Beer Can Canon

[Scrounger]

Here you go, Buckshot. Buy it or build it...

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=69299&sid=e7693864e384a5b13f90862470b146f6

[Buckshot]

...........Oh I can build it :D !!!!!!!! I have a 18" long 4.5" diameter piece of 1045 HR steel sitting on the floor in the shop, and that is it's ultimate use. The problem is my steady won't swallow a 4.5" billit. I have to make one. Right now it isn't a major 'itch' I gotta scratch. It isn't going anywhere soon.

...............Buckshot

[Frank46]

Buckshot, kinda wondered how quick you'd respond to Scrounger's taunt. Darn your fast. I have the same problem with my jet 13x40. The steady rest isn't big enough to take the 3.5" diameter 14"long piece of brass that I have had for close on to 15 years
and wanted to make into a cannon. Will have to dig up some back issues of either home shop machinest or projects in metal. You could do a search using either hsm or village press to see if they had done such a project. As a matter of fact I think that they did. Oh yeah, when you get around to it, get the Traver''s Tool catalog. Frank

[kenjuudo]

Buckshot- I second the Travers Tool catalog, some of the best delivery and customer service out there.

jim

[Buckshot]

............Listen you guys, recommending new tool catalogs isn't going to do me any good, other then to make things even tougher! Do you realize how many things I NEED, and just HAVE to have? It's a mind boggeling number. For awile there I htought I was the sole support for the machine tool business in the Northern Hemisphere :D I've managed to throttle it back a bit, to maintain domestic tranquility.

.............Buckshot

[Johnch]

Do you know what kind of fun and trouble I could get into with that thing ?

In Highschool I made a golf ball cannon.
I had to sell it after I fixed the barn doors ,who would think a golk ball would go through 8 straw bales and a barn door and the back wall . [smilie=l:

Dad was PISSED , he was inside.

Johnch

[Scrounger]

Do you know what kind of fun and trouble I could get into with that thing ?

In Highschool I made a golf ball cannon.
I had to sell it after I fixed the barn doors ,who would think a golk ball would go through 8 straw bales and a barn door and the back wall . [smilie=l:

Dad was PISSED , he was inside.

Johnch

Was that with the Universal Load, 16 grains of 2400? :)

[Frank46]

Buckshot, well get the darn catalogs any way. You can always dream about the stuff you cannot afford. Sorta like the old sears catalogs. They didn't call them wish books for nuthin. Frank

[Buckshot]

............Frank, so what are you doing on your Jet? What are you using it for?

...........Buckshot

[Frank46]

Buckshot, right now nuttin. But I want to convert either an argie 1891 action to 35 rem. I also have a bbl vise but need to turn and bore some bushing first. I bought about ten feet of 2.5 dia aluminum rod for about $20 bucks. Guess they's a lotta bushings in that rod. I was like you with the travers tool, MSC and enco catalogs. A serious case of the gimmes. But had to slow down a bit. Plan on gettin douglas bbl for the argie. Have had it in action only form for ten years now so I think its about time I did something with it. Saw an 1891 in 7.65x53mm at local gun show. Bbl cut back and stock refinished. Asking price $200. No way jose. Frank

[Scrounger]

I'll bet if you said you were going to have that cannon at the next Winnemucca Shoot, there'd be an extra 5 or 10 guys show up. Probably with all the beer cans they'd saved as ammo for you...

[fourarmed]

I'm not sure I like the sound of this. I just came into a 12" Atlas lathe. Does the need for lathe accessories take precedence over the need for guns? That could be serious.

[KCSO]

in 1045 don't go over a 2 1/4" bore in 4.5 stock. By the time you get the sculpturing done and get your trunnions set in you will be down to about minimum wall thickness for a service load and a solid shot. I use 4140 and in a 3.5 blank I won't bore over 1.75. Find a set of old roller skates and you have the basis for your rest.

[Buckshot]

I'm not sure I like the sound of this. I just came into a 12" Atlas lathe. Does the need for lathe accessories take precedence over the need for guns? That could be serious.

