New 2.5" Bore Cannon

The pictures below show a heavily steel lined, cast aluminum cannon I made several years ago. Actually, it was one of many guns that I built and I just had not gotten around to finishing up this tube. It has a 2.5" bore and a 3/8 inch thick seamless steel liner with a threaded and welded steel breech. The liner was placed in a sand mold and A365 alloy aluminum cast around it. I proof fired this tube with a full pound of Fg Goex and two solid lead round ball. The tube was proof fired twice and dimensionally checked after each firing. I recently lightly machined most of the external surfaces just to improve the appearance. Now I need to set up to machine the trunions nice and round.

thats a fine looken cannon you got there!

Outstanding project, please keep us informed on your progress. :hatsoff:
Dusty :wink:

I love what some of you guys do here. That is fine, just fine. :thumbsup:

agreed sure fine loking piece my friend
that sure be one i love to have

Nice casting. What is the capacity of your furnace and was aluminum used rather than iron for ease of melting, weight concerns or both?
Was the aluminum portion of the breech cast around the threaded steel breech plug seperately, making it removable, or was all of the aluminum cast monolithically. More simply put, Is the breech removable?

That is a beautiful tube. Once painted, you won't be able to tell its aluminum. Should be just as strong or stonger than cast iron.

Wild Bill,

I had the barrel cast at an aluminum foundry. I made the split wood pattern and the liner and specified the alloy and where to place the chills in the mold. The foundry rammed up the sand mold, did the pour, and cut off the gates for me at a very reasonable cost. I used aluminum for two reasons; to decrease the weight of the finished gun and, due to the drastically lower casting temperature of aluminum, you can get away with the technique of casting the gun around a steel liner. With bronze or iron, the casting temp is so high that it is not possible to keep the liner straight or even centered in the mold resulting in a useless casting.

The breech on this gun is not removable but is cast all one piece with the rest of the barrel around the steel tube liner and welded steel breech.

That IS really cool. :bow: Never seen an aluminum cannon before ('course, my interest in cannons is pretty recent). How are you gonna finish this up? Paint? Polish?

Wow! Just beautiful! Were the trunnions cast with the rest of the tube, or were those added?

So I am thinking that because alot of it is aluminum that it would have alot more recoil than an old iron one. So wouldn't the carrige thingy it sits in need to be heavier than normal?

Musketeer,

The gun will be finished with black epoxy paint. Looks great and easy to touch up, if need be.

Rescue Mike,

The trunions were cast all one piece with the gun and have internal steel reinforcements welded to the steel liner.

Cynthialee,

Yes, because the aluminum gun is lighter than an iron gun, the recoil is more pronounced and the gun carriage needs to be built strong enough to withstand the forces involved. It doesn't necessarily need to be heaver, just strong. In addition, I usually fire cast zinc round shot. A 2 1/2 inch ball weighs about 2 pounds and I wouldn't use more than about 4 oz of cannon grade powder, so the recoil is not all that severe. If for no other reason than cost, it is not prudent to be firing full service charges (with corresponding full service recoil) for any reason I can think of.

but surely the desire to load it up with an iron ball and a full charge of powder must eat at ya on occasion...

It would drive me to distraction until I shot a standard battle round through it.

I spent many years in the US Navy as a gunnery officer aboard destroyers and have fired thousands of rounds of 5"-54 projectiles. From that, and from many years in the engineering plants aboard ship, I can't hear very well any longer. It has kind of taken the edge off "hearing" another full service charge go out of the tube, at least for me. However, I do get your point