Project Cannon

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kudu

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For the past almost two years have been working on and off on a black powder cannon. It is a half scale model of a civil war six-pounder. Got the barrel from here: http://greystarcannontech.homestead.com/star.html
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396.jpg
Rough up of some wood work and the wheels are from Amish country, chariot racing wheels with bearings. 404.jpg Ended up reworking the tail of the yoke, needed a bit more angle to make room for the elevator. 406.jpg
Some more work on the metal reinforcing around the cheeks. cannon1.jpg
Finished enough to be able to fire it. cannon5.jpg
cannon6.jpg
And the moment we had been waiting for.
cannonfiring.PNG
Make powder packets with aluminum foil and use another full of cornmeal for wadding, creates a big deep boom.
 
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Bore diameter is about 1.6", or 1.5" for projectile diameter. It is supposed to be a half scale 6 pounder that had a bore of about 3.3" and shot a 3" 6# cannon ball.
Is that an '06 Montana in your shop?
06 Uplander, close.

This cannon may be in an episode on the Outdoor Network. They are supposed to be doing a filming at a local shoot over the weekend of July 28th. The World Black Powder Championship shoot is being hosted at a club about 20 miles from where I am located. My friend that I built this with is a big member there and they wanted it available to be shot.

My friend just told me that the local gun shop is going to "sponsor" us by supplying us with black powder. :D
 
Bore diameter is about 1.6", or 1.5" for projectile diameter. It is supposed to be a half scale 6 pounder that had a bore of about 3.3" and shot a 3" 6# cannon ball.

06 Uplander, close.

This cannon may be in an episode on the Outdoor Network. They are supposed to be doing a filming at a local shoot over the weekend of July 28th. The World Black Powder Championship shoot is being hosted at a club about 20 miles from where I am located. My friend that I built this with is a big member there and they wanted it available to be shot.

My friend just told me that the local gun shop is going to "sponsor" us by supplying us with black powder. :D

Very cool, very cool. I bet it has good stopping power on small aminals and daemons.
 
Nice job Kudu. I think all of us would like to have one. Would make
a terrific crow shooter with a load of number eight shot.

Zeke
 
When I get some funds built back up I may get the 1/3 scale barrel that has a 1" bore and is about 23" long and start another project.
 
Nice ! I've been building desktop cannons for a couple years and really want to do something bigger !
 
Beautiful woodworking job! Nice finish on cannon. Neato!

Mount nothing more powerful than a 4 power scope on it.
 
Beautiful woodworking job! Nice finish on cannon. Neato!

I have seen a lot of cannons completely painted, but I am a woodworker, used oak and had to glue two pieces together for the yoke. Got to thinking that it would be nice to see the grain but have some color to the wood. I used a greenish/blue tinted stain that I wiped on enough to penetrate some of the deeper grains and then used multiple coats of polyurethane. Tried to use an epoxy glaze on the cheeks, but it did not work out well, but it did work it's way around behind the steel bands and filled the gaps between the steel and the wood. That alone was worthwhile as it will strengthen the cheeks against recoil.
 
NICE! I've been splitting cheeks on one of mine and have considered wrapping them as you have done. I cast my own shot and make my own BP. What are you using?
 
NICE! I've been splitting cheeks on one of mine and have considered wrapping them as you have done. I cast my own shot and make my own BP. What are you using?

Have a 1.5" sinker round ball mold, and can't find any 1F powder here locally, so are using 2F GOEX, not even sure of the exact weight charge, it's about 1"x1.5" powder packet cylinder. Have only shot it 9 times so far, and only with cannon ball twice, the rest blank shots. Gun store is getting a supply of 1F in for us. Wanted good strength around the cheeks, it has 1/4" steel bands that are bolted through from the top to the axle straps and through the side across the yoke. The trunnion pivots were machined to size and split and one side welded to the 1/4" bands and the other had tabs that bolt to the top straps so we can pull the barrel of in a couple minutes if we need to take it down for travel.
 
I find very little info on how to get empirical data on pressure form various powders. As well as what the barrel's want. It seems to me that in my limited education that I used in making my cannons was to keep the ideas of pressure and elasticity in mind with each charge as well as how the barrel would wear over time. The thinking here is that while a new barrel can well handle faster powder over time faster powder will wear out a barrels elasticity quicker. That said, which all well may be quite wrong, have you considered re-corning your power to cannon grade? Another question is projectile fit. The 1.5" in a 1.6", do you patch this? If, so better accuracy, more pressure. Either way, I would love to be there to shoot with you. Just love the job you did. I totally cheated on my wheels. On my new'er stuff I decided to make much more modern looking stuff. Hope to get my shop back soon. I rather share photos with you than just drool over yours. Any chance of a video?
 
What? Hey wait a minute! I wanted to go! My invite must have got lost in the mail. Darn it!
 
I thought about that, talked to a reenactor and he said they used cornmeal at reenactments. Flour might ignite, which might be kinda cool.

Yep flour for sure would burn and add to the excitement and flash.

Google explosions at flour mills. Very nasty. One happened not too far from me across the river a few years back. I think it killed about 3 people.
 
Am I right that this was a commercially produced barrel? If so, did they give specs on what and how much powder to used on various shot?
 
The barrel doesn't have a fuse hole drilled in it, and when you buy it you sign a waiver that you will not hold them responsible for any liability if used as a firing cannon. That said, it is a high pressure steel pipe inside cast ductile iron probably capable of handling pressures beyond anything a period cast cannon could of handled. They won't spec anything out as far as projectile as it could open them up for liability, and I don't blame them a bit for handling it that way as sue happy as people are these days.
 
6 pdr is a neat cannon. Much more affordable to shoot than a 12 pdr. After all, no one is fighting Manassas againg.
 
I made a few cannons in my gunsmithing class and the only thing they did not allow was to drill the fuse hole. Well that's what they said. Then they could care less. Just shot some really heavily corned BP. About half the size of Captain Crunch. No real notable difference but I think it sounded better. Deeper boom?
 
The bigger the granules, the less energy, so less boom. If you add a filler like flour or Cremora to the blank cartridge in front of the BP and put a wall behind the cannon, you will get a much louder boom.

There are online safety instructions for loading and firing cannons and are well worth reading.
 
Apparently at the Black powder shoot last weekend the cannon was a nice draw and a real hit with the shooters there. Since I was unable to be there I got the info from my friend that I built it with. They lit it off about 10 times total, it is sitting in the gun shop near the range and is getting lots of positive comments.
 
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