3/4 inch bore mini cannon (with video)

[nc527]

Hey guys, Just finished my mini cannon today. I made the barrel yesterday and the frame today. The best part about this cannon was the price. It only cost me 7 bucks to build! like 3 for the metal, 1.50 for the the cap and then like a dollar for the frame wood. its a breech loaded cannon so i got threaded pipe and cap. it also has a pivot in the middle. the barrel is made from black steel. uses blackcats as propellent. this cannon look realy good to me atleast. as always, leave comments on how i did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2S494VoVo0

[Double D]

Well it looks like you were thinking when you built. I know you said this a firecracker cannon, but I don't think I would have used the materials you did.  We general don't consider pipe of any type as safe for cannon use.  I don't see where pipe would be any safer in a firecracker cannon.

So guys you have any ideas for nc527 to upgrade and make his fire cracker a bit safer?

[seacoastartillery]

     NC527,  take a look at all the ideas presented in the Nano Mortar thread.  If you have access to an electric drill and a file you can make a pretty nice one.

Regards,

Tracy and Mike

[Double D]

Good Idea M&T,  NC527 search the Cannon forum for Nano mortars and you will come up with some designs you can make that a good deal safer than using pipe.

[Ex 49'er]

NC527 might have built this as a firecracker cannon; but, somebody else could come along
in the future and load it with powder & ball and it will become a bomb. NC527, scrap the barrel
and start over using the previous suggestions of Seacoastartillery and DD.

[nc527]

Just from curiosity, why do you guys hate pipe so much? Im using black STEEL piping. I know that i cant use anything but firecrackers in this for 2 reasons. 1- My father does'nt mind my pyrotechnics as long as i dont ask for too much... A can of bp would be too much. 2- I have the pivot in this cannon going straight in the cannon. I real'y don't care about launching marbles 100 yards. This cannon is simply a firecracker "salute" cannon for showing off and ill use it on New Years eve. If I ever get into anything more then firecrackers, Ill use a solid piece of bronze or steel, and then just drill it out with the drill press. btw could som1 perhaps provide me with plans for a nano mortar OR cannon. last things last, and i would like to know if I can use a m-80 is this cannon? Correct me if im wrong but isnt a m80 just a big firecracker? and yes i know that m80s blow hands off. I think it could stand the m80 but i was wondering what you all thought as I am only 11. I just finsihed the cannon today and the biggest load ive used was 2 firecrackers with the wick intertwined. it worked fine with that. I also think it would be cool to take the cap off the cannon, then shove a roman candle init so the balls from the candle shoot out the barrel. Overall i build a preaty good cannon though? O and thanks for the advice ex 49r, i changed the video to private so i have lawsuits against me(:

[GGaskill]

A lot of the pictures had disappeared from the Nano mortar thread the last time I looked at it.

[BoomLover]

nc527, these guys don't hate pipe so much, they just know that it is not for making any type of cannon or mortar. It's called "the voice of experience", and if you read the posts they are suggesting, you can 1) learn a lot, and 2) save yourself and others a lot of grief later on. Like as has been said earlier, and continues to be the main theme of this forum, "Safety First!" Please do yourself and your parents a favor, follow the advice you can get here, (free by the way), and learn to do it right! We would love to welcome you to the forum, but we also want you to stick around a while! BoomLover 

[GGaskill]

Just from curiosity, why do you guys hate pipe so much?

You should look up the strength of ordinary pipe on the internet.  It isn't very high.  Only the small sizes are even rated above 1000 psi.  We figure that pressures in shot-loaded artillery (black powder, the kinds that are built here) are at least 10,000 psi.  That is not the kind of relationship we like to see.

An M-80 is also known as an artillery simulator; they are quite powerful.  I do not recommend putting one in a piece of water pipe.  But if you are bound to do this, pile up some sandbags around your piece of pipe with the M-80 in it so if the pipe bursts, you will not have fragments flying around at high velocity.  Let us know what happened.  And remember, just because it didn't burst the first time doesn't mean it won't burst later.  If you haven't done the engineering math to prove it is OK, one test does not prove it is OK.

By the way, the simple answer to your question is that we don't want accidents, injury and death associated with this hobby.

[Double D]

We don't hate anything.  We just know what is safe and what isn't

We do know that firecrackers generate pressure.  Black steel pipe does not have strength just becasues it is steel.  Pipe is made by forming flat plate into a tube and welding the seam. If you look very closely at the interior of the pipe you may see a slight ridge running the length of the tube.    This weld is a weak point

You have to two other weak points in your build.  The threaded cap.  The thread cut into the wall of the pipe and reduces the bursting strength and in case of high pressure threads can fail.   You have also drilled a hole all the way through the pipe for your trunnions.  This  weakens the piple  and the trunnion can catch the the firecracker debris and act as obstruction and increase pressure.

I don't know what the rating on the pipe is that you using is,  Most like 100 to 200 psi.  The firecracker generate substantially more pressure.  

Every year we see news reports about "cannons" built from pipes exploding and injuring people.  For this reason I don't think you built a very good cannon at all.

