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


Coytee

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2 hours ago, Islander said:

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!”

Or maybe some grandkids were visiting ...

 

 

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13 hours ago, 001 said:

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

It's been flooded with water many times now, any powder is soaked

 

12 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

 

I need to hold my crude jokes but you make this too easy.   Must resist.  😖

 

 

I try to pitch them over the plate so you can hit it out of the park!  

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Ball (single, there was not a third one in there) is out!!!

My (wood) boring bit easily drove into it and cut curls out of it as the bit embedded itself into the ball.  I was totally unable to pull the bit out.  I could push it forward (past the far side of the ball to the rear of the chamber) and pull it forward but not pull forward THROUGH the ball.

 

I needed some leverage.  Grabbed a piece of wood, had a hole in it.  Used the wood as a lever.  It pulled the drill off the bit, so I put some vice grips on the bit and made what I'll call a slide hammer.  Got a 5 pound hammer out and hit the board which pounded the ball out.  Here's my contraption.

 

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Ball came out slowly and needed some persuasion (extra pounding) when it was near the end of the bore.

 

 

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I have no clue what that little hole is in the ball.  

 

 

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and here is the little bugger.

 

 

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I got the ball out, put aside and put flashlight down bore, looking to see what the next one looked like however, there was nothing.

 

So, I got my hone out, put some oil in there and worked the hone a bit.  I'll do more later, it's thundering outside so I put things away.

 

Today, on way home, I bought two pounds of gunpowder.  I'm told 2-4 ounces per shot.  Oh, and someone said I could go buy some frozen orange juice....  make sure the can is approximately same bore as cannon.....  dump contents....  pour some concrete into the can and now, I've got a projectile idea I can maybe use.

 

No idea what the weather is supposed to be like.  I'd really like to give it a trial fire before the 4th....  no idea how that's going to work out.  Wife keeps saying "you should take that over to (our neighbors) house and fire it over there.  Looking at her, I'm asking why over there?

 

Because they live over there (four houses) and it would be easier to take it to the field by them, then to drag all of them down here.

 

(shrugs shoulders)

 

I can easily toss it into the front bucket of my loader so that's not an issue.  I don't know that my fuse will work so I'm still not 100% out of the woods, but I can see some openings!

 

 

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I’m also impressed.  An improvised slide hammer?  Coytee, you’ve got some mad mechanic skillz, as the kids would say.  You don’t have an engine rebuild in your past, do you?

 

This helps marriages, of course.  As Red Green liked to say, “If your woman doesn’t find you handsome, she should at least find you handy.”, and you sure qualify.

 

Back to your cannon:  I think it needs more than a honing.  It looks like corrosion has worked on the bore irregularly, as would be expected, and now its bore diameter is irregular, too.  What it needs now is an accurate bore job, maybe at an engine shop.  That way, it should be safe to use, with no concerns about projectiles jamming in the barrel, which could be dangerous when you fire it, and really annoying if this happens again.

 

To actually fire a projectile safely and predictably, the clearance between the projectile and the bore needs to be both small and consistent throughout the length of the barrel, something you don’t have at the moment.  A bit of research is needed.  First, decide what you want to shoot from the cannon, and then find out how much wall thickness the barrel needs to have to operate safely.  If too much metal is bored away, the cannon could be unsafe to use with a full gunpowder charge.  That would be important to know.

 

Safety around any gun is Job 1.  In Canada years ago (it doesn’t seem to show up in a Google search, unfortunately), a ceremonial cannon was being fired when an accident occurred.  It had been fired successfully and was being reloaded when an explosion happened.  Between rounds, the barrel needed to be swabbed with a special mop/brush in order to be sure there was no unexploded gunpowder remaining in the barrel.

 

The gun crew were inexperienced with this type of gun, which was a factor in the accident.  The wrong type of swab was used, which didn’t fully remove all the gunpowder from the previous shot.  It seemed that some muzzle loading cannons have a barrel with a non-constant bore diameter, making it necessary to use a special swab between shots.  The gun crew were unaware of this, so the preparation for the second shot did not remove all the residual gunpowder.  When powder was put into the barrel for the second shot, the hot residual gunpowder ignited it, injuring at least one of the gun crew.

 

Just so you know.

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14 hours ago, Coytee said:

  Oh, and someone said I could go buy some frozen orange juice....  make sure the can is approximately same bore as cannon.....  dump contents....  pour some concrete into the can and now, I've got a projectile idea I can maybe use.

 

Something like a tennis ball would be much less dangerous and still be fun enough.

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Along with cannon, balls...was a box.  The box is essentially empty (someone decided they didn't want black powder laying around the office or  house) 

 

BUT it's got a full roll of fuse in it.  How old is fuse?  No idea.  It strikes me as the type that's coated (not that I'm a fuse expert) and would burn under water.

 

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Cut a snip off....grab lighter (which is just about out of gas I discovered) and place on ground.

 

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Well, the stupid thing fell over.  I guess that's why there's a hole on the cannon.... 

 

set it back up....light match and viola....  we have smoke.

