cat
read through the page that you linked me to and i like what i see: pretty simple :grin: the tube is a piece of pipe as opposed to a solid piece of stock which you turned from scratch, correct? i imagine that having someone do turning for me wouldn't be terribly cheap, so starting from pipe instead of stock would be the better way to go for me (right?).
assuming that it is pipe, is it similar to the materials supplied for the golfball mortar contest? could i construct one similar to yours from those materials (given that i could get turning and drilling done of course)
CU_cannon
thanks for your tips as well. for bolting the base on... your referring to what is in cat's link, right? this looks kind of handy... makes for easier cleaning and oiling and what not. i do own a drill press for drilling metal, so i could do this.
Double D
thanks for your concern for myself and others. about the beer can mortar, i think i'd be better off starting with a smaller bore, for price and safety sake (from what i've read, larger bore increases risk of a gun failure pretty decently). i'd rather go with golfball for now. o, and about not revealing your way of doing the golfball mortar without welding, if you could PM or email it to me, you have absolutely nothing to fear for me somehow outdoing you in the contest (haha i wish). All i'm looking for right now is reliability, simplicity of construction, safety, and fun
one more thing; i don't mean to sound pushy or anything, but what kind of distance could i expect to attain from one of these? I have read on plenty of sites and a few personal web pages about golfball mortars acheiving up to 400 yds. are these distances only safely attained with the mortars turned from solid steel, as opposed to the one in the link cat posted?