Small Mortar

[Dogdustr]

I have a piece of brass approx. 9"X3.25" and I'm interested in making a small mortar to shoot golfballs but have No idea where to start. I have a 9" Southbend lathe and a Clausing mill that I tinker with but would like to try something a little different.

[Cat Whisperer]

Dogdustr -

WELCOME to the board!

You're already off to a good start:  1. you have the material for the tube and 2. you've established the caliber.

NEXT:  start dreaming:

If I had my 'druthers I'd like to have ____________.

Mortar?  Union or Confederate.

It's long enough for a howitzer style.

Establish your priorities of what's the apple of your eye!

Some things are 'given' - powder chamber, thickness of material around the powder chamber, et al.

All the rest is what you WANT.

[Mohawk]

  I had an aquaintance in Nevada that had an old tow rope cannon, used on ships to fire a rope from on ship to another, and it was amazing watching it. He was using 24 oz beer cans filled with cement as pojectiles. That was cool!

[Victor3]

 "A little different" is good in my book. When I make something, I don't usually want it to be just a straight copy of something else.

 However, I've made a couple of cannons where I deviated quite a bit from historical designs. Now I wish I'd stayed closer to a traditional look.

 Here's one I'm still trying to figure out what to do with; made long before I knew much about these things...

[dan610324]

hi victor

that one is so ugly that its beautiful   

nice to see an real non conventional gun .

[leesecw]

With a bit of machining you might get that one to look like a british blakely