Building a morter/cannon.

CRSIII

NES Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Messages
25,487
Likes
19,531
Location
Just west of Wormtown
Feedback: 33 / 0 / 0
So, I have a blank of what I think is stainless steel.

It is 7'' tall, approx. 3 3/4 in dia. and weighs 22lbs.

Could I safley bore this to launch a golf ball into orbit?[smile]
 
With a big enough lathe, why not ? (I think it'd be kinda hard to drill)

I have lots of black powder...
 
Last edited:
If you don't mind me asking, what are the laws in regards to building a mortar/cannon? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post in the thread.
 
Well its time to investigate! Launching golf balls out of a chunk of stainless steel sounds pretty cool!!!
 
If you don't mind me asking, what are the laws in regards to building a mortar/cannon? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post in the thread.

Bring it to NH and shoot it... then there is no law to deal with. [laugh]

-Mike
 
Bring it to NH and shoot it... then there is no law to deal with. [laugh]

-Mike

Interesting phrasing there...NH, the new Wild West :)

As long as you were careful with the amount of charge you put in there, you'd probably be okay. Gun barrels are much smaller, and some of them are meant to withstand huge amounts of pressure. I'd make sure to leave a good amount of metal - more than the thickness of the barrel - at the back of the chamber. My cannon making experience (that I gained vicariously through watching Mythbusters) shows that cannons seem to fail at that point. Make sure the golf ball can't get wedged in there.
 
So, I have a blank of what I think is stainless steel.

It is 7'' tall, approx. 3 3/4 in dia. and weighs 22lbs.

Could I safley bore this to launch a golf ball into orbit?[smile]

I have no idea, but Brassy, her little brother and I all want to be there for the first firing!

A golf ball is no less than 1.68" (acc to wiki) which leaves you a wall thickness of just over 1 inch. A one inch thick wall of stainless steel has GOT to be strong enough for a pretty powerful punch.


If you don't make orbit, you'll still probably scare the heck out of a jetliner or at least the occasional wicked high flying bird.
 
I think it's an FAA statue that prohibits you from launching projectiles higher than 500' without their permission. Please do be careful. The diff between a mortar and a bomb is minimal.
 
It turns out it's not stainless. (I stuck a magnet to it.)

I'm really not seriously considering fireing golf balls, due to the whole comming down who knows where thing.

But I think a 1.68 bore would be wikkid loud!

To your point whatluck, the diff is minimal and I have nooo interest in seeing any fast moving sharp steelly stuff.

If I indeed find someone to bore it, I will test fire in a 3 ft hole in the ground.
 
This wont end well.......

ETA: Sorry Carl, it looks like it might be illegal. Maybe an NES lauriate will chime in.

Chapter 148: Section 39. Sales, possession, use, etc. of combustible or explosive substances to produce visible or audible effects; fireworks; definitions; exceptions; enforcement procedures; penalties


Section 39. No person shall sell, or keep or offer for sale, or have in his possession, or under his control, or use, or explode, or cause to explode, any combustible or explosive composition or substance, or any combination of such compositions or substances, or any other article, which was prepared for the purpose of producing a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration, or detonation.

For the purposes of this section the word “fireworks” shall include compositions, substances or other articles and shall also include blank cartridges or toy cannons in which explosives are used, the type of toy balloon which requires fire underneath to propel the same, firecrackers, cherry bombs, silver salutes, M-80’s, torpedoes, sky-rockets, Roman candles, sparklers, rockets, wheels, colored fires, fountains, mines, serpents, or other fireworks of like construction or any fireworks containing any explosive or flammable compound, or any tablets or other device containing any explosive substance.

Whoever shall sell or keep for sale or offer for sale any fireworks in violation of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year or both. Any officer qualified to serve criminal process may arrest without a warrant any person who shall sell or keep for sale or offer for sale any fireworks in violation of this section and any fireworks found in his possession or under his control upon conviction of such a violation shall be forfeited to the commonwealth.

