Brass Cannons

[acoop101]

I was wondering if anyone makes cannons from Brass, if so what is a safe thickness of the wall if not why not.
 I have some that is .75 inch in diamiter and was thinking about  making a cannon out of f it with a .25 inch bore. Any input would be apriciated.

[GGaskill]

.25/.75 sounds OK.  Just don't plug both ends of the bore.   

[Double D]

Acoop101 welcome to our board.  Yep we got brass guns here.  That  3/4 ich piece of brass would make a nice large bore nano cannon...

Tel us what you have in mind.

[acoop101]

Since this is my fist venture into cannon making I want input as to the safety of this cannon. My thought for a .25 inch bore was mainly for shooting blanks. I want to start small simply because I am still in college and I don't have large amounts of money or a place to call my own to store large size cannons. What do you think is the thinnest safest thickness for a brass cannon wall. In otherwords whats the largest bore I can make out of my .75 inch brass bare? Also what is optimal length, I have about 4' of this brass bar. Any input is much apriciated.

[Double D]

We subscribe to the safety guidelines of the North South Skirmish Association and the American Artillery Association.  They say the that the walls of the cannon around the breech should be no less than one caliber thick.   You can look at the stickies at the top of the board for links the N-SSA and AA for their complete rules and regulation.

So using there rules  to find the largest diameter bore for a pice of metal for a cannon  divide the diameter by three.  In your case, .75 divided by 3 equals .25.

[acoop101]

Makes sence to me, what do you recomend for charge size? I was thinking a .22lr case filled with FFG Black powder. Maybe this has been covered in other topics but living in California I can realisticaly only get black powder substitutes like pyrodex how does this compare to real black powder???
Thanks
Cannon Noobie

[acoop101]

I was thinking about making a cannon like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RktI9aDrNUk
eventualy I will need ideas for how to mount this cannon, I am a certified presure vessle welder but
A. I don't want to weld brass because of the potential for zinc poisening
B. I don't want to weaken the cannon

Any recomendations for mounting the cannon???

[GGaskill]

Maybe this has been covered in other topics but living in California I can realistically only get black powder substitutes like Pyrodex; how does this compare to real black powder???

I don't know what part of the Socialist Paradise you live in but black powder should be available.  In my experience, Pyrodex does not work well in artillery.  It burns but you get little energy from the burn because the pressure is too low.

If you are in the LA area, you can get it from Angeles Ranges.

Any recomendations for mounting the cannon???

I assume you are asking how to connect the trunnions to the barrel; silver solder if you can't TIG weld.  You should have sufficient ventilation to remove any zinc fumes.

[acoop101]

I live in San Luis Obispo, the local outfitters say that no one caries black powder because all of the BP shooters were willing to sacrifice quality for not needing to deal with acidic bp fouling.

[GGaskill]

... for not needing to deal with acidic bp fouling.

I hope they are cleaning their Pyrodex fouled guns because Pyrodex fouling is just as corrosive as black powder fouling.

Ask around for some black powder cartridge rifle silhouette shooters.

[Rickk]

Black Powder can be mail ordered from many sources.

If you buy at least 5#, mail ordering will overcome the hazard shipping charge.
Try www.powderinc.com - they will sell as little as 5#, and you can mix grades to come up to 5# total. The prices listed on their site include shipping.

There are other places that will sell as little as a pound, but be aware of the shipping charges before you order.

For little .25 cal guns you will want 4F for blanks and 4 or 3 F for projectiles.