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Psst, (mechanical?) Engineers and other crafty, ingenious folk...


Coytee

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Bunch of wise non-binary-metro-he/hims/whatevers.....  (I'm trying to be socially appropriate and refrain from calling you all a bunch of bozo's)

 

Anyway, as promised.

 

Used a wood boring auger.  Drilled it into the ball and the shavings crawled up the extension.  Chuck on drill broke (the screw that holds chuck on snapped)  Got replacement in, fixed it and went out this morning and the ball came right out.

 

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I was feeling pretty good.  Auger was BURIED in the ball, was going to cut it off, realized being lead, I can probably get it off faster/easier using my air chisel (I was right)

 

 

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Went back to store to get a hone for the bore.  KNEW it was too short, so went to Home Depot thinking I could get a drill bit extension....and again, I was wrong.  I was walking through the store when it dawned on me...  the hone has two halves.  They unscrew.  I can take it apart, look for a threaded rod.

 

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I did this at Home depot,went over to the threaded rod stuff....found a rod that fit, moved the parts over, added a nut for adjustmentsDSCN8098.thumb.JPG.1da3cc8175f445ec51253ca44ee2b34f.JPG

 

 

and viola, I have an extension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Went back out, put (very bright) flashlight down the ignition hole....and saw NOTHING inside.  Hmmmm....  why would it be dark when I KNOW the hole isn't plugged?  So I got out my borescope.

 

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I see something shiny?  What the heck???

 

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and there's the little bugger!

 

 

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Doesn't look as deformed as the first BUT, it's still S.T.U.C.K.  I put the hone to the cylinder.  Don't think I had the hone spread wide enough so it wasn't scraping as hard as it could and I'm ok with going slower and easy.

 

Washed bore out, took cannon vertical, banged on sides with a block of wood, compressed air....  didn't budge.

 

So I'm debating on pulling the drill back out tomorrow.

 

 

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Other day, talked with the county Sheriff.  He said I was fine with this.  Went on to say he's got a neighbor who's a city cop AND "BIG TIME" into this stuff.  Turns out he's the "Armorer"???  (sp?) the guy at the police dept who does all the maintaining of the firearms.  Has FIVE cannons himself, up to an eight inch bore....says he shoots BOWLING BALLS out of it.

 

Yikes.

 

Anyway he said he'd be happy to visit and help me along if I need any guidance.  He said with a 2 1/4: bore I could fit a pool table ball down....said he tried that once and shot the pool ball THROUGH a tree.

 

Went on to say that if my bore is too far gone (I have no idea), that I can have it sleeved and drop it down to a 1 1/2" bore....at which point, I can shoot GOLF BALLS out of it all day.

 

I think Mr. Fancy Pants Carl better watch out when he's out playing Putt Putt.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Coytee said:

Went on to say that if my bore is too far gone (I have no idea), that I can have it sleeved and drop it down to a 1 1/2" bore....at which point, I can shoot GOLF BALLS out of it all day.

My friend said some of the folks would fill small juice cans with concrete. These are abut 2 1/8th inches in diameter.

 

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2 hours ago, Coytee said:

Other day, talked with the county Sheriff.  He said I was fine with this.  Went on to say he's got a neighbor who's a city cop AND "BIG TIME" into this stuff.  Turns out he's the "Armorer"???  (sp?) the guy at the police dept who does all the maintaining of the firearms.  Has FIVE cannons himself, up to an eight inch bore....says he shoots BOWLING BALLS out of it.

 

Of course he does; we live in Tennessee where this is standard fare.

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Might be dangerous and foolish, but let me ask this.

 

If you take a jar of gunpowder, FILL it with water (multiple times like 30 times) and put the lid loosely over the jar where yes, it can breath, BUT, isn't really open to the air....

 

Wouldn't you feel comfortable that you've neutralized a possible issue?

 

Call me stupid.....but if there IS a charge in there (I'm 99.9999999999999% confident there isn't, but if there IS.....)  it is frankly, utterly SOAKED and with the tiny ignition hole and two (for sure, possibly three) balls in front of it, it's not airing out very much.

 

I'm guessing that wet gunpowder is, while wet, pretty useless???  

 

I've soaked this thing so many times AND, soaked it long/slow enough where water has filled the ENTIRE bore to the point that the water was coming OUT the ignition hole so I know the bore has been 100% flooded.

 

An accidental boom, just isn't on my worry list.

 

Now, LEAD poisoning from handling these balls?  That's crossed my mind several times.

 

Anyway, today's update:  Drilled into second ball.....didn't BUDGE at all.  Was trying a couple things, when clouds & thunder rolled in and the rain fell, so I stopped.

 

Game plan is "screw the balls, just drill, baby, drill"  Pop a hole down center and then to the sides until they start to wiggle, and go from there.

 

I might look into a long prybar or long chisel so I can maybe use something like the prybar to give them some direct contact/pressure....  or the chisel to section them to maybe take them out in pieces.

 

 

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When you buy cannonballs in sizes like this, are they sold as singles, or maybe a 2-pack, 3-pack, or even 6-packs?  Could you picture someone saying, “All these cannonballs make the place look untidy.  I know, I’ll pop them all into the cannon.  Out of sight, out of mind!”

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1 hour ago, Coytee said:

 

Game plan is  just drill, baby, drill"  Pop a hole down center and then to the sides until they start to wiggle, and go from there.

 safety 1st , fill it with water  , the last thing you want  is spontaneous combustion of gun powder residue .

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