Author Topic: Re: Howdy...Intro (Read 739 times)

Don Krag · « **on:** December 04, 2006, 02:47:00 PM »

(Well the computer barfed the first time...here it goes again....)

All I can say is Holy Crap...how did I not know about these forums before! I'm down in Central, TX (Bryan) and have become addicted to building cannons over the last couple years. I blame it on my buddy Dennis who runs a CW cannon unit. He brought it over for the 4th of July a couple summers back and we rocked the hillsides behind the house!

My pieces are all medieval "gonnes" and bombards. Most are 1.1" bore, but I have a 1.75" and 2.2" in progress. I'm looking forward to hanging out here!

Here's a few pics. The first is Dennis' 2.25" bore mountain rifle followed by a night blank-shot. The last is a small 1.1" bore at night with one of the proof shots.

Rickk · « **Reply #1 on:** December 04, 2006, 03:04:58 PM »

Hi Don, Welcome to fun-central

Rick

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #2 on:** December 04, 2006, 03:31:31 PM »

Don -

WELCOM E to the board!

You've started RIGHT -- by posting pictures!

Love to see the pictures of the stuff in progress too!

copdoc · « **Reply #3 on:** December 04, 2006, 04:03:43 PM »

Nice piece of work.

Did you bore the bbl?

Is it rifled?
copdoc

Don Krag · « **Reply #4 on:** December 05, 2006, 05:12:14 AM »

The guy in the pic built the mountain rifle. If I remember right, he got the barrel as a straight cylinder blank and contoured it himself. I beleive it is a rifled steel liner with cast iron around it. They use it with the 7th Texas unit at CW events.

I'll get some pics up of several of the other projects I have going. I *plan* on pouring some bronze this weekend. I really want to finish the 2.2" bombard over the next couple of weeks. Everything I've done to date has been smoothebore. I have some .75 cal projects that will be rifled. If I screw up the button rifling....well, they'll be .90 cal smoothebore.

I have a couple crucible furnaces I built for making bronze. I can melt cast iron, but not efficiently. I'd like to build a cupola furnace for that, but that's a ways down the road. Currently I can melt and pour about 80 lbs of bronze per load with my large furnace. Most of what I've been doing are 1.125" ID x 1/4" w DOM tubing that gets plugged, pinned, welded and then the bronze cast in place around the liner. For the ones where I want the iron look, I'll use some schedule 40 steel tubing as a "shell" and fill the void between the shell and the liner with bronze, then put some wrought iron banding around it for the medieval look. I'm making a video of the next one I'll put on my website as well as youtube.

Will Bison · « **Reply #5 on:** December 05, 2006, 08:07:39 AM »

Hi Don;

My Maternal Grand Dad was from Bryan, TX.

Nice pics of the guns.

Bill

CU_Cannon · « **Reply #6 on:** December 05, 2006, 02:43:19 PM »

Quote

For the ones where I want the iron look, I'll use some schedule 40 steel tubing as a "shell" and fill the void between the shell and the liner with bronze

Most people want a bronze gun but have to settle for steel. It is rare to find someone with the opposite problem.

Don Krag · « **Reply #7 on:** December 08, 2006, 08:52:02 AM »

Everything I do is pre-1600 and usually copies of wrought iron objects. There are few broze ones I'd like to eventually do, but I need to work on my mold-making skills!

I video-taped my casting the other night. Unfortunately, both had problems. I have some nice pics of a zinc-vapor cloud ignition followed by "hey, where'd the molten copper go?". The first one, I thought I had 10lbs of brass. Some of the blocks turned out to be a bronze with a much higher melting point. The zinc vaporized out of the crucible and when I opened the top of the furnace, the sudden drop in pressure caused it to release and then flash. All I could do is cut the gas and wait for the smoke to clear in the shop. Take two used a smaller crucible situated in the bottom of the furnace and was a pure copper charge, to which I was going to add some other alloying agents to once molten. I looked in once and things were just about to start melting. I looked in a second time and all the copper had vanished. I lifted up the crucible and saw a hole melted in one side and a puddle of copper on the floor of the furnace. I had used a very thin walled stainless container as a crucible in the base of a 3000*F furnace...poor planning on my part!

I dug out the *real* crucibles and will mix up some bronze tonight and hopefully get some good video.

copdoc · « **Reply #8 on:** December 08, 2006, 11:07:28 AM »

I look forward to seeing your guns and foundry. Where is your website? copdoc

Don Krag · « **Reply #9 on:** December 08, 2006, 11:55:25 AM »

www.kragaxe.com

I haven't set up the blackpowder pages yet, though. In fact...I don't think I've updated the knife pages since about August! I'm a slug when it comes to updating HTML. I got some video software and have been playing with that for doing "how-to" videos. I don't have the bandwidth on my site, so I'll be using "youtube.com" for hosting those.

I'll get some still shots of the in-works items this weekend and put them up early next week.

Tonight will be take three on the casting. I found my proper crucibles so hopefully it will go as planned!