Blanks

:hmm: I have a cannon made from an arbor press. about golf ball size, not a good looker.but strong. Now how is the best way to make a LOUD blank bang. I am thinking about three 12 ga shells full of powder in aluminum foil, behind a layer of wet newspaper,under a packed wad of paper. Comments please.

 

[Waterman]

Think about the Titanic... What was the last tune played... "Nearer My God To Thee".

I'm no expert, but I'm real happy with the report of 240grs of FFG (2~3 45-70 cases) in my one inch bore replica 12pdr.

Cheers, Bill

 

[John Taylor]

That's about 600 grains of powder. 2 sheets of news paper will make enough noise, it don't need to be wet. Wet news paper = giant spit wad. Don't let any one in front of the bore, this load will go through 1/2" plywood. What's the wall thickness of your tube?

 

Cant say right now ,it was the hydraulic part od a 60,000 # press. Should hold. fired it once from behind a tree at midnight.It was lashed to a wheel and tire, didnt even move, but rattled windows in the neighborhood and soon after we were treated to a cruise by from the cops. we fired over a swamp.

 

[John Taylor]

I helped a friend proof a barrel in Canada. It had a 4" bore with about 1" wall. We drove out this dirt road a few miles from town. I think he put a full can of powder in and a wad. We didn't have a ball to fit so we started putting hand full of gravel in. It was night time and when we looked down the bore with a flash light to see how much we had in, it was almost full ( it was standing on end while we filled it up). We laid it down in the road and put about 1' fuse and jumped in the truck and took off. We must have been 1/2 mile away when it went off. When we went back the barrel was gone. There was a small ( new ) ditch down the road so we followed it and found the barrel about 30 yards from where it started laying off the side of the road. It passed.

 

[robinghewitt]

When we went back the barrel was gone.

:hatsoff: :rotf: :rotf:

Excellent, Newton was right, if the load is one quarter the weight of the cannon then the cannon will recoil at muzzle velocity/4. Not so much a proof firing as rocketry :thumbsup:

 

:bow: Squire robin; I am so glad that there are people like us iin this world, a breath of sanity. lonesome bob

 

[kenneth strickland]

One important thing to remember like Squire Robin said, with blank loads there isn't much recoil. With a lead ball in there, recoil can flip a small cannon over. You could damage your carriage if not restrained.

 

[Cherokee]

Good Times :thumbsup:

 

[John Taylor]

Learned the hard way not to proff the barrel on the carrage. Tail stock made from a treated power pole cross arm, barrel bore 1&3/4". Broke the 4"x6" tail in half.

 

:winking: John. My cannon is made from a 60 ton arbor press is 22" long 2" bore walls 1/4 " thick the breech is reinforced and the plug welded. trunions were as manufactured.Never put more than paper wads in it, so far. Bob

 

[John Taylor]

Recoil must be bad even with a blank. 60 tons with a 2"bore works out to 38,216 PSI. That seems like a lot of pressure on a 1/4" wall. If it will hold that much pressure then it should be fine with BP as long as your not filling the bore up with powder and plugging it.

 

:winking: John. My cannon is made from a 60 ton arbor press is 22" long 2" bore walls 1/4 " thick the breech is reinforced and the plug welded. trunions were as manufactured.Never put more than paper wads in it, so far. Bob

Shooting blanks, even blackpowder, out of what amounts to be nothing more than a piece of pipe is questionable safety. You must take into account this is harden steel. And some harden steels can shatter like glass when dropped on a hard surface. You wouldn't use a glass jar for a cannon, would you?

I suggest that you spike and retire this piece as a lawn ornament.

CP

 

[Powder Keg]

Hi, 1/4" wall is too thin. When we build this stuff it will be around (hopefully) much longer than we will be. What would happen if in 40 or 50 years someone tried to shoot a lead ball out of that cannon they found at an estate sale or where ever? Will it hold up? Just something to think about.

Later, Wes

 

[John Taylor]

Some of the rams for hydrolic presses are IHCP and very hard on the surface but I have never come across a cylinder that is hardened to the point of being brittle. You could check it with a file to see if it is hardened. If a file will not dig in and cut it would be a good idea to cut the barrel up for scrap. It also might be a good idea to proof test it to make sure that it is safe.

 

:haha: Proof testing sounds like fun , lots of powder and a big batch of scrap lead in it should be fun, 3 foot of fuse and a foxhole, all done on a dark dark night, WHEEEEEEE

 

[donk]

You guys are scary :shocked2: Let me know if you get to NE we'll make some noise

 

[paulvallandigham]

Lonesomebob: YOu might try a package load of 1/4 powder and 3/4 flour to get the " bang " you want. I would think that about 150-180 grains of powder would be sufficient, with the flour added to make the kind of noise you want. Be careful about using paper. It will ignite, and on a dry day, you can start a grass fire. Even with wet paper, you can have glowing embers on the ground from the edges catching on fire. I was part of a cannnon crew years ago, and we make our loads up in aluminum foil, so we didn't have to worry about static electricity setting off the charge. The black powder was positioned at the back end of the cylinger( Wrap the foil around the ramrod head to create a cylinder, closed at one end. Then remove it from the rammer, and upend it to put the powder in. Powder, then flour, then twist the top closed, and fold the top over. We would use a brass rod filed to a point to run down the vent to pierce the aluminum foil charge. Then use cannon fuse, or 4F powder for prime and touch her off. The flour gave enough mass to move that we got the compression needed to make the same loud boom that a full pound of powder made firing out of our light 6 pound field piece. Oh, the cannon was a casting from South Bend Replicas, with a 1/4 inch steel liner in it, weighing 550 lbs. for the barrel alone! While the liner was able to hold the pressure of the charge by itself, I would not have wanted to fire those kinds of charges out of that liner by itself many times. That is asking for trouble. You may get away with using your cannon as is, provided you reduce the powder charge to something that will not create the kind of pressures you have already used the cannon to test. It took us a lot of experimenting to find this combination of powder and flour to use for blanks to please the crowd, so I hope it helps you out. The flour burns up, so don't be expecting people to be covered with flour after the cannon fires, like some slapstick comedy movie with Laurel and Hardy, or the Marx brothers.

 

:hmm: Thank you Sir. That sounds like a way to go. Actually it sounds like blowing it up and burying the pieces was the most common suggestion so far. Maybe a sealed load and waterproof fuse sounds like fun but I doubt that the fish would appreciate it. hehehe