't the ideal diameter, stuffed in with a bit of loo paper.

Proof firing occurred at the back of our half acre section in provincial Palmy. 2 thicknesses of Heavy gauge fibre cement sheet had a bullseye printed on them, then leaned up against dads chook house. Made from tractor packing cases. 3/4 inch ply both sides.

Cannon was set up at point blank range (10 ft) and the blue touch paper was lit and I stood well clear.

Marbles are pretty sturdy things. This one went straight through two sheets of fibre cement, 2 sheets of 3/4 inch ply, no chickens, 2 feet above grandma hanging out washing 30 yards away and embedded itself in the woodwork fully 2 inches from the only stained glass window in our house

Coool!!!

Gran was less than impressed, though didn't learn of the marbles final resting place until many years later...

Rang my mate and told him of my success. His dad was into shotgun reloading (remember paper hulls??) so he perked a few oz of #4 and off we headed to the Manawatu river.

Set it up in a gap in the willows, loaded up, waited for a covey of ducks that appeared to be floating downstream and lit the blue touch paper again. The cannon spoke and 4 ducks found their way into our schoolbags to present to an appreciative dad

The next day I couldn't find my cannon anywhere????

This is 1 of his creations, they’re really cool, I will ask him if he’s ok for me to pass on his details and then pm or get them thru to you.

Yea ,thats the one.
Would appreciate that Jamie

Originally Posted by widerange

Yea ,thats the one.
Would appreciate that Jamie

Sweet, will get onto him today. He’s a good fella so I’m sure he’ll be fine with it. I will pm you soon as I know.

starting to think I "need" a cannon what is something like the above worth ?

Not too sure on what he sells them for, but every time I see them I also really really really want one, but I know that would tip my Mrs right over the edge if I rocked home with 1 of them. I told my mates who makes them that i put a pic up, I think he might join the forum and get amongst it, so hopefully he will pop up here very soon.

Originally Posted by jamie

Not too sure on what he sells them for, but every time I see them I also really really really want one, but I know that would tip my Mrs right over the edge if I rocked home with 1 of them. I told my mates who makes them that i put a pic up, I think he might join the forum and get amongst it, so hopefully he will pop up here very soon.

quite the opposite here I think the missus and kids would actually enjoy the cannon far more than shooting rifles

genuinely interested even in something smaller as long as it functions

Have made a 30 cal bronze one(many years ago)...still has a ball bearing stuck in it from a fail to fire.
And a inch bore with a workmate. Made my own black powder and Fuses from scratch.
Chucks ball bearings straight threw car bodys.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Have made a 30 cal bronze one(many years ago)...still has a ball bearing stuck in it from a fail to fire.
And a inch bore with a workmate. Made my own black powder and Fuses from scratch.
Chucks ball bearings straight threw car bodys.

https://youtu.be/ji-6H3sdKMQ

We kept upping the charge untill velocity didn't increase which was around 750 fps from memory and 3 scoops of a lyman powder scoop