Author Topic: New guy here (Read 4954 times)

Fluxion · « **on:** July 15, 2007, 04:16:32 PM »

I new kind of new here, this is my first post. I have been lurking here for awhile but never posted until now. I just thought it was time.

Here is a picture of my first cannon I built. The barrel is made out of 360 brass with a reamed bore of 0.453 and shoots 45 caliber lead balls quite well with a FFG load of 30 grains. I am not a machinist by trade, I am a cabinet builder but I did turn the barrel and steel axle on my little Atlas 618. The wheels I made out of white oak, the rims I cut out on my CNC router that I built myself. I also made 16 ga steel bands for the wheels, they were made undersized and heated up and slipped over the wood wheel just like the big boys. I guess I had beginners luck as they turned out great!

Here is a video of me firing the cannon at a bottle of mustard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfqI9iYuxrs

After seeing this cannon my Fiance was impressed. I showed her Father, who is also the Minister that will be marrying us on Sept. 1, and he loved it. Now, our wedding is going to be outside and they were discussing whether to try and have unity candles or not. I jokingly suggested "maybe we should have a unity cannon". My Mother in law to be had a shocked look on her face, she couldn't believe what she had just heard. My Father in law to be loved the Idea!

So, I have realized now that my 45 caliber cannon just won't cut it for the wedding. Here is my current project I am working on inspired by posts here.

Its a piece of DOM steel tubing that I turned a breach plug with a 1"x1" powder chamber and a large area for a 1.25" deep J-weld behind the powder chamber. The bore is 1.72" with a maximum diameter of 3.25" and overall length will be 14" when I get the breach plate and cascabel turned and welded on the back end. I have it mounted in the lathe and planned on finishing it today but I broke the drive belt.

I have a piece of 1.25" stock that I planned on turning the trunnions down to 1" leaving a 0.125" shoulder but I am starting to think it is a little small. Should I move up to something like 1.5" stock and turn it down to 1.25 and leave a shoulder? I am planning on building some kind of a naval carriage for this one probably out of Teak as I have some here in the shop and I want it to look nice for the wedding. Now for the next question, I need to pick a finish for the steel parts. Should I paint them with Duracoat?I have quite a few colors on hand. Blue them? I do have a hot water bluing system. Parkerize them? I have that stuff to. Blark? Bluing over parkerizing if you didn't know. Or should I send it out to be plated? I know a local guy in the business. Let me know what you guys think.

Any way now here is a few pictures

I have this little guy left over and for fun I plugged him and will make a golf ball mortar next! It will have a hand cranked elevation wheel driving my own worm gear and a hammer type ignition system using percussion caps. Does anybody have any links that could help me with the hammer and trigger design? I haven't put it to paper but I didn't think it would be too hard to figure out. I was planning on using standard nipples and caps from a black powder gun.

lance · « **Reply #1 on:** July 15, 2007, 04:21:48 PM »

hi and welcome to the board, congrats on your cannon wedding.....the pics didn't come through, but i'm sure someone will get on here and fix them.

lance · « **Reply #2 on:** July 15, 2007, 04:23:42 PM »

i'll add: that's one tough bottle of mustard!!!

Fluxion · « **Reply #3 on:** July 15, 2007, 04:27:12 PM »

Thanks Lance! I did fix the photo's stupid mistake as always. The bottle of mustard had five holes through both sides before It finally blew apart.

lance · « **Reply #4 on:** July 15, 2007, 04:44:21 PM »

going by the pictures: are you sure you have enough powder for this up and coming wedding!!!

Rickk · « **Reply #5 on:** July 15, 2007, 04:49:17 PM »

My first thought was brass plating, but a thin plated surface would not last long.... black powder will see to that.

My second thought was black paint.

lance · « **Reply #6 on:** July 15, 2007, 04:54:17 PM »

don't you think it best to ask your furture wife on colors or plating???

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #7 on:** July 15, 2007, 05:02:30 PM »

We second Lance's welcome. Teak sounds good for a naval carriage; plenty tough enough for the job (battleship decks were teak), and it looks good too. As for the bluing, learn from our trials, failures and successes; ask your plater if he does black oxide. A lot less hassle and the price on this process is usually inexpensive. The metal will look great and you will have time to do other things! Congratulations on the upcoming nuptials.

Mike and Tracy
Seacoast Artillery Company

lance · « **Reply #8 on:** July 15, 2007, 05:03:54 PM »

would you happen to know Tracy[m223]

you both live in the same town. i'm sure he could show up at your wedding with some extra cannons if needed......................

m223 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 18, 2007, 01:42:04 PM »

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Wow that's neat were both 37 and both live in Topeka. Congrats on your wedding. I have a heck of a loud soda can mortar you can use if need be plus some smaller stuff. I hope your doing the ceremony outside the city limits. Hey you do nice work the wheels on your carriage are fantastic. The 3" piece is coming along nicely also. Personally I would go with the 1.5" shoulders and turn the rest down to 1.250" maybe even a little larger. Check for some pictures of similar designs and scale up or back accordingly. Good luck and keep us posted. (m223) Tracy

lance · « **Reply #10 on:** July 18, 2007, 02:27:51 PM »

NOW maybe TRACY can learn some woodworking....................

