Golf ball mortar range day.

[Double D]

Wife and I drove up today to the Taft Estate and had lunch with Southpaw and his bride.  After lunch it was golf ball mortar shooting  time.

Here is some stills.  I am working on some videos.

[GGaskill]

Where is the platform?

[Double D]

The GB mortar I am currently using has a powder chamber that is 5/8 in diameter by .850 to the bottom of the drill point.  The chamber hold 85 grains of Fg.  today I did some preliminary testing with golf balls and steel balls for building 30 yard range tables.  I have some numbers to work of with. 

30 grains Fg sent the golf ball 10 yards.
40 grains FG- GB's went 20 to 35 yards.
45 grains FG-GB went 40 to 50 yards.
85 grains Fg-GB went 390 feet and few inches
85 grains FFFFG went 156 feet.

40 Grains FG steel ball went 10 yards
50 grains Fg steel balls went 20-25 yards
60 grains Fg  steel balls went 40 yards.
85 grains Fg steel ball went 126 feet
85 grains FFFFG steel ball went 114 feet.

85 grains Fg golf ball


85 grains FFFFg golf ball


85 grains Fg Steel ball


85 grains FFFFg steel ball



George I knew the steel ball shots would slide the mortar off the platform...sounds better than I for got it.

[Double D]

I have been asked about problems with gas leaking around the breech plug   and out the back of K.I.S.S. design.



The breech plug was designed so the step between the two diameter breech plug met a step in the two diameter barrel.  The breech plug minor diameter section  is .005 shorter the the major diameter ID section of the barrel.  The two screws of the trunnion pull the breech plug down tight against step sealing the bore.

Carbon and gas do penetrate the front section of the breech plug, but there is no indication the gas is passing the sealing ring. The K.I.S.S. design is also intended to be easily  disassembled.  I confess I sometimes settle for  a good hose down and  oiling  and don't take it apart to clean.  I took the gun apart tonight,  The rear section has some surface rust from moisture that get in.  The front section has some carbon build up.  The seat section  is bright and shiny for the tight contact fit.

I had some concern that this contact section might get battered  and compress from firing.  The sign of that would be a loose trunnion or trunnion screw and have yet to find that.  

[GGaskill]

If you were willing to give up the disassembly feature, you could probably seal the joint with the penetrating Loc-Tite.

[dan610324]

thats very strange that the 4fg powder gave a shorter range than the fg
as its such a short barrel I thought a faster burning powder would give a longer range
in theory a faster burning powder should have the posibility to release more of its power and gases before the ball leaves the barrel .
but it seem that theory and real life isnt the same 

exactly what bore diameter was it on the barrel used in the test ??

[Cat Whisperer]

That last pix in your first post of the thread is a definite calendar COVER!

 

[Double D]

thats very strange that the 4fg powder gave a shorter range than the fg
as its such a short barrel I thought a faster burning powder would give a longer range
in theory a faster burning powder should have the posibility to release more of its power and gases before the ball leaves the barrel .
but it seem that theory and real life isnt the same 

exactly what bore diameter was it on the barrel used in the test ??

1.75 is used in the K.I.S.S. mortar for bore.

[Double D]

thats very strange that the 4fg powder gave a shorter range than the fg
as its such a short barrel I thought a faster burning powder would give a longer range
in theory a faster burning powder should have the posibility to release more of its power and gases before the ball leaves the barrel .
but it seem that theory and real life isnt the same 

exactly what bore diameter was it on the barrel used in the test ??

Dan if you look at the videos you wall also see the the FFFFG loads give stronger recoil.   

[dan610324]

cant open your videos , dont know why

[Double D]

Try these Dan...and let me know if you can open them.

85 grainsFG Golf ball


85 grains Fg steel ball


85 grains FFFFg golf ball


85 grains FFFFg steelball

[Double D]

If you were willing to give up the disassembly feature, you could probably seal the joint with the penetrating Loc-Tite.

George, I have been thinking about this all morning.  Without going back to the original post the concept was to build the mortar as simply as possible with the minimum machining and simple assembly.  Simple assembly produces side benefit in simple disassembly for ease of cleaning. 

What loctite product were you thinking of?

This disassembly step is nice to have but really isn't used that much so you idea about sealing the seam might be more practical.  When I hop on my bike and go check the mail I may swing NAPA and see what they have.  I think Permatex makes a product for gasketing muffler systems. 

I don't remember what The Seacoast Guys used on the Monstre Mortar.  M&T- Victor what was that stuff you guys cam up with.

[Zulu]

Try these Dan...and let me know if you can open them.

85 grainsFG Golf ball


85 grains Fg steel ball


85 grains FFFFg golf ball


85 grains FFFFg steelball

DD,
These are the first videos you have ever posted that I have been able to open.  Those others always lock up my computer for some reason.
Thanks,
Zulu

[dan610324]

yeah now I can open them

[Double D]

My apologies to those of you who have had problems with my video's in the past.  These second set were linked as WMV.  The first set were linked as MPG4.  WMV is the basic old school protocol. 

I am always preaching to everyone to remember the folks with the older computers when they post. I failed to practice what I preached. 

I will do better.

[jeeper1]

Double D, although I was able to see your first set of videos I had to replay each one to see it because they need a two to three lead time before they fired. They showed up in Quick time which loads the sound faster then the video. I'd hear the shot before there was a picture to see. So to see them I had to replay them. 

[GGaskill]

Yeah, I would add about a second to the front too.

[Double D]

I also cut them down a bit to short.  Each is 2 seconds long.  I will try a three second cut

Which is easier to open and view.

Number one High quality X264



Number two Standard quality WMV



Number three original upload

[dan610324]

WMV is the only one I can see

[Double D]

WMV okay.  How about the length is that better also?  3 seconds gives one second pre shot and one second post shot and still is not so big that it is a big up load and down load.

[GGaskill]

Length is good.

[jeeper1]

The length is better.
The first had the largest picture size.
The third was slightly smaller than the first and both were at least double in each dimension to the second. The second took longer than the others to open. 

[Double D]

While we are learning here....

Here is another format called WMV-Broadband

Number one High quality X264



Number two Standard quality WMV

 

Number three original upload



Which format is better.

[Zulu]

#2 or #3,
1st one doesn't work for me.
Zulu

[dan610324]

2 and 3 is good
I cant see any difference in time loading them

isnt it anyone else who can tell their experiances from gb size mortars ??
weight powder charges ??
granulation size ??
chamber size , volume and shape ??
distances achived with the loads ?? both golf balls and fox balls is interesting to know

[Double D]

Okay, note to self, when creating video for the board  create the as WMV-broadband minumum one second lead in-lead out.  Post as standard WMV.  Got it. 

When you are shooting your cannons, sometimes things happen that you don't see.  Check out this croquet shot of this steel ball.
 



Series of shoots.