Whoever shall have in his possession or under his control, or whoever shall use or explode or cause to explode any fireworks in violation of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars. Any officer qualified to serve criminal process shall seize all of the fireworks mentioned herein without a warrant, and the fireworks seized shall, upon conviction of such violation, be forfeited to the commonwealth.

Notice of such seizure of the fireworks shall immediately be sent to the marshal by the officer making the seizure, and the fireworks seized shall be held and securely stored by that department until the marshal or his authorized representative takes them into his possession for disposal.

The term “fireworks” as used herein shall not include toy pistols, toy canes, toy guns or other devices in which paper caps or plastic caps containing twenty-five hundredths grains or less of explosive compound are used, if they are so constructed that the hand cannot come in contact with the cap when in place for the explosion, or toy pistol paper caps or plastic caps which contain less than twenty hundredths grains of explosive mixture, the sale and use of which shall be permitted at all times; and provided, further, that this section shall not apply (1) to the sale of any fireworks to be shipped directly out of the commonwealth, or (2) to the sale of any such article for the use of, and its use by, persons having obtained a permit for a supervised display of such fireworks from the marshal or some officer designated by him therefor, under any provision of section thirty-nine A, or (3) to the sale of flares, lanterns or fireworks for the use of, and their use by, railroads, railways, boats, motor vehicles or other transportation agencies, or other activity, lawfully permitted or required to use any or all of such articles for signal purposes, illumination or otherwise, or (4) to the sale or use of blank cartridges for a duly licensed show or theatre or for signal or ceremonial purposes in athletics or sports, or to the sale of special blank cartridges and their use in the proper operation of industrial tools and equipment only, or (5) to experiments at a factory for explosives, or (6) to the sale of blank cartridges for the use of, or their use by, the militia or any organization of war veterans or other organizations authorized by law to parade in public, a color guard armed with firearms, or (7) in teaching the use of firearms by experts, or (8) to the sale of shells for firearms, cartridges, gunpowder, and for the purpose of using, and their use, or in connection with the hunting of game or in target practice with firearms, or (9) to farmers and fruit growers who, having obtained a permit under section thirteen of chapter forty-eight, use firecrackers for the control of damage to their crops by birds.
 
Last edited:
Cannons in MA are not illegal. (to own). Firing them without a permit is, though. (Although, people rarely seem to obey this.... lol )

-Mike
 
Last edited:
Cannons in MA are not illegal. (to own). Firing them without a permit is, though. (Although, people rarely seem to obey this.... lol )

-Mike

I of course would NEVER consider firing Brassy in Mass. One day I'll go through the hoops and get my cannoneer's license but until then it's just a hop, skip and a jump over the border.

Yes, cannon are legal here, just can't fire them.
 
I own a home made cannon that I have fired extensively in NH, and I have had Cops watch me fire it at the range, so you most likely have no problem in NH. I only have maybe a .75" wall thickness at the base, and it handles 600 grains of pyrodex all day long with a big 1" slug. And oh yes it makes a boom. If a cannon shoot is in order, I'm in. I may have a spot to go as well.
 
It turns out it's not stainless. (I stuck a magnet to it.)

I'm really not seriously considering fireing golf balls, due to the whole comming down who knows where thing.

But I think a 1.68 bore would be wikkid loud!

To your point whatluck, the diff is minimal and I have nooo interest in seeing any fast moving sharp steelly stuff.

If I indeed find someone to bore it, I will test fire in a 3 ft hole in the ground.

Not all Stainless Steel alloys are non-magnetic. Many are magnetic to para-magnetic. It may still be stainless steel.

7" seems rather short for a 1.68" bore. With 1" wall, you're only going to have a 4x bore barrel. Definately a mortar rather than a cannon. Sounds like a wonderful project. BTW - 1" thick of duct-tape supported a 4" bore "pressure test gauge" using 6 12ga shot-gun shells of blackpowder, so a 1" wall of steel should be pretty good.

I've used a .50 Caliber mini-cannon to fire wadding (damp newspaper) through a pine 4x4 post at about 20'
 
I've told this true story before but here goes......

