Homemade Cannon

[leeaspell]

Has anyone ever made their own black powder canon. I had access to a bunch of used tester flowline, 5000psi wp. 2" od 1.5" id. A 1.5" swab cup fits perfectly, I set one up at work one day with air and it works pretty good. Just wondering if it would handle a charge of black powder instead of 120 psi of air, which punched a hole in washbay door from 60 feet away. What kind of pressure could a guy expect from black powder.

[Lucite]

Don't know much about what kind of pressures you could expect using black powder but the Mythbusters took a k size gas cylinder cut one end off and made a bowling ball cannon and they used something like one thousand match heads as a charge.

[sikwhiskey]

Try and get some 10,000 psi MWP pipe and a long fuse. Don't forget to run for cover. 5k pipe might work or blow up depending on how used it is. A new 5k pipe has a max working pressure of 5K. However, it is hydro tested to 7.5k, or 1.5 times the working pressure.

[catnthehat]

Lots of cannons are made each year by guys in the ABPA.
At one match in Athabasca at the spring shoot we had 14 of them lined up competing - mortars too! Everything from golf ball sized bores to gallon paint cans!!
Cat

[1100winger]

has released a "advisory" that potato guns, pumpkin cannons, and home made BP devices are "pressure vessels"; apparently a few accidents have spurred their advisory etc. Having launched a few spuds (sch 80 pvc with LPG) myself - it is a blast (pun intended) - but should be approached with all the good care of any explosive device - good luck.

[BallCoeff.435]

You've got a wall thickness of a half inch there. I'd prefer a section of Monel drill collar, or even carbon steel collar.

By recollection from a couple of decades ago, the collar OD was something like 10 or 12 inches, and ID 2.5 inches. Not sure of the weight, but a 6-foot section might be a half ton. You'd need a gun carriage of some sort anyway, in this case towed behind a truck, so that shouldn't be much of concern though.

You'd probably have to machine a spud collar to weld around the breech end to close it.

Would be interesting to see what that would do with a half can of 7828 behind a lathed copper slug shaped like a Barnes tsx. Might be disappointing though unless the bore was machined real smooth then rifled.

The next step would be so see how to procure and retrofit an old Pratt & Whitney bore rifling machine for a 2.5-inch bore. Be kinda curious to see what rate of twist that would take...

[densa44]

As I recall, back before I was allowed to own real firearms by my concerned parents, you'll get way more mv than you think! Admiral Nelson sunk the French navy with similar equipment, the irresistible urge is you know what. It is controlled in centre fire ammo by the size of the case. In a muzzle loading cannon, there is no limit to the amount of powder!

In addition to the concern about the barrel bursting (mons meg comes to mind) where will the projectile go? This is not a trivial problem. No one has suggested holding it up to your face and aiming it. It is very hard to aim. The experiment listed here went through a door, it can do much more!

A shot shell size load of powder is lots! Find a way to aim it because the bullet will kill anything that it hits.

Be very careful!

[Dmay]

To OP - that pipe sounds a little thin to me, but not really sure what it is.

There is an active group of us who shoot homemade BP cannons. We gather one weekend every year. Guns are 1.5" bore and larger. As an example, mine is around 1.7 (forget exactly) and drives a lead slug with about 1300gr of FFg.
We shoot events from 50 to 300 yards. All are smooth bore, and it is surprising how accurate they can be.

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[TUFFBUFF]

Originally Posted by sikwhiskey

Try and get some 10,000 psi MWP pipe and a long fuse. Don't forget to run for cover. 5k pipe might work or blow up depending on how used it is. A new 5k pipe has a max working pressure of 5K. However, it is hydro tested to 7.5k, or 1.5 times the working pressure.

Most pipe stuff has a 4:1 safety factor built into it, should be good to 20k burst pressure - let 'er rip and let us know!

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by Dmay

To OP - that pipe sounds a little thin to me, but not really sure what it is.

There is an active group of us who shoot homemade BP cannons. We gather one weekend every year. Guns are 1.5" bore and larger. As an example, mine is around 1.7 (forget exactly) and drives a lead slug with about 1300gr of FFg.
We shoot events from 50 to 300 yards. All are smooth bore, and it is surprising how accurate they can be.

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Now that sounds like fun. I can just imagine the looks in other vehicles as you trailer those to your event location....I have access to ball bearings if interested.

[Kim473]

I have blueprints for a old civil war cannon. About 3 ft long and shoots golf balls about 300 yds with one shot gun shell load of powder. A person would need a fairly large lathe to turn the od of the barrel. Use 1020 mild steel for the barrel with about 2" wall thickness.

[blackpowderrlw]

if you rifle it you have to register it.

[MountainTi]

Careful is all I can say. Reminds me of a time deciding black powder didn't have enough "bang" to it so was switched out for smokeless. End result being a rather large vise in many pieces and friends thumb hanging on by a bit of skin.

[greylynx]

You guys make life so complicated.

All you need to do is sneak around a pipline construction site, and have a buddy that is a pressure welder or boiler maker.

Hey Cat: This sort of looks like a super shot gun shell.

http://www.docsmachine.com/nonPB/mortar.html

[deerslayer]

Seen a fellw shooting a black powder cannon once, for projectiles he used beer cans filled with cement, looked like allot of fun.

[mudbug]

Those look like a lot of fun

[vortex]

This is great. i made a cannon that shoot golf balls and i use the pre formed 50 cal black powder charges usaly 100 grains worth. i have no idea how far they go i have not found one ever. but it is made out of 316ss. the wall thikness in the smallest place is around 5/8 ". and i use a model rocket igniter to sat it off. but i would love to get some fuse of some type for it. if any one can let me kow where i might be able to get some. and if anyone has more info on the club that gets together i would love to see them some time.

[fatboyz]

vortex, Cannon fuse is available at Caroline supplies in Caroline.

[leeaspell]

I have been looking online, and some people use some pretty this pipe, as long as you dont us a patch around your projectile or use a wad to pack it in there it seems to be ok. But on the same note, this one is kind of scary, but its a pretty low quality cannon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnYCq...eature=related

[sikwhiskey]

Originally Posted by TUFFBUFF

Most pipe stuff has a 4:1 safety factor built into it, should be good to 20k burst pressure - let 'er rip and let us know!

HAHA, thats funny, what pipe stuff safety facter would that be? Used production testing line, after having tons of sand through it at high velocity? Yea take it to 20k

[Ken07AOVette]

I can send a golf ball 1500 yards quite rapidly....

[leeaspell]

Originally Posted by sikwhiskey

HAHA, thats funny, what pipe stuff safety facter would that be? Used production testing line, after having tons of sand through it at high velocity? Yea take it to 20k

Yea i figure by the time it no longer good to make money its at is 5k limit, but its still 1/4" +/- wall thickness

[sikwhiskey]

Originally Posted by leeaspell

Yea i figure by the time it no longer good to make money its at is 5k limit, but its still 1/4" +/- wall thickness

If its been xrayed and no good its under 3mm. I would use New or slightly used.

[Dmay]

Originally Posted by vortex

and if anyone has more info on the club that gets together i would love to see them some time.

Our group shoots the second weekend of September every year. This year in Slave Lake. Usually 10+ guns. Plus mortars.