Victor's "What to do with this thing?" thread got me to thinking.
How many of us have something that they built before we gained the knowledge that we have now? Things that maybe bend, or even break some of our golden rules? Long since retired, for fear that they weren't such a great idea to begin with?
Well, here is my submission.
A little background first. A few years ago (before I joined GBO) we had a new roof put on the welding shop where I work, which is the oldest of our buildings. The new metal roof was built over the existing wooden roof. Holes were cut in the wooden roof for the new supports, which tied into the existing metal framework. This resulted in a double-roof, with a space between. This was great for insulation, this became the coolest place in our facility in the summer.
What was not so cool is that birds quickly discovered this space and soon we were infested with birds. Birds everywhere, all the time. flying in and out (there were a lot of places for the birds to get in) and doing what birds do.
I began scaring the bids at least once a day with improvised explosions (acet/oxy mix in a cup). Soon I got tired of this and decided to get a little more pro on the birds.
I needed a scare gun.
The scare gun began by first digging through my scrap to see what I had to work with. What I settled on was a drop of seamless mild steel tubing that we used to make hydraulic couplers. The length of the tube was determined by the length of the longest drop I had.
The tube was 1.125" OD x .625" ID. Yep, ¼" walls. Way under spec, but then at the time I was ignorant of such a rule. This gun was never
EVER going to fire any projectile, just a mild BP charge, so by my reckoning I was good.
Then it was on to the computer.
I needed a base. That would be cut from a section of heavy H-beam.
The shape of the tube was determined from how it would relate to the base. Nothing fancy, just an undercut near the muzzle to form a slight ring, then tapered back about halfway to full diameter.
The rounded breech would be formed during the plugging process. A tight fitting rod was press in about ½" deep. The rod was welded into place and then trimmed off flush with the top of the weld. This resulted in a roughly rounded end that was dressed down in the lathe and polished. The vent was drilled, and the finished tube was about 6¼" long.
Finally the tube was centered up in the base and welded. The tube is elevated at 30°.
In the plans, the corners of the base are rounded and there are mounting bolt holes. The gun was pressed into service before this could be done. So the gun has a plain rectangular base with no holes.
It served well, belching much fire & smoke shots from its 5/8" bore! Typical load was 80 grains of FFg topped with a greased (Bore Butter) cleaning patch. In hindsight this seems excessive, but the little gun did itself proud. For some reason the noise from the acetylene bombs never really fazed the birds, but the BP shots (twice a day) scared the crap out'a them. Withing a about a month, our shop was considered "no birds land" and avoided like a cat farm.
It's only been fired a couple of times since, and not recently. I've been intending to paint it for years, and even went so far as to buy the paint (it's probably dried out now), but I never got around to it.
I think now that I'm off to rest from my hospital stay, this will be a good leisurely project.
So here it is, in all its glory. Battle tested and now retired.
The gun weighs 4 pounds 9 ounces, and is pretty stable. Even in soft grass it rocks back but doesn't go over.
Well, there it is. My closet skeleton. It'll probably never see another shot, but I'll
NEVER get rid of it.
Who's next?
