Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: 230RN on August 19, 2010, 01:09:35 AM
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MODEL CANNON RECOIL
About two tablespoons of King Black, wadded up the ying-yang (to the muzzle). No projectile.
Moral: don't use wooden dowels for axles.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.loesch.org%2F%7Earviel%2FCANNONRECOIL.JPG&hash=c20fedd3b2f8d713f5eaa86e486b7f891b5453f9)
Built this in about 1983 from some bar stock, just found the pic. Broke the axle on about the fourth shot.
Terry, 230RN
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E'splain, please, why the axel broke.
Everything should be moving as a unit, and the only rotation would be the wheels but yours seem to be friction-fitted. So if you are looking for rollability you would need the axels to be slightly smaller diameter than the holes so the whole axel would rotate, right?
Nebermind - I think I just explained why your design was flawed and your axel broke.
Next time, check out those pirate movies more closely to see why the wheels are the part to go 'round.
stay safe.
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You needn't sound so condescending. (https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthehighroad.us%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fsmile.gif&hash=0c75e2e062ef1080e69bd28db194e2ff27c2963a)
I decided to use wood dowels for hurry-up reasons and at some point "something" happened to break a wheel off the axle. I had cemented the wheels on the axles with superglue.
It would take off and flip over when fired. Sometimes it landed on the wheels, sometimes on the cannon itself, which got dinged up on landing, sometimes on its side. All this depending on the elevation of the muzzle, loading, and apparently random factors --it was fired in a gravel driveway, not on a smooth surface. On about the fourth shot the axle had cracked. I don't know if this occured on firing or on landing.
The wheels were made by using a hole saw. There is no ring on the cascabel for machining reasons. I was going to weld or silver-solder one on, but never got around to it.
Half inch bore, 4 1/8" deep --it's actually more of a carronade than a cannon. The trunnions were silver-soldered into shallow wringing-fit holes in the sides. I'd like at some point to get some more authentic-looking fasteners for the trunnion caps instead of straight-shank screws. Those screws are just ugly, but nothing has jumped out at me so far as substitutes.
The cannon has been cleaned up and now displays itself on my stereo. With two other little cannons in my "battery."
Another view before I stuck new axles on it. At the time of the photograph, I had misplaced the wheels. (I was just testing out the closeuptivity of the camera and needed a subject. Black velvet background.) The .44 lead balls are strictly for show. I have never fired, and will never fire, this thing with any sort of a projectile.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.loesch.org%2F%7Earviel%2Fmy%2520cannon.jpg&hash=5bc8b586bdd82ddb2020a886ed025c475aaec69b)
Terry, 230RN
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maybe you need a tad less powder. ;)
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The .44 lead balls are strictly for show. I have never fired, and will never fire, this thing with any sort of a projectile.
Why not, given a backstop or sufficient distance?
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Another view before I stuck new axles on it. At the time of the photograph, I had misplaced the wheels. (I was just testing out the closeuptivity of the camera and needed a subject. Black velvet background.) The .44 lead balls are strictly for show. I have never fired, and will never fire, this thing with any sort of a projectile.
It's not proper mad engineering if no one could possibly be hurt. =|
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It's not proper mad engineering if no one could possibly be hurt. =|
Tangentially [No, not on APS!], I tried to convince my son and daughter that the mad scientist/cockroach character on Monsters vs Aliens was actually a mad engineer. No dice, they held firm to the "mad scientist" position despite my logic.
They are only 4 & 5 , though.
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About an ounce of Red Dot will give a bit of recoil in one of those. Like breaking the table it was sitting on and taking out part of a chain link fence.
Don't ask me how I know. And I wasn't even drinking at the time.
jim
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lol, sounds like it's time for a game of.... "was i "DRUNK" or "A KID" " [popcorn]
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lol, sounds like it's time for a game of.... "was i "DRUNK" or "A KID" " [popcorn]
Add a "Was I a drunk kid catagorey and I might have someting to share. :D
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An ounce of Red Dot? Holy cow, it must have filled it to the muzzle and acted as its own wadding. What was the bore?
Jeeze, that was 437 grains of Red Dot. A sphincter-shrinker fer sure. And table-wrecker. And fence-buster. There's a lot of that glycerine stuff that's been nitrated in Red Dot, no?
I mean, you're talkin' 15-20 grain loads for 12-gauge, right?
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Sounds like the only safe place to be is in front of it :P
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IIRC it was a 3/4" bore. The breaking table seems to of deflected the rear of the cannon to the right. If it would have went straight back, I might not be here to talk about being stupid.
jim
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I'm reminded of the motar flotilla of the War of Northern Aggression. They friggin' LASHED those chowder pot mortars to the foc'sles of these schooners and they were quite known to rip themselves loose and cause uber destruction. Apparently you did not want to stand behind one of them while it was being touched off. :O
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Look up "bomb ketch." These were boats with a heavy mortar installed. They had to heavily reinforce the decking under the mortar to keep from wrecking the vessel. Special struts to distribute the forces, etc. (My connection is really slow today.)
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yea, there was talk of massive amounts of bracing under the deck. I have a "campfire book" written by civil war vets to commemorate the 25th anniversary of either the beginning or end of the war, can't remember. There's a whole chapter devoted to describing the setup. This particular locale was the Mississippi River and they would anchor together broadside to each other on the opposite side of the river, shoot across each other's bow and bombard the forts. The captains would have to man the crows nests 70 feet up to aim. They had a stick, to each end of the stick a string was tied, these two strings reached all the way down from the crows nest to the deck and were attached to another stick in the same fashion. To transmit his orders the captain would position his stick where he wanted them to aim and they would match the position of the gun with the stick they had suspended in mid air down on the deck. The person telling the story was a former captain and he described two other things that stuck in my mind. First, every time the cannon on his ship was fired the mast whipped back and forth quite violently and because of the way the ships were berthed side by side with each other at an angle to the riverbank they were lobbing shells over each other's bows. This particular captain said he could feel the breeze of the shell from the next ship over as it whizzed by his head. :O
OK, NOW who wants to be captain?
:lol: