Blown up pipe bomb

[Zulu]

Well, here’s the story.
About 25 years ago, long, long before I had any cannon knowledge, my brother worked at a machine shop.  He decided to make a noisemaker.  He took a 3’ piece of stainless steel and bored it all the way through.  As near as I can tell, it was 2 3/4” diameter with a 1 ˝” bore.  He had some one weld a 1 ˝” breach plug in it.  Vent hole was drilled for a fuse.
He shot some ball bearings out of it several times then used it to make noise for some years.  He then gave it to my cousin who lives in the country.  He used it to make noise at parties and our family reunions.  It was always propped on a cinder block or something and recoiled about 6’ in the dirt.  Black powder was always used.  There were always many family members around as witnesses.
I then purchased my 10 pounder Parrott Rifle and started pulling it to our family reunions.  The pipe bomb was retired to the barn around that time.  That was 13 years ago.
Two years ago, at one of our family reunions, I asked my cousin about it.  After a short search we found it in the corner of one of his barns.  Using my knowledge, mostly gained on this forum, I pointed out some hairline cracks and strongly told him that it should be cut in half and thrown in the nearby Brazos River.  I specifically told him that “it would fail sometime and could kill anyone standing around it”.
It went back in the barn.    That was two years ago.
Our last family reunion was this weekend.  This is what I found out.
Sometime this year my cousin had a large party for about 75 people.  At the end of the party most of the folks left and only about 15 were around when, unknown to my cousin, someone found the bomb in one of the barns.
The story is that someone loaded it with some smokeless powder and it just fizzled when fired.  They then loaded it with an unknown amount of powder and packed paper towels on top of it.
They will never find all the pieces.
NO ONE WAS HURT!!!
Here is what I saw or was told.
One piece of the bomb went through the side of a truck door shattering all the windows in the truck.
Another piece blew a tire out of another truck about 100 feet away.
Another piece went through the gable of a nearby house and exited out the roof.
The biggest piece was found about 130 yards (by my estimate) away from where the thing was fired.
There are about 30 holes in his out buildings (one about 150’ away) ranging in size from marble to about 6” long.  Many of them went in one side of the building and out the other side.  When I took pictures of the holes I forgot to use anything to reference size.  My hand could fit in one of the holes in the picture.
All the pieces will never be found.  I estimate there is only about 1/3 of the barrel has been found so far.  The rusty piece is the breach plug.
How none of the 15 spectators was hit I cannot fathom.  There are holes everywhere!
This went down without my cousin’s knowledge until the explosion.  He was extremely shaken!  This was the only time the bomb had been out of the barn since he and I had our discussion.

Lesson
Make your cannons for how someone else will shoot it.   Don’t use smokeless powder.
There was about 1” of powder left in the can which I dumped on the ground.
WOW!!  What a discussion this made this weekend.  I walked around and found 2 more small pieces lying on the ground, either of which could have killed someone.
Be careful!  Our biggest enemy is our own ignorance.
Zulu



 
Found 130 yards away!

 
My hand could fit in this hole


 

[gunsonwheels]

God MUST be a BPM&C shooter or at least a great fan.
 
Why else would HE protect all of them involved in this event and the rest of us from this event??
 
I give my personal THANKS to Him for His protection of all!
 
GOW

[oltom]

 
'pantscleaning time'

[onegreatshot]

Oltom got it right.

[moose53]

WoW! this weekend could have turned out so different . Sometimes life lessons don't cost full tuition . I too thank God for his protection for your family.

[Cat Whisperer]

Some of US have learned from such experiences.   

Thanks for posting it.

[Doc Brown.]

Not to sound completely ignorant but are you saying if your design is sound you can fire smokeless powder out of a black powder cannon? Is that chunk of rusty steel the breach plug and if so where did all the welds go?
 
When a stainless barrel explodes I like to call it a chromium bomb and its more devastating than if a regular steel barrel explodes. Its a miracle nobody got injured or died. The blast radius on a chromium bomb is far greater than a regular one since the breach probably blew out first it might have saved there lives. Had the breach been solid they would all be dead.  Being a welder myself I can say welding stainless to mild is very difficult and whoever welded that probably didn't do a good job. There bad job may have saved lives.
 

[Zulu]

Not to sound completely ignorant but are you saying if your design is sound you can fire smokeless powder out of a black powder cannon? Is that chunk of rusty steel the breach plug and if so where did all the welds go?

dock,
I'm not sure where you got that.  Never, ever, ever can you use smokeless powder in a black powder cannon.  It will blow up!!!!!!  That's what this posting is all about.
Make no mistake on this either.  I'm not calling this a cannon.  It's a bomb!!!
The rusty chunk is the breach plug.  Some of the welds are visible if you hold it in your hand.  The rest blew to smithereens.
Zulu
 

[muznut 54]

Wow very lucky no one got hurt.

[Zulu]

Look at the first picture.  It is three pieces of the first 5" of the muzzle.  It looks like it blew out there.  I have no idea what was put into this barrel.
Maybe if more pieces could be found, they could tell a better story.
If this had happened an hour earlier there would have been about 75 people watching it.
I keep thinking that I should have just taken the barrel away from my cousin when he and I talked but hindsight is worthless.
Zulu

[Doc Brown.]

My brother is very stubborn and will not listen to me sometimes. We fired a cannon and he reloaded it without waiting not even 10 seconds or swabbing it out. I begged him to wait but he would not listen to me. I stood back and prayed and there was no pre ignition as he rammed it.  thank  god.

[Double D]

Is that the welds 1/4 of the way up from the bottom.

[gunsonwheels]

SBR's plug welding technique involves a tight fit of the plug into the end of the barrel and then welding a "dam" against the inside of the barrel to prevent the plug from backing back out.  The weld is put in shear as opposed to tension...
 
I suspect with the bomb of this thread that would have made no difference.  Assuming the plug did stay in place,  the pressure would have built up until the walls of the tube itself fractured sending their fragments outward and probably blowing the plug a very short distance from the point of the explosion.  It is evident from the pics, I think,  the greatest amount of fragmentation came from the barrel itself.

[Zulu]

Is that the welds 1/4 of the way up from the bottom.

DD, You are correct.
 It is really about 3/4" of weld though.  Evidently not enough.
Zulu

[GGaskill]

The weld doesn't seem to have very much fusion.  Do you know what process was used for the weld?  I would be uncomfortable with that even without the smokeless powder.

[Victor3]

 Unfortunately, even an "over-built" BP cannon + can of Bullseye = bomb.
 
 Most folks know that you shouldn't mix bleach with ammonia, yet many have them right next to eachother on a shelf. Only the knowledge of a bad reaction prevents people from pouring them into the same bucket.
 
 Best we can do is build sturdy and keep our personal cannons, powder, etc. secure, while educating others about the hazards associated with them. Just like a band saw or other power tool; if a cannon wasn't somewhat dangerous it wouldn't be good for anything.

[dominick]

Stainless + mild steel = galvanic corrosion.

[Zulu]

The weld doesn't seem to have very much fusion.  Do you know what process was used for the weld?  I would be uncomfortable with that even without the smokeless powder.

George,
My knowledge is fairly limited on this but my brother that made it was there this weekend also.  I did ask about the weld and he said that the 1 1/2" bore was drilled all the way through then the breach end was drilled a little bigger about 3/4" deep.  He said this was done to give a little more welding area. 
I really couldn't tell much from looking at the parts.
Zulu

[dominick]

I would reluctantly call this a good accident if there is such a thing, here's why.   First and foremost, no one was hurt.  Second, the accident removed from future use, a device that under slightly different circumstances could kill or serious injure someone.  An incident like this may also convince those who think they can just "load it up with powder and wadding" of the possible results.
 As Bubba would say.  "You done blowed it up good."

[Cannoneer]

Thanks for this topic, Zulu. St. Barbara evidently shielded the innocent/ignorant behind her skirts on that day.

[flagman1776]