Lead sinker mold worked as suggested!

[Smithy]

Thanks to all the folks suggesting I purchase a Palmer 1# sinker mold for my golf ball cannon. I lucked into one on Ebay for not too much and was in "like new condition". The size is going to be just perfect as well, however I don't know when my next cannon shoot will be happening? as there are no places locally to shoot such a gun.

What I'll do in the interim is to display my cannon with a pyramid of cannon balls. I got two 8" square pieces of steel, rounded the corners and used a .6" margin. I then center punched a checkerboard pattern with each punch being 1.7" apart. Those were drilled out to 1/2", polished, primed and painted satin black. This will allow for a four sided pyramid with squares as the number of balls per level. The bottom resting in the holes of the steel plate will be 25, then 16, then 9, then 4, and finally one on top. What I'm not sure of is the period method of stacking cannon balls. Was it a four sided pyramid as I've done or was it a three sided pyramid?

At least mine works. The plate holds the bottom row perfectly and with it's shallow margin, it's barely noticeable and just looks like a stack of cannon balls. That and with two stacks, when I am able to shoot it for real, I'll have 110 cannon balls to start with. Smithy.

[MBTcustom]

Do a google search for "canon ball pyramid" it has been done both ways throughout history.
When I was a kid, my parents drove the whole fam-damily out to Gettysburg and I could swear those balls were stacked in a three sided pyramid.

[Jim]

HERE (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcstrahler/3383689134/) is a photo of a four sided stack next to a civil war mortar in Charleston, SC.

[Wayne Smith]

You made a monkey! Originally wood, then brass. Thus originating the saying "Cold enough to freeze the balls (iron) off a brass monkey".

[Mooseman]

I am glad you found that C.Palmer Mold !
I Monkey mine in the 6-3-1 Pyramid....I just tacked 3 strips of wood 1/4 "x 1/2" in a triangle the size to hold 6 balls on the rear deck of My Mortar cannon I left in Fla.. It works for display only.

Rich