Fully functional realistic mini canons

Yes....but without the cannon balls
some "bang" with smoke would be enough, not that the french navy would sink, when hit by such a ball
 
Everything has to be scaled for our guns and the initiation of the powder is the most problematic part of having guns that fire. In my Bounty kit I have brass guns that have about a 2 mm bored hole about 5 mm deep and about at 2.2 cm a transverse hole bored to mount the gun to the carriage. It should be no trouble to drill the bore out to the transverse holes and you can replace the mounting brass with a hollow tube instead. The hollow tube can be drilled out for a 2mm hole in the center to match the barrel bore if you are careful. This new gun mount needs to be registered to the barrel so the chamber lines up onto the guns bore on the inside. It also needs to be removable for cleaning. I will let you guys figure out how to do that.

Now that we have a chamber we can get some copper; tungsten or aluminum filament double it up and coat the wire with epoxy or something that will insulate the wire from each other and nip the doubled up end with a dike or cutter of some type. Connect the other ends to a electric wire and plug it into the wall and see if you get a hot spark. My E&M training is really old so I would start with batteries and work my way up to find the energy we want to imitate a hot spark. Depending on the filament type you use you can figure out with trial and experimentation what is best to use for creating a spark and how many charges it is good for. Whatever you use will degrade with use and so will have a lifetime that you need to determine.

The powder we can find in the caps of ammunition or you can make it yourself with some chemicals but I am not going to tell you how to do that because it is dangerous and should be done only after researching the literature. Ammunition caps are a lot safer and far easier to use. https://silo.tips/download/homemade-primer-course give you all ever need to know about initiators and what caps are good to use. powdervalleyinc.com has #10 Percussion caps (1000) for $44. I do not know if these are the ones to use but they look good on the net. Needless to point out that percussion caps are impact sensitive so when you are opening them use a sharp blade and cover your face with a shield just in case. Peal the case back and dump out the powder and use it to experiment with.

You can test fire the powder right there on the paper and see when your filament fires the powder if you want to fool around. But since containment increases the powder power I would recommend testing it in a barrel like normal. Of course both ends of your mounting tube has to be glued shut so the powder lies in the chamber you created above and the spark initiation has to be in contact with the powder. Put in a ball/tube of sawdust in the barrel over the charge just like they did for real back in the old times and Gently ram it home. Remember the cap powder is pressure sensitive. Now if done correctly your charge is isolated in the base of the cannon and a spark should initiate an explosion. The most important part is the containment of the charge. Just think of fireworks; it is no different.

While all of this could be fun to mess with just remember this stuff is dangerous and you have to be careful working with it. You are all on your own if you want to try it and I take no responsibility for and damage to you or yours if you screw up. It is all on your own if you want to try it.
 
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How about using cannons in Doc Blake’s gun station!

A real live fire demo from battle station diorama, just add a few scale crew members to it!
 
Kkonrath said:
How about using cannons in Doc Blake’s gun station!

A real live fire demo from battle station diorama, just add a few scale crew members to it!
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yes all I wrote would be good and usable for Doc Blakes gun model as well. everyting can scale up to his gun as well but if he has glued in the mounting posts then that would be a problem. Might be better to make a new modified gun if that it the case.
 
If these posts were put up in the UK, you wouldn't have time to boil an egg before an armed response unit kicked your door down.
 
hmm Seems like all good till it jams and Uh Oh...
I've see first hand when a jammed firearm explodes and what will do to a face!. Not Pretty.

Bit like a firework in a water pipe!.
 
Balac said:
. . . you can make it yourself with some chemicals but I am not going to tell you how to do that because it is dangerous. . .
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When I was around 11 years old one day our school teacher was absent so we got a substitute teacher. I guess his intention was only to make the teaching a little less boring. Either way, he told us how to make a smoke bomb from sugar and potassium nitrate. If that was all it would perhaps not have been so bad but the idiot also told us how to make an explosive (although not too strong) from potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal and pack it in a bicycle pump together with nuts and bolts and fix the piston handle with wire.

