more: quill

[Victor3]

 Another idea for 'wood' quills...

 I split up a bamboo chopstick with a utility knife blade and was able to make thin, long strips.

[Double D]

This mornings test was to make tooth pick quill for smaller cannons. 

Comparison between roll on stick glue and spray adhesive.

No comparison...the spray adhesive wins hands down for picking up powder. 

With the greater load of powder the spray should be more efficient.  If it warms up a bit I may run out to the range this week end and do some firing tests.

[Double D]

Yesterday was the full blown test of tooth pick quills.  As a refresher...The Seacoast Artillery guys came up with spray glue and broomstraws for small gun quills.  The Idea has morphed a bit and I have move on to testing tooth pick spray glue coated and toothpicks coated in roll on glue.   

The Spry glue method  gets a more even covergage when dipped in powder.  The roll on glue was a bit more sparse.  I was concerned the sparsely covered roll on glue quills might not provide enough fire to ignite the charge every time.  Yesterday I fired 4 of each type, spray glue and roll on with out a hit if failure!

Okay, so I had Patrick fire them.

[Double D]

    

     One question for you guys familiar with quills; do you have any difficulty knowing when the quill is inside the powder cartridge slightly?  Can you feel a connection between the quill and the powder charge?

Thanks for all the good info and nice photos!

Mike and Tracy

While looking something up I came across and unanswered question.  How rude of of us to ignore it.   So better late than never comes the answer. 

The quill tube is made long enough to reach the far side of the powder chamber when the quill is inserted in the vent.  When you insert the quill in a charged chamber you can feel the quill encounter the charge. You can also gauge how deep the quill is into the charge by how much of the quill is exposed when inserted.

[seacoastartillery]

     Thanks, Double D.  Sounds like a good way to do it.  Now I have another one for you.  What type of scraper do you have to remove all those globs of melted plastic from my vent?  McDougals straws work great, but make a mess after you fire them.   It might be beneficial to re-post a link to 'Good Straws' here.  We use broomstraws, spray adhesive and 4Fg powder for the nano mortars and cannon.  Works great!

Tracy & Mike

[Double D]

     Thanks, Double D.  Sounds like a good way to do it.  Now I have another one for you.  What type of scraper do you have to remove all those globs of melted plastic from my vent?  McDougals straws work great, but make a mess after you fire them.   It might be beneficial to re-post a link to 'Good Straws' here.  We use broomstraws, spray adhesive and 4Fg powder for the nano mortars and cannon.  Works great!

Tracy & Mike

Good point, don't use plastic straws, us paper.

Hijacked straight from Claypipes board:

search: Artstraws
 

[seacoastartillery]

Thank you!  Those work great.

T&M

[Rickk]

Just noticed that I started this thread "a while back". I'm glad to see that it is still going and filled with lots more info.

[Double D]

It's always nice to have a collection of ideas in one place on how to solve a problem...that is what this post has become.  Thanks Rick for startin it and thanks to everyone else for adding to it.

[armorer77]

This reminds me of when I was young and couldn't buy fuse . A book by Kurt Saxon told of making fuse . Take a string , lightly coat with Elmers white glue roll in powder , let dry several days and you have fuse . Smokeless gave a slow burn , relatively speaking . My first BP fuses had a tendancy to explode . Armorer77

[rmagill]

those were some books with seriously important steps left out, I had a couple of them too.

[armorer77]

Kurt Saxon's books were quite complete . Armorer77

[TAUREANHARE]

Plastic drinking straws and 1/2 inch tape with 4F work well for our needs.  Usage is on a 2 1/4 bore Verbruggen 3 pounder.  Vent is 7/32 diameter.  The plastic drinking straws cut in half fit perfectly.  NOTE THIS! When the straws are cut, it's at a 45 degree diagonal.  The the powder coated tape folded in half lengthwise,  poking it in the straw at the diagonal cut gives an easy entry and it slides in just fine.  Tape is cut long enough to leave about an inch extending out the squared end and flush with the diagonal cut.  The straw provides a protected coverage for the powder coated tape to slide in the vent and also a clear passageway for the flash to reach the charge in the breech.  Oxygen the length of the straw is a bonus.  Play safe, RPG