[ClaytonEDavis]

Hi, I have built a cnc lathe, and a plasma cutter and have been thinking I might like to build some small desktop size cannons for some friends. I would appreciate some ideas about types, drawings or photos to see what kind I would like to make. Thanks for your help
Clayton

[dragons_fire]

im actually building a civil war cannon, i will post pics and dimensions later if i can..

[ClaytonEDavis]

Thanks, that will be great! I also ran accross another group - model_cannons.

[dragons_fire]

havent seen model_cannons. my dad is kinda a civil war guy, and he had a plastic model that isnt built, so i just measured that, and copied it.. i iwll go take pictures now...

[dragons_fire]

[thkoutsidthebox]

That is sweeetttt....nice job.

[fractaledge3]

Hi,
Very big photo how did you do that

[dragons_fire]

the photos were taken with an 8mp camera, so i tried to make them smaller but it didnt work...

[fractaledge3]

the photos were taken with an 8mp camera, so i tried to make them smaller but it didnt work...

Hi dragons_fire;
I am just kidding , you can make it smaller with that simple steps:
-Open it in Ms paint from accessories group.
-From Image menu select stretch / skew or press (Ctrl+W).
-From stretch dialog decrease the horizontal and vertical values to 50 % or less.
-Save it as (new file name) then attach it like that.

[GaryCorlew]

Very nice work!!!!

[dragons_fire]

thanks, its not finished yet, i still need to make another wheel for it, and all th little accessories to go on it.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Careful with those things. I made one in high shool. It fit 1" marbles and pinballs. Took it to the beach on Lake Michigan, dug out a "gun emplacement" in the sand, loaded & fired. Very loud noise, large splash way out in the lake & empty gun emplacement. Never did find any of it.

[Willbird]

Are you sure it blew up ?? and just didnt rocket itself back in the sand ??

too late now :-).

a friend had an improvised cannon made from plain old galvi pipe, 1" or 1.5"...yes I know that is a BAD idea and would never emulate it myself.....anyway we would load it with stuff and fire it straight up.....it would typically totally bury itself in the ground from recoil...and it was not resting on soft soil.

I have one I made a few years back, 1.5" bore and 3.5" OD, about 18" long, I load it with 1/4 lb of fffg powder and all kinds of things, it will shoot D batteries clear thru a car...both doors :-)..........it will do the same with rolls of pennies, the pennies made slits thru the second door.

it is the loudest thing my neighbors have ever heard.....they have come to expect it's roar on summer evenings when it is just TOO quiet, on july 4th, and new years eve :-).

If I could find some truly large heavy wall semaless tubing I would make one with a 4" bore or bigger :-).

I saw a replica civil war one (full size) at a gun show a guy made from solid barstock..........the trunnions are the problem....he bored pockets and pressed his in, he had never fired a projectile from it, and with those trunnions I would not either............the barrel itself is a lot stronger than a cast iron one but if the trunnions came off when it fired it would be damn ugly. He had it set up outside, he fired it every hour...had a replica lighter full scale he made too, and all the proper gear and uniforms of a gun crew. Did the drill totally proper and fired it with the proper ignitors....

Bill

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

It didn't recoil into the sand, at least not most of it. The wooden block and a knob turned on the back end were found later.I strongly suspect the splash was the rest of it. We have a wealthy "eccentric" near here that fires a full size replica cannon over an inland lake every 4th of July. They don't allow him to put any projectiles in anymore though since he punctured a boathouse across the lake. Seems he moved the gun and didn't re-aim the thing down the long length of the lake as he had in the past.

[dragons_fire]

the cannon i made cant actualyl fire anything.. the hole in the barrel actualyl only goes about 1.5 inches in. i do have a rifled barrel from an old airgun thats about 6" long that i need something to do with, so it might go into another firing cannon...

[thkoutsidthebox]

dragons fire can yo utake another photo of your cannon with a tape measure to give some idea of scale please?

[ImanCarrot]

My dad built a small cannon out of bar stock with a muzzle hole about 1/2" and a smaller hole at the other end to poke a red hot wire through to fire it.

Well, he got gunpowder out of a shotgun shell and poured it down the barrel and for "shot" he used a ball of plasticing rolled in flour so it didn't stick.

We sat about for ages as he tried to fire it and when it went off it was the LOUDEST thing I have ever heard! my ears were still ringing 2 hours later!!

The plasticing blew actual holes in the house wall plaster!

The cannon, needless to say wrecked the carriage and was consigned to the shed forever after

[Mcgyver]

My The plasticing blew actual holes in the house wall plaster!

He fired it in the house ?! too funny. lucky only the plaster was damaged

I've seen some great construction articles on civil war canons, it was in either one of Lautard's books or one of Village Press's project books. I'll try to remember to look up which ones it was exactly.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Thats sort of like starting a prop driven airplane in side the hanger. Instead of smoke, its dust, oilcans and everything else in the hanger that gets in your eyes. When I was in high school, I worked at a full service gas station. We wanted to see how much air an old truck tire could take before it blew. The tire had a hole in the carcass so we put in a license plate for a "boot", attached an air hose and held it down with a piece of railroad track. Fortunately it was summer and the overhead garage doors were open. It took about ten minutes of air compressor time to max it out. When it let go, it emptied out the restaurant on the next block. We just stood outside and looked up in the air like everybody else.