We aren't going to try an talk you out of making a firecracker cannon.  We are going to try help you build a good safe cannon. I myself think firecracker more dangerous than black powder. But I also under stand your dads point ove view, I have been both a kid and a dad in my lifetime. My dad would have never let me have firecrackers let alone a can of blackpowder, my kid on the other hand had only to ask.  My dad did what he knew and and I did what I knew.

The fact you can get two fire crackers in your pipe at once tells me your tube is way too big any way.  If you build a cannon with a tube that the firecracker just slips in it will work better and be louder.

At the top of this forum you find a tool bar that has SEARCH on it. Click on search and open the search window. When the search window opens type in firecracker cannon or nano mortar and click search.  You will get a hit list that give you a list of post to read. Several of the guys tell how the built firecracker cannons in those post


You may also notice that this group of old guys are not saying. "Hey kid don't do that, you are going to get hurt".  Nope we aren't saying that.  What we are saying is, "Hey kid do it this way and you won't get hurt and you'll have bunch fun also."

[Victor3]

 nc527,

 If you're really 11 years old, could make any kind of a cannon like you're describing, can do a video and make a post here about it, you're quite an advanced young man. Your writing skills would have had me guess you're at least 16.

 I wish I had a safe firecracker barrel laying around here I could give you to replace the one you made. I'd mail it to your Dad for free (if I could talk to him first, of course).

 You might look on ebay and have your Dad bid on one for you. Safe firecracker barrels come up on ebay regularly for not too much money.

 Please be safe with this kind of stuff. Me and the other guys on this board are able to post here because we SURVIVED childhood. Others did not, are blind, or missing their typing fingers because they didn't play safe...

[Cat Whisperer]

Good advice thus far.

I made many a firecracker cannon when I was in HS out of pipe.   

I then graduated to using home-made blackpowder.

Yes, I blew up a few.

Steel pipe is made from a flat strip rolled and welded.  It has a very low pressure rating.  Black iron pipe is used primarily for natural gas applications (where the hydrogen sulphide put into gas to make it smell will attack the galvanizing and make it flake off).  Gas pressures are typically a few OUNCES.

SO, looking for another ready source of materials, check the local machine shops for "rounds" or "ends" of steel or brass.  Brass is MUCH easier to work with if you have limited tooling.  Some hardware and farm supply stores have some basic shapes of materials as well.  Golly gee - come up with a design and someone here might even donate some scrap for you to use.   

[Cannoneer]

nc527,

 When I was a teenager in Chicago, the city works distributed 55 gallon steel drums for use as residential garbage cans, and one of our favorite "sports" was dropping an M-80 into the can, then jumping up and standing on the steel lid. When the M-80 blew it would split the can open from the bottom rim to the top rim; you do not want to blow off an M-80 in a pipe, as this would be extremely dangerous. M-80's are very powerful explosive devices!

[nc527]

Thanks for all the info guys. I was wondering what you all think about my carrige assembly? If its all right, I could simply make a way smaller carrige of the same design. My biggest problem will be finding a solid of milled piece of brass. could anyone perhaps have some small scraps or somthing left over, as cat whisperer suggested?

[Double D]

The Carriage looked pretty good actually.  Score points for simplicity and function.

[dan610324]

Im sorry I was to late to this post , Im not able to see it since its set to private .
would have been very interesting to look at this cannon ( pipe bomb )

when I was just a few years older then you are , then I also made some stupid things , but I had some luck and survived without any large damages .

but now when you have been smart enough to contact this forum I hope you will follow the advice you got here .
I wish I had the same advises when I was young , but I hadnt  ;-)

cannons are really fun , but please think safety first .

I understand it can be frustrating to be 11 and get all this negative feedback ,
BUT NOT ANYONE HERE DO IT TO BE A PAIN IN THE neck TO YOU .

we just do it to help you to not be one number in the statistics ,
if you read the newspapers and maybe look at the news sometimes you probably seen something about cannons blowing up .
most of them are typical pipe "cannons" , probably very similar to the one you produced .
I would use another name on them , one end open pipe bombs .

please understand that they are not safe .

I got an small advice for you :
call Irishman or Dom Carpenter , both are sponsors of this forum .
tell them that you want to buy an cheap firecracker cannon , but your model must be with the touch hole comming out straight backwards with an extremely small angle cone in the bottom of the bore to guide the fuse from a black cat . if you can give them an evidence of you being only 11 I would guess you can have an youth discount  
ok I can also understand that its fun to build by yourself , but if you buy an barrel you can put some more effort to build an really beautiful carriage .

I cant blame you of doing what you do as I have done similar things myself .
but I can help you to understand what is safe and whats not .
ok I know that Im an old fool in your eyes maybe .
but I would like to ask you one question now and I hope you will reply .

DO YOU WANT TO KEEP ALL YOUR FINGERS , EYES AND LIFE FOR A WHILE ??

sorry that I cant comment your carriage as I wasnt able to see the video .

[nc527]

I have changed the video back from private so you can all now see the cannon. I also added a nice big disclaimer to my video.

[dan610324]

sorry but I still cant see it , just an red label telling its private

[GGaskill]

sorry but I still cant see it , just an red label telling its private

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