Author Topic: K.I.S.S. bowling ball mortar (Read 19716 times)

Double D · « **Reply #120 on:** September 13, 2012, 07:22:19 AM »

Wheels will be 36" to 38". I am getting them from Hansen's. The are going to dry the wood to 6% before they make them. They are in South Dakota and understand the issue of dry climate.

Double D · « **Reply #121 on:** September 14, 2012, 04:50:44 PM »

Remember this stuff?

Well I got it up here to warm dry Cut Bank and it got worse. I gave it to the neighbor for firewood.

Went to google and found Superior Hardwoods in Missoula.

Drove down this morning and picked up some new wood.

The down side was I had to buy the full length pieces. The up side was they had a chain so the 12 footer would fit the 8 foot bed on my pick-up.

Zulu · « **Reply #122 on:** September 14, 2012, 05:01:15 PM »

DD,
What kind of wood is it?
Zulu

Double D · « **Reply #123 on:** September 14, 2012, 05:55:55 PM »

Vertical grain fir.

GGaskill · « **Reply #124 on:** September 14, 2012, 08:01:42 PM »

Sorry to see that, but wood can be that way. I suppose that is why they used cast iron.

Ex 49'er · « **Reply #125 on:** September 14, 2012, 08:33:42 PM »

Cut Bank to Missoula and back is a fair drive. Hope you had other errands to take of whilst on the road. That mortar is going to be very impressive when it's finished.

What color are you going to paint the wood?

Double D · « **Reply #126 on:** September 14, 2012, 09:16:39 PM »

I have been research the color of British traveling carriages with out any luck yet.

Zulu · « **Reply #127 on:** September 15, 2012, 02:30:22 AM »

DD,
What happened to the first wood to make it bad?
Wood that size takes a long time to dry and a lot of the time will do what wood does. Split , crack and warp.
What will keep the new wood from doing the same thing?
I use Douglas fir in my concrete barrel carriages and experience it all the time. The wood is generally still wet when I get it and will rust the top of the table saw if I leave it sitting there overnight.
Zulu

KABAR2 · « **Reply #128 on:** September 15, 2012, 06:45:52 AM »

Quote from: Zulu on September 15, 2012, 02:30:22 AM

DD,
What happened to the first wood to make it bad?
Wood that size takes a long time to dry and a lot of the time will do what wood does. Split , crack and warp.
What will keep the new wood from doing the same thing?
I use Douglas fir in my concrete barrel carriages and experience it all the time. The wood is generally still wet when I get it and will rust the top of the table saw if I leave it sitting there overnight.
Zulu

Well air dried Walnut stock blanks have the end grain sealed with wax or other sealers to slow the drying process I suspect the part of the country where DD is has such low humidity that woods tend to dry out rather fast..... so unless you seal the ends it tends to crack and check....

Zulu · « **Reply #129 on:** September 15, 2012, 06:50:42 AM »

I go ahead and make my fir carriages anyway. Then just let them do whatever they are going to do. It actually adds to the character of these concrete guns.
Zulu

Double D · « **Reply #130 on:** September 15, 2012, 10:31:12 AM »

The first batch of wood I got, my friend in Idaho found from a good old boy road side sawmill. It was suppose to be cut from a standing dead tree that had been cut down and stack as a log for a couple of years...it was checked and end cracked when I got it. After cutting it and bringing it home is started coming apart.

I googled to find a specialty lumber supplier, preferably in Montana. I was looking for ash. I found Superior hardwoods and called them.

I told them what I was looking for, how big I needed and what it was going to used for. They said the cost of ash would very high, and difficult to find. I told them I would take fir but wanted dry, clear, no knots or cracks and vertical grain. They said they would find me something but could not guarantee 100% no knots or cracks in wood this big unless I wanted reclaimed old growth. The cost would 3 or 4 time or more than new cut. They looked for three weeks and finally called me. I went down yesterday and picked up. The tag on the end was dated 2009.

little seacoast · « **Reply #131 on:** September 16, 2012, 12:39:40 PM »

DD, The wood that you had previously looks to have a defect called "shakes" which is an internal defect of the log. The bottom right piece is a classic. I would strongly suggest that you look out in the shop and see if you have some old latex exterior paint. Use it liberally on the ends of your new timbers and on newly exposed ends as you cut it. Three years is not a lot of time for timbers that big to dry in the center. If it's kiln dried it may be OK but it sure won't hurt to seal the endgrain.

Double D · « **Reply #132 on:** September 17, 2012, 05:56:31 AM »

The wood is kiln dried...

1Southpaw · « **Reply #133 on:** September 18, 2012, 04:42:39 PM »

a friend who turns wood bowls says it takes one year per inch of thickness plus one additional year to air dry . Here in this area of Montana it is dry , low humidity country.
The bowl turner is in the Flathead country . He uses a microwave oven to dry wood , a little at a time , will not divulge the trade secret ;-) Recycled wood from old houses requires Pre drilling to prevent splitting when reusing for other projects . When I bought a grandfather clock kit , the pieces were all banded in a bundle , I left it 3 years under the pool table before cutting the bands and starting the project. It was straight , soon was assembled and finished to seal . Has been stable ever since.
Even Kiln dried wood from across the divide to the west will dry down and split on our side of the state if left unfinished.

Double D · « **Reply #134 on:** September 24, 2012, 04:33:13 PM »

Got the barrel drilled and tapped for the vent today.

Southpaw took the progress pictures.