Of course a few of us boys felt strongly obliged to try it out. Already during the lunch break we (unauthorized of course) left the school and bought some potassium nitrate and sugar (at that time nobody would ask about the purpose). Pure luck we was not able to get our hands on bolts and nuts, sulfur, charcoal etc. during the short lunch break. Back at the school we mixed around 5 kg in a small container and lighted it. We covered the whole school completely in smoke and melted a very big hole in the asphalt in the school yard.

I don't know what happened to the substitute teacher but we never saw him again at our school.

An explosion can be defined as a loud noise, accompanied by the sudden going away of things, from a place where they use to be
 
paulv1958 said:
hmm Seems like all good till it jams and Uh Oh...
I've see first hand when a jammed firearm explodes and what will do to a face!. Not Pretty.

Bit like a firework in a water pipe!.
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Paulv1958; the powder in these caps which I suggest is very small and even if the Sawdust plug jams in the bore there is absolutely no way the charge will rupture the cannon. you would have to bore out the cannon so the cannon wall is on the order of the thickness of the cap container wall thickness (maybe 2-3 thousandth) before the charge will breach the wall. Even if you filled the brass cannon with caps and braised in a plate covering the cannon mouth and lit it off you would not breach the wall of the cannon. Not that I advocating doing anything of the sort but just saying hypothetically. I would imagine the braised plate would be blown off of the end or plugs at the initiation tube would be blown off. Using the pre bored cannon hole there is no danger of rupturing the 1-2 mm of cannon wall. It physically impossible.

Any contained force will act on its surrounding equally and so the weakest area will be breached first. In our case that would be the initiation tube plug or the sawdust plug.

In case there are some old military dudes out there that know about shaped charges, all I said above still apply's; the only difference is the shape of the explosive material. The shape charge explosive is shaped like a inverted cone as the explosion travels through the explosive material a detonation wave is created in the shape of the cone which acts like a spear point and extreme force is created and forced into a small area. Hence the shape charges ability to pierce armor.

Thank you for your comment paulv1958. I hope this clears up your concern.
 
Balac said:
Damn Jay----were did you get that from? That is a magnificent piece of engineering and water cooled as well but I can not think
of where you can put it that is fit for this site---HAhaha
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I used to help out at a gun shop but I didn’t want to be paid so they would give me guns and ammo.
 
That is an Awesome WWI gun! I am surprised they were able to buy that machine gun after the war. I would like to have a M60 which I used as gunner but no money and no income makes that impossibe. Oh well happy you have something hold off the herd if they come knocking. It is a great thing to have in your pocket for emergencies.
 
zoly99sask said:
Now we can install these on our ships,I would love to see a Victory fire them all in mini version ;):)

https://www.minicannontech.com/

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I tried using black powder once to blow up a fire ant nest. I filled the hole with powder, ran a line of it about a half meter (18inches) and bent over and lit it. Poof! Before I could even stand up, it all went up in a ball of smoke and flame. I couldn’t see. Everything was black. I felt of my face and noticed my sunglasses were on and covered with soot. My mustache, eyebrows, and hair in the front were curly from the burn. Did not try that again.
 
Balac said:
Damn Jay----were did you get that from? That is a magnificent piece of engineering and water cooled as well but I can not think
of where you can put it that is fit for this site---HAhaha
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Oh, this one is air cooled, no water jacket.
 
Jim J said:
Have had this thing for what seems like forever - a fully functioning .45cal. ships cannon. Now all I need is a ship to fit it.....lolView attachment 173930
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I have a boat you can mount it on. Only pic I have; lost them but it is a 2 masted bomb ketch 22 ft in length. The did on mount the masts in these pics. Love to shoot your cannon off it here in Wboat.jpgboat 1.jpgboat.jpgboat 1.jpgisconsin.
 
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