Thread: Naval Cannon MkII

Neat looking project , but in mythbusters style ,you need a little black powder inside it

Originally Posted by bwal74

Hi,

Finally got my lathe going again. I started working on this English Naval 12 pounder awhile ago then wore out my compound nut and had some serious oil leakage from the spindle.

Finished the barrel yesterday. It's not exact but it's good enough for now. I made this barrel out of bright MS bar. The finish wasn't that crash hot but I don't mind, I think it makes the barrel look more authentic. The next barrel will be made from brass. I sanded it back some, then sandblasted it at work followed by blackening it.

Just have make the rest up sooner or later.

Ben.

Hi Ben

how are you going to do the trunnions?
Mine are welded in ...it would look much better if they were not tho

how are you doing yours?

Originally Posted by eskimo

Hi Ben

how are you going to do the trunnions?
Mine are welded in ...it would look much better if they were not tho

how are you doing yours?

I think I will just glue them in. I could possibly pin them in. I will be using aluminium for pretty much everything else, except the wheels which will be made of brass or blackened steel.

Ben

Nearly there. A few more fiddly bits to mill and drill. Milling the sides only took an hour and a half. So much better than filing.

Ben.

ps this cannon will never fire, its just a desk piece.

pss sorry about the quality of the photo's, taken on my camera.

Nice job Ben.

Reminds me of a time when …
I was in training in electronics at Eagle Farm Brisbane and we were learning lathe basics, and had to chose a project, and I chose a …
Real working cannon.
Maybe a breaking breech type and use 12 gauge shells, which were cheap and easily available then.

Now just down the road from work were Bohlers, and I wandered in all seventeen and shy, and thought I would get their advice on best type of steel to use then buy it, but I really expected that they would just show me the door when I would tell them of the project.
But, no!

Just by sheer chance they had a visiting metallurgist or something from Sweden, and he came out and said “Well, when I was at Bofors, we used this stuff for barrels”.
Would you believe he went out the back and returned with two feet of special 50mm round, and Bohlers gave it to me for free!
Never got past rough machining, as I had to make a gun drill, and then, … my attention was diverted by a …

Just reminiscing

Cheerio mike

Hi,

Still going on the little cannon.

Nearly done:

Ben

ps sorry about the photo quality, taken on my phone.

Back in the 70s I was lab craftsman at UNSW where they trained the IA teachers.
About the second week into the job there was a loud whoosh and lots of smoke from the welding bay.
One of the Master's students was arc welding up the touchhole on his musket and the intensity of the arc ignited black powder residue.
I banned him from the lab immediately.
We became good friends and years later dropped in on him in the country on Guy Fawks and there he was entertaining his kids with trails of black powder and some decent sized explosions all over the house yard.
H.

Having shot black powder firearm competitions for many years I have seen lots of BP cannons.The problem is that because of security and anti terrorism fears what was once considered harmless fun is now other wise. Such things are now looked up by authorities as dangerous or risky and thusly must be registered.

A friend who was very talented on the lathe spun up some very small 1/8" bore cannons from brass stock. He loaded them with BP which was easily obtainable.The loading and firing of the mini cannons provided a great deal of supervised wonder and amusement for his 8 & 10 year old boys. He found out later ,the hard way,from an upset wife that a match stick driven by powder tended to badly damage kitchen curtains and insect screening.
They were great little miniature cannons in brass and timber that sat on a matchbox.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

. Such things are now looked up by authorities as dangerous or risky and thusly must be registered.

Depends on which state your in Graeme....they dont have to be registered here in SA

If you want to have a looksee at mine...a firing model

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f268/noise-maker-162699

Originally Posted by eskimo

Depends on which state your in Graeme....they dont have to be registered here in SA

If you want to have a looksee at mine...a firing model

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f268/noise-maker-162699

I'd like to make a firing model one day but with 5 kids (four of them boys) I'd have my own little Waterloo in the backyard.

Ben

Hi,

Finally finished my cannon.

Blackened some more parts on it. Turned a some new parts out of a piece of stainless. Glued everything together. I used mild steel for the barrel, wheels and some other pieces, brass for some parts, aluminium and stainless for others.

I've included some photo's of two 13" Mortars as well.

Next project will either be a brass or copper barreled version (or something similar). With the final piece being a 25 pounder in Australian colours.

Ben.