I don't know about precedence, as guns are my first love however I've also always been a tinkerer and guns satisfied that to a degree. I also like nice tools, and there aren't much nicer ones then precision machine tools :D Lets just say that for about a year after getting my lathe, gun stuff took a distant backseat in funds expended?

I suspect that that one year time period saw me spend as much as I did in the first 5 years of having an 01 FFL. I wanted to be prepared! I may have been named God father to several children newly born to machine tool sellers on E-bay.

.............KSCO, I don't doubt your good advice. The moderator of the gunsmiting board on the Practical Machinists website is a cannon shooter. He said for a beercan morter (which is what I'm eventually gonna make) the bore should be 2.39" (I think that was it) which will leave the required 1/2 bore, minimum muzzle wall thickness. Regardless, he said that the medium carbon steel I'd bought is more then required and 1018-1020 would serve as well.

I'm not going to make this a model of anything. It will remain as is on the outside, except where I turn it a bit where the steady will run.

He also mentioned (who knows WHAT junk people have squirreled away?) that if I had or ran across any Alco Diesel locomotive axles or wheelsets, that Alco used an absurdly tough steel alloy for thier locomotive axles, and they make superb cannon barrels for smallbore breechloaders.

Don't happen to have any, do ya? Know where we can get some :-)?

................Buckshot

[Frank46]

Buckshot, Kisco, Accessories accessories, can't live without them. Like the jacobs chuck with #3MT taper shank, the royal cnc live center and a host of other stuff. When I first got the lathe it was like Christmas about once a month. But that interfered with me going to gun shows so a happy medium had to be arranged. But at present its too darn hot here even with the 3' fan. So will have to wait until october when it starts coolingoff. Get the catalogs as there are a bunch out there. The msc catalog is like a minature version of the thomas resgister. Don'tforget McMaster-Carr also. Speaking of diesel axles, we used to go to the railroad and get boxcar axles to make up boiler feed pump shafts. The cheif and about ten guys would load as many into the trucks, the railroad was happy to get rid of them. Frank

[Johnch]

Was that with the Universal Load, 16 grains of 2400?

I was to smart to start there I loaded 120 gr of 2f [smilie=l:

Johnch

[Buckshot]

.............John, I have a golfball cannon. Go to Castpics, then events, then Topaz, then Hardware. Not me shooting it, but it's there. Stainless steel, too!
Put in 150grs and 3 golf balls and they'd sail outta sight over the hill!

.............Buckshot

[fourarmed]

I started making chips in earnest this morning with mine, and I already have a long list of things I'm going to need if Enco will get their butt in gear and send me a new catalog.

[Willbird]

Actually I read an article where a guy used cro-moly tubing, .1" wall as I recall, with an aluminum sleeve over the breech end about 6"

He found that he could load all the BP he wanted and a beer can full of concrete and it's outside dims didnt change one bit, just got louder.

Bill

[HotGuns]

ahhhh yes...

shooting beer cans...

I'm kindof fond of doing that myself... [smilie=w:

http://photobucket.com/albums/b130/HotGuns/th_IMG_0523.jpg

heres one I made to do just that....

[Frank46]

fourarmed, When I first got my lathe all the money spent was for tooling and other lathe stuff. Never had the bucks for gun shows or new toys. So a command decision was made to split my monthly allowance (retired and on social security) between guns and the tooling. Seems as though there wasn't always enough money for either. But now I have most of what I need for the lathe so now have some money for the guns.
At first its like a catch-22 situation but eventually it gets sorted out after awhile. Now I have to get some sizer dies, gas checks, reloading dies and some more good "STUFF"
will it never end?. I sure hope it doesn't Frank

[Buckshot]

..........Hotguns, that is a very fine looking morter. Much nicer then my plans call for. Did you make it or buy it? What are the barrel OD and bore dimensions? WHat's the charge you use and the range?

