.22 blank cannon lock

[Max Caliber]

Here is the lock I use on my 3/4 scale gun to fire .22 blanks. The lock is held on the barrel with a band clamp so no holes have to be drilled in the barrel. The lock operates by the hammer pulling a link that compresses a coil spring. A flat piece of metal, or key, attached to a lanyard is inserted into a slot in the lock body and acts as the sear. When the lanyard is pulled the key is rotated out of the slot and the hammer falls. The hammer needs to be long so the lock body is away from the powder fouling and give access to the vent. The nose on the hammer should be tapered to a flat end like a slot screwdriver to allow the spent blank to eject upward without causing damage to the lock. This lock is mounted on the left side of the barrel so the vent can be served in a normal fashion. This type lock can be constructed lots of ways and mounted several ways, this is how I did mine, the first one I made had exposed lock work with a mouse trap type spring and it worked well also.

Pictures show the lock in the fired position, ready to fire and mounted on the gun.

Max

[Double D]

Got any pictures of the internals?

[Max Caliber]

DD, My camera will not focus close enough to get useful detail of the small parts, I tried, sorry. Maybe I could do a drawing sometime. I was thinking that the many and varied types of underhammer rifle/pistol lockwork would be a good source of information for building a cannon lock. I have some drawings around here somewhere.

Max

[Rickk]

Max Caliber, I don't know anything about your camera, and maybe this won't work on yours, but here is the trick I use for closeups with mine...

Most digital cameras have a resolution setting... low, medium, high, or something like that. Usually the default is medium. Set it to high and take the picture as close as you can and still get it to focus.

Then crop the picture to show only the important stuff and enlarge it. In high res mode you can usually enlarge them quite a bit before they get grainy.

If you don't have software that will crop and enlarge it, look here for a shareware program that works really well and is easy to use:
 http://www.djuga.net/retriever/home.html

[Max Caliber]

Thanks Rickk, I will give it a try, I need all the help I can get. I sort of lose interest in cameras designed later than the Civil War. Max