Cat Whisperer · « **Reply #11 on:** July 18, 2007, 02:41:20 PM »

fluxion -

WELCOME to the board. Sounds like you're developing the right kind of relationship with your future rib.

Some things you just have to check out first - I bought my wife a .357 Magnum before I bought her a ring - a real statement of trust.

Great pix, keep 'em coming!

Fluxion · « **Reply #12 on:** July 26, 2007, 07:49:36 AM »

Thanks for the welcome guys! Cat Whisperer, your right about my future wife, she's wonderful. On our third date I told her I had something to tell her. I took her out to eat and during dinner I told her I had a disease. I could tell she was horrified despite her best effort to hide it. After a few minutes of acting like I was nervous about telling her, and trying to drag this all out as long as possible I finally told her I had BRD. Being a nurse she was puzzled as she had never heard of such a thing. I said it was more of an addiction really. By now she was panicked, thinking I was some sort of a drug addict. I did finally tell her that it was "Black Rifle Disease". She comes from a family that is anti gun but since this is the only thing wrong with me they are happy.

She even gave me $500 in cash for my birthday to apply to my next firearms purchase.

I have been really busy so I haven't had much time to spend on the cannon but I did manage to turn the breech plate and cascable. I have welded it onto the cannon and polished it out. I plan on doing some more polishing tonight and maybe turning out the trunnions. I have decided to make the trunnions out of 1-3/4" stock and turn the ends down to 1-1/2" to leave a 1/8" step. I'll post some pics later.

I still can't decide on how to finish the metal. I was leaning toward Bluing but the polished metal is really starting to grow on me. It would need to be brushed, acid pickled or bead blasted to get the bluing to come out even so I don't know what to do.

seacoastartillery, in reference to bluing you mentioned: learn from our trials, failures and successes. What were the problems with bluing? were these problems associated with cold bluing? I use Dicropan IM which is a hot water bluing system and I have had very good success on other firearms that I have refinished but none of them were black powder guns. It always comes out very even after 4 or five applications with carding in between and a final carding and a dip in the water displacing oil. I have the tanks and chemical's for bluing and parkerizing already. Bluing is a lot of work, Parkerizing is much easier and painting is cheap but I am really liking the polished metal. I wish it was all stainless now. Since I am almost broke because of the impending wedding and honeymoon, I need something inexpensive.

m223, If you ever need help with the woodworking I would be glad to help

Tropico · « **Reply #13 on:** July 26, 2007, 01:16:35 PM »

That is about a magnificent looking barrel if I ever saw one. That's one seriously classy Muzzle . Good Show Man !

EL Caz 66 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 26, 2007, 01:48:44 PM »

Nice looking Gun... I guess we will have to wait just a little while for the end result $:-\$ ... I couldn't say you a good excuse for that... Just kidding ! Congrats ..

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #15 on:** July 26, 2007, 01:57:49 PM »

Fluxion, we do not have one inch of space left over in our shop, no room for a hot bluing set-up. So our problems were simply those of farming out this one and only process. After getting the word that our customers are not interested at all in cold bluing, we looked diligently for custom hot bluing services. We found two; neither one could do our barrel to our high standards. One had some shades of purple in the black color and the other had the shades of purple that the first guy missed! We brought our 45 lb., 4150 steel tube to a plater who does a lot of black oxide. The chief technician there said, "Temperature!" immediately upon seeing our purple beauty. After lots of re-polishing, we had the plater attempt it. BINGO!! Perfectly black, deep black. He has never failed, as long as we tell him the type of steel and the total weight. Only $ .50 per pound; like we said, inexpensive.

Good luck!

Mike and Tracy

Rickk · « **Reply #16 on:** July 26, 2007, 02:04:26 PM »

The company that does bluing for Thompson Center is right across the street from the place I work for (Fountain Plating, Interstate Drive, West Springfield, Ma, 01089), in case anyone needs production work done.

GGaskill · « **Reply #17 on:** July 26, 2007, 02:34:47 PM »

Purple tints in hot caustic blue jobs are indications of running the solution too hot.

Fluxion · « **Reply #18 on:** July 26, 2007, 02:48:25 PM »

seacoastartillery, so what kind of surface finish do you recommend for black oxide? I'll check into it tomorrow morning with our local plating shop.
I thought I had made up my mind to just parkerize it and be done but everyone in my shop except one guy says to finish polishing it and just keep it oiled. Will this keep it looking ok? I guess I could always refinish it later.

