Round 2: .50 Black Powder Cannon Build

[Tiktock]

Hello,
A week or so ago I posted my first attempt at building a black powder cannon, resulting in a small .30 cannon:
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/build-yourself/199254-step-step-fabricating-30-cal-miniature-black-powder-cannon-%2Anow-video%2A.html

After that project I knew I needed to step it up a notch. I didnt take nearly as many pictures this time so this will be a quick build-along. Total build time started and finished the same day, spanning an afternoon and night in the shop.

First, I went around my shop and located a pretty hefty chunk of steel. This hunk is an odd oblong shape with a diameter of about 2.5" wide by 1.75" high and the length of the usable steel is around 6"..perfect!

I then bandsawed off the scrap portion, squared up the ends on the mill and sprayed it with layout fluid:

Luckily, .50 is pretty easy to drill into steel with a milling machine so I drilled a bore about 4" deep:

This left 2" behind the bore. I planned to do a 7/16" full-through trunnion and 2" allowed room for this while still maintaining a 1:1 between bore size and surrounding metal to keep things safe.

Here it is with a 1/8" fuse hole drilled at a 5 degree angle back and the 7/16" trunnion hole straight through:

Off it went to the 2X72" belt grinder. The steel I was using was pretty pitted and dented so i started cleaning up the grinds:

I wanted nice, uninterrupted grind lines front to back like this:

Here is the last pic I took before moving to a finer finish but pretty much looks how it ended just before adding a bevel around the edges and final countersinking of the bore and holes:

Behind it you can see the norton blaze ceramic belts I use. These things EAT steel. They dont even pull off sparks as they cut so well they just throw a steady stream of metal filings downward.

Next post will be final pics with the carriage I made for it

 

[Tiktock]

Unfortunately, things got late at this point and I gave up taking pics. I'll describe what I did next:

I cut out some nice hunks of random hardwood I had laying down. Some kind of rosewood for the sides that required me to pin them together with 1/4" stainless pins which I peened and epoxied in place. I put oak burl for the endpieces.

After some fitting and measuring, I drilled holes that would allow the 7/16 trunnion bar to press-fit into the carriage sides. I also drilled three elevation holes and fabricated a little bar which is held with removable pins to adjust for barrel elevation.

The entire thing is held with threaded rod and nuts which I plan to replace with acorn nuts. It is a VERY sturdy little unit with an overall weight around 6 pounds. It looks GREAT...even better than i expected. It reminds me a bot of a mortar carriage with a modern barrel.

Here are a few pics of it completed:

I cannot wait to light this baby up! I did a few test fires with no wadding and the thump was impressive but I'm a bit nervous to rock my neighborhood until around the 4th so i'll have to take it to the range or a different area to do a full test with a full load, wadding and eventually some .49 projectiles.

Once I get a nice lathe, expect LOTS more from me. These things are so fun to make.

 

[fishhawk357]

Dam that came out nice. I have always wanted a cannon just to say I have one. Maybe we can work something out sometime. I can't wait to see this baby shoot!

 

[Business]

HKDrummers dad made one thats about 6 inches across and 2 feet long that he shoots golf balls out of. thing is nuts. Nice job I'd love something like that on my desk labled complaint department

 

[RoterTeufel]

Very nice

 

[Golddiggie]

Nice cannon... Going to see what I have for steel round stock in the basement (or can get my hands on)... I have a 7x14 lathe, so I could do the bore pretty easy. I like the way you did the trunnion. That was one of my concerns for my own cannon fabrication. Now I don't need to worry so much. I might do a brass cannon too (a friend is asking for a small, .17 cal cannon). If I maintain the material thickness minimum around those points, I should be ok.

 

[Viper22]

Video???

Shoot it yet?

 

[Tiktock]

No video but it certainly goes boom! I have lots more in store as I just acquired this:

It's a 10x24 Logan 820 with automatic gearbox. I got it from a relative of its former owner with an entire machinst's lifetime supply of tooling (think 500+ pounds of bits, cutters, reamers, chucks, carbide inserts, accessories, chucks, etc) I won't say what I paid because it was basically highway robbery.

Was quite a chore to move as I had to remove it from a basement two hours away then remove it from my truck and finally hoist it onto my bench. I assume it weighs somewhere around 500-700 pounds with the motor. I hoisted it ghetto style onto my bench with a come along.

I'm currently working on this as my first project...it's about 1.5" in diameter with a .50 bore and it is about 10" long. This one will have proper trunnions. 4th of July is going to be loud in my neighborhood.


Once I figure out how to properly run the lathe, I will be making some much bigger ones. I see a 20" mountain howitzer with golf ball sized bore in my future!

 

[Golddiggie]

That's a sweet score (on the lathe and tooling)... I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with it. I know I am with my small lathe (only 7x14)...

 

[Tiktock]

Here is the first thing to come off my new lathe. Not bad considering I have no clue what I'm doing. Looks professionally made, in my opinion! Started its life as a dented, rusty bar of steel.

 

[dropride]

Damn man that looks awesome.

 

[Golddiggie]

How did you do the trunnions??

 

[Tiktock]

Trunnions (which are way too far back, btw) were bored into cannon barrel with a threaded smaller stepped hole at the bottom. Each trunnion was then also threaded and they were screwed in with JB weld. Depth was somewhere around 3/4 the wall thickness. Was an interesting process to get the pockets exactly lined up but it's close enough to not notice any errors. Trunnions pockets were bored before any actual turning was done so I could get them exactly perpendicular to the bore.

 

[Gdrock33]

Here is the first thing to come off my new lathe. Not bad considering I have no clue what I'm doing. Looks professionally made, in my opinion! Started its life as a dented, rusty bar of steel.

Wow! Really nice work. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Viper22]

Awesome work.

 

[Kevin_NH]

Nice work.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you produce as you move up in bore diameter