..............Fourarmed, My problem (and it IS a problem) is twofold. First, if I get working on a project I don't want to have to stop because I need a tool or fixture. I figured the easiest thing to do was to anticipate projects and accumilate everything I thought I might need to do'em!

The other problem is the fascination with the 'Stuff'. To me the various cutters like end mills, reamers, and drill bits are like jewelery to some women. But more then that, what's so intensly interesting is how they were ground and the geometry of thier edges, flutes, relief angles, etc. The brilliance of their design is captivating.

..............Buckshot

[HotGuns]

Buckshot...

I made it, as a guide I used pictures that were posted on the Graybeard Outdoors Cannon and Mortar forum. Great pictures there.

It started life as a 5 inch peice of 4140. The bore is 2.625 which is a good sliding fit for a concrete filled pop can and I use 250 grains of FFg.
That will launch a can a bit over 200 yards. The carriage is made out of oak and the elevation adjustment is a piece of half inch all thread with a brass handle that I made.

Ive seen similar one that go for around 800 bucks. Ive got around 12 hours of time in it. It is a crowd pleaser...lots of noise and smoke.. :cool:

[Buckshot]

..........Hotguns, as I said (worth saying again) that's a very cool shooting mo-sheen :D I imagine it delivers a pretty good thump when it goes off, eh? All I have to do is to clear away some projects and work, so I can make a new bigger steady, so I can START it. Not like I can just go out there and chuck it up!

I just saw some pictures of a British model 1779, 3 pndr a guy had built full size. I forget the diameter of the billit of 1045 HRS he started with, but he had to use a sling and hoist to get it up on his lathe (which was a 11x24" Logan :-) He had to do the turning in a steady with the end off over the bed and then swap it around to do the other end.

When it came time to bore it he had found a 15x54" Leblond to use. He made his own spade bits. I think it is a 2.37" bore.

...............Buckshot

[HotGuns]

Buckshot...

One of the beautys of making a mortar is that is short enough that you dont have to use a steady rest.

I bored it out with a boring bar and put a 1.5 by 1.5 powder chamber in it which was done with a 1.5 drill bit. After that, I turned it around and used a radius cutting tool for the radius on the back, but you cant see it in that particular picture.

When I get bored, I'll ocasionally do small lathe projects. I've built some .50 BMG rifles, a .50 loading press,powder measure benchrest, spotting scope rail, a taper attachment for my lathe ,along with a 5c collet holder,toolholders, boring bars, and a radius cutter along with numerous reloading,sizing dies and all of the other little widgets needed for tinkering.

check out some of the stuff...
Machining projects (http://community.webshots.com/user/bob102759)

[Frank46]

Fourarmed, lemme see now, do I want to have more guns or start working on the ones I have?. Good question.I have a bunch of actions that I bought years ago when I lived in new york. (yes they sell guns there) I'd pick up an old beater w/ corroded bbl and usually get it for a decent price. Have moisin nagant, 1891 argie, 1895 chilean, P17 enfield, swedish mauser( you should see the machining rings on the receiver looks like grooves and was made by husqvarna) and a few others. So now that I finally have a lathe big enough I think its time to do something about it. But I still need some more tooling. Too darn hot to shoot right now and with all the places that used to have gun
shows being used for relief efforts thats as good as an excuse to get started. But along comes hurricane rita. So will have to see what happens. Frank

[Buckshot]

............Hotguns, don't know how this thread dropped off my radar! Just went and checked out your photo's. Nice stuff there. I need to win the loto so I can retire and spend my time on truly important stuff! Of course that means I'd have to buy a lottery ticket and in the 20 years they've had it here in Calif I'm batting 1000 in never having purchased one!

.............Buckshot

[Hairtrigger]

Am I the only one that remembers the old cannons made from pop or beer cans (with the pull tabs) duct taped together?
We used lighter fluid or white gas for propelent.
These cannons would shoot until the heat made the tape loose
Talk about the good old days

[smilie=p:

[waksupi]

Hairtrigger, we used to make those. They would crack pretty good, when you got the fuel/air mixture shook out right.