 

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I've sent pictures to my never met before, cannon buddy.  Took some bore shots down the cylinder.  He said he thought it was good to go.  (he should NOT have told me that  lol)

 

So:

 

1.  All balls out of cannon?  Check

2. Have appropriate powder to fire it?  Check

3. Have fuse that works?  Check

4.  Ability to carry cannon out to field for test fire?  Check

5.  Have wife approved rag to stuff down barrel to shoot?  Nope, not yet.  Undoubtedly, irrespective of what torn/chewed up by the dogs towel I might use, it will ALWAYS be the wrong one unless I get her approval first.

 

So in a nutshell, that's where I stand!

 

Oh, and wife said I had to take down road to shoot at neighbors house as she doesn't want all them to come here.  Fine, I can do that BUT, the field there has not been cut yet at all this year, so the field is probably waist high.  I don't want to start a field fire!  So it would seem appropriate to me that if I'm going to ask to use their field, I might take my 15' cutter and make 3-6 passes to cut a good lane.  I'd offer to cut entire field but she pays someone to do it (so I'm not sure why it's not been done yet.....probably her just saving some cash I'd guess?)

 

Oh, and I need to pull my kitchen scale out to weigh the appropriate amount.  I guess I'll wrap it in saran wrap or something to help keep powder off of it BUT, one of the feet has fallen off so it rocks in place.  Maybe good excuse to buy myself a new scale for kitchen use and have a cannon scale full time!

 

NOW, I need to figure out how to make a pink or blue puff come out when fired so I can be hired for someone's baby-reveal!

 

 

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There is probably not enough time to have this done by the holiday but ........

 

When I was a lad,  and guys used to rebuild engines and recondition cylinder heads there was a technique called "magnafluxing". Basically, a powder (attracted by a magnet) was placed on the unit which was in turn subject to a magnetic field. If the unit had a crack then the "dust" would show a discontinuity (from a discontinuity in the magnetic field). I am sure a mechanic could take my mangled words and give a better description. However decades ago this was a common diagnostic and I have no idea whether it still is. What was cool is that it could reveal cracks that were not readily seen by a simple visual inspection.

 

My question  is whether there is something comparable (and what is it called) for cannons or firearms? I am just an abundantly cautious guy .....

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I know about magnafluxing.  What I do NOT know is, would it work on a non-magnetic barrel?  If the powder is magnetic I'd think it would.  You pretty much nailed (my understanding) of the process....  I'd venture you already knew you were pretty dead on.

 

You're right....  too late in season to get done before Monday.  Aside from that, this isn't easy to "just move around".  It's just about all I can do to physically lift it (with no help) from ground to the dolly it is sitting on.  That is made worse by the hinge for the barrel so it can aim up/down.  That makes it heavy AND now it can move on you.  Too big/heavy for car, I don't have truck so I have mobility issues.  (I brought it home in a U-haul trailer)

 

I used my borescope to take picture of bore and sent to my yet to meet cop/cannon friend.  He said it looked like it was ready to go (based on a picture, no x-rays nor magnafluxing)

 

 

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Well it sounds like you are on track and good to go. 

 

Do I smell a YouTube video coming up? If not a video, then certainly countless stories around the Thanksgiving table about "that crazy uncle (or cousin or neighbor etc) of ours and his cannon". You are a legend in the making.

 

Good luck,

-Tom

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5 hours ago, veloceleste said:

I’m impressed by your determination and ingenuity. Be careful firing that thing!

 

2 hours ago, Islander said:

I’m also impressed.  An improvised slide hammer?  Coytee, you’ve got some mad mechanic skillz, as the kids would say.  You don’t have an engine rebuild in your past, do you?

 

First word that I might use to describe myself.....  persistent.  My wife calls me her little bulldog as she knows if I get focused on something, I will not let it go until it's done.

 

But, thanks for the kind words.  Never (officially) built/rebuilt any engines HOWEVER, years ago, I was visiting my father in Hilton Head.  At the time, he had a Maserati and long story short, seems it blew a head gasket as it over-heated.

 

I ordered the parts, we were having them sent in....and I got to thinking....  I am at Dad's.  I do not have ANY of my tools and he's got zippo.  I don't have a manual for this Italian car with metric parts and I'm flying home in 3-4 days to go back to school.

 

Do I REALLY think I can jump in cold turkey and get this done with a pair of pliers and maybe a tape measure?  Nope.

 

So I told him I need to pass on this, it was too much too fast with too little preparation.  

 

This cannon is nothing.  I can be pretty resourceful at times...but I'll keep the conversation focused and not bore you more than I have.

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Life is a learning experience.

 

Found out that you need a tighter wad than I had on my first shot!

 

Yes Houston, we have BOOM! (though the first was more of a fizzle)

 

 

 

 

 

Shot again with 3 ounces, better packing and had a nice boom.  Then, this video, tried same thing with TWO ounces but the tightest wad of the three trials.

 

 

 

 

It's nice having a decent sized front yard.

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Did a total of three shots today.  First two using three ounces of powder and the last (shown above) only using two ounces BUT, I had an 8 1/2x 11 sheet of paper wadded into ball and then wrapped it inside a wash-cloth and had to put some effort to tamp it down the barrel.

 

Much more (tamping) effort than the first fizzle shot.

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