Soon after moving here, 4th of July was creeping up, and one of my redneck neighbors suggested that it would be really awesome to have a cannon. "Cannon?", says me. "Yeah, you know... put black power in, touch it off, and a loud boom... cannon", says he.

So, I mentioned that I had a small cannon that I had made years ago. I found it, such as it is, a mere 8" long, and 1.5 inches in diameter, on a wooden block carriage (civil war style). We loaded it up, and touched it off. BOOM!

My neighbor wasn't impressed.

Couple of days later, he returns with a piece of alloy (4037) steel, with a BIG bore. Says he got it from someone at a local shop (who did some work for a gun manufacturer, which shall go nameless to protect the innocent). He asked if we could turn it into a cannon.... BIG SMILES!

We welded the end shut (three inches of weld!), and drilled a flash hole just in front of the weld. I dug out more cannon fuse (the real green stuff that cannoneers use.)
We put a table spoon of XXX powder in the bore, and packed some paper towel wadding in with a broom stick. Touched it off, and it made a pretty good pop, but it was obviously underpowered.

Went back to his shop, and made a sturdy carriage for it, cause we didn't want to be holding onto it for the next testing.

We used a Gator Aid bottle cap as the measure for the next test. Four sheets of paper towel wadded up. BIG BOOM!

Next test...... three Gator Cap Fulls of powder, 8 sheet of paper towel wading........

That one resulted in the loudest explosion I have ever been that close to. Even at 15 feet away, it knocked the air out of your lungs...... We loaded it up like that a few more times, and soon had paper towel shreds all over my lawn......

BLUE LIGHTS..........

One of the neighbors called the police, and a young officer of the law came strolling over...... Wanted to know if were were firing guns (with projectiles), which would have been illegal at less than 500 feet from a dwelling (mine). Nope.

Looked our cannon over, and surveyed the paper towel shreds, and walked back to the cruiser......

He spent 1/2 hour on the radio with the station, trying to find some law that we might have broken.....

Came back, and suggested that IF he came back the same day, he would cite us for "disturbing the peace"..... Other than that, "Have a Nice Day"......

We waited a few days to fire it off again, and did so every now and then (just to piss the neighbor off)..... But never saw a cruiser in the neighborhood again.

It's OK to own and fire a cannon in this free state!

Reminds me of the stories that one of my Maine customers (a fellow named, Vance Holt) used to tell, of a large cannon he made, and used to shoot V8 juice cans filled with cement (the small ones) out over some lake.
 
toy cannons

If you want to fire a real cannon, you need a MA Cannoneer's license which is a manually laminiated sheet of stock (sort of like a RI carry permit, but not as nicely done so you probably can't use it as an ID, not that one would want to). You need to make an appointment and go to the fire dept training facility in Sudbury. Be prepared to write down all of the steps in preparation of, and actually firing, the cannon.
 
Duke,

Sounds a lot like some of my experiences.

the .500 bore cannon was hand built based on a model of a USS Constitution deck-gun, scaled down and lightly modified for ease of machining. It was cut from tool steel, smooth bore and never fired anything but paper-wad (horizontally at a wooden backstop)

The loudest "cannon" was built using 4 pieces of ordinance steel. 2 12" x 12" plates 2" thick and 2 4" diameter, 6" long rods with 1" holes cut into them. The two rods had 1/2 a 1/8" hole cut into the ends, so when they were placed end to end, they formed a 1/8" hole for the fuse. The first plate was laid on the ground and the first rod was placed on top of it, roughly centered. The 1" diameter 6" long bore was filled with powder (don't recall exactly what we were using, BP replacement I think) The fuse was then laid into the channel and the second rod placed on top. The second 6" long 1" diameter hole was then filled with powder and the second plate placed on top. After a few tries, an additional 30lbs of weight was added to the top place to reduce the rate of rise, height it reached and increase the resulting sound.

The whole contraption had to be located and reassembled after each firing and the top plate with weight was going above a 25' shed roof-line. It was extremely loud (the contraction helped through the sound and pressure-wave radially more than in-line, which helps the impression. It was a pretty nice contraption.
 
Back
Top Bottom