Hey! I figured it was about time to introduce myself. I've got the cannon bug and finding you guys isn't helping me out either haha.
My story:
I'm a college student from Tennessee. I grew up on Lookout Mountain, TN about half a mile from Point Park where "the battle above the clouds" was fought. Growing up, point park was one of the places my mother didn't mind me venturing out to alone so I spent many hours there and always loved the cannons. I can't count how many times I heard the park rangers talking about how the armies had problems using the cannons when they were attacked because the cannon balls would roll out of the barrels before they could shoot down the mountain. I loved the cannons and the stories but always just kind of the actual cannons of props for the tourists/jungle gyms for kids like myself to play on (Looking back I don't see how I was allowed to climb all over them by the park rangers but I was).
In high school I moved across town out to the lake, where I worked at a yacht club, when cleaning up one day I found an old brass cannon with a 1/2in bore that I was told they use to shoot at parties, I begged my boss to shoot it off again and after several months (and putting one of the wheels back on) he fired it at a party. Well... I was hooked and quickly started a search for a mini cannon. I started looking all over but couldn't really find anything I could afford. I finally bought a cheap little signal cannon off ebay that was turned from hexagonal stock, nothing nice but it makes a boom.
My current cannon, since I know you will ask: (try not to laugh... too hard)
I love my little goofy cannon that I got off ebay but to be honest it isn't the best of designs, it works well for a boom but the carriage is very cheap and well, it is kind of a backwards version of a naval carriage without wheels. The trunnions are not really trunnions but rather a small tube that goes through a hole at the BACK of the barrel (you can imagine with that pivot point what happens when you fire it even with a blank charge). It is cheap but was all I could afford at the time and did a good job of putting a smile on my face and making loud booms. Sorry, I don't have pictures.
Well, now you guys have me wanting to upgrade, I want to get something safer, nicer, and with the ability to shoot projectiles. I would love a golf ball or beer can mortar to shoot (I've spent hours drooling over dom's dictator but as a college student, I'm afraid to even ask a price, and I really like Armorer77's mortars). I'm also wanting some sort of naval style cannon and/or a small replica of a Neapolitan like the ones I use to climb all over as a kid... Its safe to say, I think this site is going to lead to another expensive hobbie...
Thanks for the space and sorry for the novel,
Stuart