EL Cazador 66, I'll have more pictures up this weekend. I would rather work on my cannon but I unfortunately I can only work in an hour or so each day.

Tropico, Thanks for the compliment! I am just kind of making my own cannon taking details from other cannons that I like and integrating them all together in this one.

Here's a couple showing the breech end.

m223 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 26, 2007, 02:59:24 PM »

Fluxion, glad to see you back, Lance and I thought we scared you off. Have you considered getting your cannon powder coated? I know a guy here in North Topeka that works at P.T.M.W. They do production run powder coating and will let him put things in the run for free. One guy did his Harley cases and they turned out a real nice gloss black. I'm thinking of doing my golf ball mortar this way. If your interested I could probably set it up for you. Sad to to hear about affliction B.R.D. is a serious ailment, tragically the cure is worse than the disease. As a fellow sufferer of B.R.D. I try to keep abreast of the latest treatments. Turns out it is best to let it run its course. You are apparently at stage two, This is where C.M.D. rears its ugly head. Cannon & Mortar Disorder. This is great support group for stage two C.M.D. if you need Help with your B.R.D. you can always send me a personal message. After you get married and things settle down a bit maybe we can go do some shooting, Black powder or otherwise. Have a good one, Tracy (m223)

GGaskill · « **Reply #20 on:** July 26, 2007, 03:01:36 PM »

The better the polish before the blue, the better it will look after being blued. Black oxide and modern hot caustic bluing are basically the same thing and different from the true bluing jobs done by the major arms makers in the '20's and '30's.

lance · « **Reply #21 on:** July 26, 2007, 04:13:30 PM »

Fluxion, really like the new pictures,great looking work.........PLEASE help Tracy[m223], he is all over the forum saying bad things about wood.

Rickk · « **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2007, 04:20:10 PM »

wood is good. wood is good. wood is good.

It just takes a long time to get rid of the parts that arn't needed.

I would think that metal is even harder to get rid of excess parts but with metal, it seems like you wanna leave as much as possible.

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #23 on:** July 26, 2007, 05:24:43 PM »

Fluxion, we use 320 grit wet and dry paper for the finish, but your photos look like you have gone beyond that point already. The absolute secret to a good looking finish is to go progressively up to the smallest grit that you choose so that you remove all the deeper scratches from the previous grit. If you do this, you should have an excellent appearance after the black oxide, hot caustic blue process is done. If you prefer a brighter shine, go for it and remember that a highly polished surface will not show rubs as quickly as a 180 or 240 or 320 grit surface will. Like your new photos! No, just polishing it and keeping it "in the white" will not be a good finish unless you want to oil it weekly. Even here in Kansas or Colorado we have humidity to rust that type of surface in June, July and August. Good luck with whichever finish you decide on.

Mike and Tracy

Double D · « **Reply #24 on:** July 26, 2007, 05:36:36 PM »

It real hard to tell for sure but it looks like you have the polish job just right. 400 grit polish is the best. Follow Mike and Tracy's advice about progressive polish. Now here's the trick, learned many years ago in gunsmithing school and applied working in a big name custom gun shop and used in my shop. Get a carding wheel. The wheel has wire that is .005 in diameter. Wire wheel that entire gun. It will kill the reflective shine but won't affect the polish. Be sure you oil the wheel while polishing the barrel with the wire wheel. WD40 works real good for this application. Degrease and blue.

The finish you will end up with is just like that found on the Smith and Wesson revolvers. Beautiful!!!

Tropico · « **Reply #25 on:** July 26, 2007, 05:55:38 PM »

Quote

Tropico, Thanks for the compliment! I am just kind of making my own cannon taking details from other cannons that I like and integrating them all together in this one.

That's actually what Wes and I are doing on our project.

Looking good., I am impressed !!!

this is a great thread . I am very interested to see how this finish turns out.

Fluxion · « **Reply #26 on:** July 31, 2007, 08:55:29 AM »

I haven't had much time to work on this cannon due to work and the fact that my Fiance has been in the hospital for the past 12 days. She's back home now and I was able to spend a couple of hours on the cannon. I have finally added the trunnions.Here are a couple of pics, I still have a long way to go.

Rickk · « **Reply #27 on:** July 31, 2007, 09:39:19 AM »

Wowzer

Check out my "new project starting, carronade" for suggestions on the carriage, and the rear axle... to get all the wheels to touch down on th ground.

Rick

lance · « **Reply #28 on:** July 31, 2007, 12:17:34 PM »

looking good Fluxion......sorry to hear that your fiance has been in the hospital, wishing you both the best,Lance

Tropico · « **Reply #29 on:** July 31, 2007, 02:46:33 PM »

I have A L O T of work that needs done........., When will you be over?