You know what, I'm just going to ask my civil war group about this. The people on this forum, aside from a select few exceptions, have been nothing but unhelpful and rude.
I came on here to get information, not to be insulted. And as much as you fear my obvious lack of knowledge(despite, you know, YEARS of working with cannon; and despite the fact that cannons are one of the most basic firearms in existence, consisting of a literal pipe with one end sealed), I fear your utter disrespect is worse.
Oh, and Colorado? Let me just allay any doubts, since this seems to be a topic of interest; I don't follow rules that are clearly arbitrary. For the same reason I wouldn't follow Florida's state law; that you cannot eat peanuts while walking backwards in front of a theater, I won't follow a rule here that says you cannot use the phrase "stitch nazi". Or a rule saying you cannot talk about making powder.
We're on a black powder forum. People are going to talk about black powder. That's like creating a painter's forum, but stating "no one is allowed to talk about creating paint!" :youcrazy:
If you're making rules like that, why did you even bother to create a forum?
Furthermore, I don't really care about a forum's rules in the first place. I'm not going to break the rules deliberately, as I am essentially a guest here, but I'm also not going to limit myself because someone decided that their forum needed silly rules. One forum I was a part of demanded that no one was allowed to use the caps key. Why? No reason given. Just some admin deciding that "them's the rules!".
So you can call me a rule-breaker all you like. If the rule is illogical, I won't follow it. Show me the logic behind it, and I'll reconsider my position.
For the record, though this is a very basic cannon, I wouldn't call it a "pipe with an end cap"; the finished product is going to be a bit more complex than that. I plan to add a flintlock naval ignition system, an oak sled, graduated sights, bevel off the rough weld lines.... this is not a potato gun. Which is why I thought, though it's not exactly historic, it belonged in cannons. And no, I didn't read the sub-sections. I just read "Cannons" and logically assumed, 'well, this question is about a cannon'. I'd ask how one moves a thread, but I have a gut feeling one of you is about 5 seconds away from finding an admin.
Admin admin! He's questioning our arbitrary rules! Punish him by banning him!
That's how reasonable adults behave, isn't it?
For your information colorado, I'm majoring in mathematics; currently a Junior at Oregon State. I know how to calculate basic gunpowder explosions; I'm trying to not be insulted by your doubt of that. It's simple math. That information isn't even hard to find; Wikipedia has literally every number and equation you need to solve it. Google might be able to solve it FOR YOU.
Solve it yourself if you're so eager to see the results. Or you can trust that I know what I'm doing. The only reason I'm here is because I'm not experienced in steel itself, and welding. Everything else, I have at least 1 year's experience with.
I'm getting quite tired of the attitude here; that I'm some sort of moron who's planning on blowing his hand off with a pipe bomb, and that everyone else here is an absolute savant when it comes to black powder.
I came here to ask about steel. I know my powders. I know how to make them, I know how to store them, and I know how to use them. So, if you actually want to help, let's press forward under the assumption that I'm not mentally challenged, that I have two functioning hands connected to a functioning brain, and that I am in fact capable of basic mathematics, shall we?
Oh, and just a little update. While I was typing this, I found an engineering forum and posted the same original post, word-for-word. Curious what they said?
They ANSWERED THE QUESTION. CONCISELY.
So just to be clear, a forum about mechanical engineering was not only kinder than my own hobbymates in Black Powder, but also answered the question faster, than a forum ABOUT black powder.
Maybe it's because they didn't have over 50 rules?
Or maybe it's because they're actual human beings, who don't think they're better than everyone else.
This was quite an experience. I await my ban with trepidation.