My drill press is no where big enough to hold this, so we set it up on Southpaws drill press. We used a clamping set and made cradel to keep the tube from rolling and moving. If you have drill press, one of the clamping kits comes in real handy.

We used a cheepy "V" center finder to set up on TDC-more or less. Not critical. close is good enough, very close is better. Used dead blow hammers to make fine adjustments and get the trunnion level.

Then I started the hole with center drill.

I follow that with a 1/4" drill bit for pilot hole-drilling as deep as the drill bit would go. Drilled through with 27/64 tap drill.

Since the socket head screw is not threaded full length, I drilled the taphole out 1/2" to a depth equal to the un-threaded portion of the screw.

This relief hole helped to align my tap and make it square and reduced the amount of metal that actually needed tapped. The tap of course was too short to to pass all the way through, so I tapped as deep as I could go, then pulled the breech plug out and tapped the rest of the way through.

The Vent fit just fine.

Now to testing it.

Our normal procedure would have been of course to fire a charge, but I am a bit pressed for time. I am headed to Easton PA, Wednesday to attend the annual British Militaria Victorian Rifleman Provincial Shoot and need to get ready to go to that.

GGaskill · « **Reply #135 on:** September 25, 2012, 09:55:38 PM »

Not a valid youtube URL
What is the piece to the right that is bobbing up and down???

Zulu · « **Reply #136 on:** September 26, 2012, 02:05:02 AM »

I'm sure it's the trunnion.
Zulu

Double D · « **Reply #137 on:** September 26, 2012, 03:04:14 AM »

Yep, trunnion. The wood block came loose when I move it into camera range.

Double D · « **Reply #138 on:** October 16, 2012, 08:41:23 PM »

Got these wheels coming from Hansens...should be here next week

http://hansenwheel.com/store/product.cfm?cat_id=2&subcat_id=6&product_id=54

Double D · « **Reply #139 on:** October 22, 2012, 08:44:44 PM »

The wheels came today.

Thursday Southpaw and I are going to go to Lethbridge and hit the steel salvage yard and get the steel for cap squares and axle.

Need to start thinking about the pole.

Double D · « **Reply #140 on:** November 12, 2012, 04:30:03 AM »

Gents all my cannon projects are hiatus for a 12-16 months.

Double D · « **Reply #141 on:** April 10, 2013, 06:23:04 AM »

The project may be on hiatus, but the research continues.

Sometime back Carronader sent me this jpeg and it is my inspiration to build a carriage for my bowling ball mortar.

I have been working with this drawing to develop the construction features to use to build my base. Some things about the base have eluded me, such as cross bolts to hold the two base pieces together.

I have learned the source of the drawing is British Smooth-Bore Artillery: A Technological Study by David McConnell. I was able to find a copy of the book on www.ABEBooks.com and it is on the way to the house.

While researching the source I learned the plate was was acquired from the archives of Firepower! The Museum of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich. I sent them an inquiry and they sent me this.

The actual jpeg they sent me will print out at 36" x 24".

Here is the various views broke out.

flagman1776 · « **Reply #142 on:** April 10, 2013, 07:22:08 AM »

Very interesting!
Thanks for sharing.

Double D · « **Reply #143 on:** July 24, 2022, 05:38:08 AM »

I thought I would close this post out as I have completed this project. It started here on the original GBO and was carried over and finished off on the newer GBO.

Boards have been slow lately--to many people hung up Facebook style social media. These boards were the predecessors. I am here most every day except when fishing, hunting or traveling to see the grandkids.

All my pictures in this thread were lost last year because of the Cloud fire in France that wiped out my photo host.

My goal was to use this mortar to launch a bowling ball one mile. I accomplished that in 2017 sending a 15 lb ball 1.14 miles down range.

And here I am with a couple other mortars I built using this technique.

billy_56081 · « **Reply #144 on:** July 24, 2022, 07:39:09 AM »

Very cool.

ulav8r · « **Reply #145 on:** July 24, 2022, 02:03:41 PM »

Plese don't close it until you load the final drawings, as built. I did not see any of the originals as I wasn't reading the cannon forum at that time.

Double D · « **Reply #146 on:** July 25, 2022, 02:13:15 AM »

Right now, I do not know where the original drawings are. The were loaded into my photo host that was destroyed in the Cloud fire.

I have a couple of back up hard drives but have not found the drawings there.

There was a complete drawing set for the barrel and an outline drawing of the base. Nothing for hardware.

If I come across them, I will post them.

ulav8r · « **Reply #147 on:** July 25, 2022, 04:51:25 PM »

Thanks for looking.

Double D · « **Reply #148 on:** July 26, 2022, 02:59:06 AM »

Keep watching here. It won't be soon as i have to dig out the old laptops from where I think they are.

Double D · « **Reply #149 on:** May 14, 2023, 03:06:21 AM »

I am going to be firing Seeppot On the Round Rock Ranch near Tishomingo, OK, May 19th at noon. Want to watch, come on down.

This going to be a photo session in preparation for selling.

Want to buy Seeppot come on down and bring a pocket full of cash.

Be sure to click on this first link.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fPlnAR35iPY?feature=share

https://youtu.be/EWa8KiDTK6U

https://youtu.be/qua40HSbIs4

https://youtu.be/3Dn2MdGz1Mg

This shot sent a 16 lbs bowling ball a measured 1.04 miles down range.

https://youtu.be/OSdMKjf1PMo