Building a Cannon anybody ever do it??

old · Mar 21, 2013

Well the boy just came home with what he wants us to use to build a cannon. Piece of heavy as in 3 inch thick walled pipe with a 2 inch bore about 4 foot long.
So any body have plans for one??
Thanks

John Diercks · Mar 21, 2013

DON'T DO IT!!!
Had a friend KILLED in college doing just that!

RickieBlue · Mar 21, 2013

Here is a little something..........
Click here

Cold Beer · Mar 21, 2013

Friend has one slightly bigger, he buys bowling balls at rummage sales for ammo. Be surprised how far those suckers will go.

old · Mar 21, 2013

This one will maybe throw a base ball but not something as big as a bowling ball. But yes understand they can shoot a long ways

danmcdonald · Mar 21, 2013

I built one years ago it shoots 1" ball bearings.Its fun but pricey to shoot.

dr sportster · Mar 21, 2013

Ductile iron pipe Maybe--- Steel pipe grenade! [See first post below]

Mike (WA) · Mar 21, 2013

Something thats fun but maybe a little less dangerous is a potato gun- Black ABS pipe, removable lower end, and an igniter. Push spud into the business end; unscrew lower cap and spray some hair spray into it; screw lower end back in, push ignitor, spud goes downrange smartly.

jm. · Mar 21, 2013

We are kinda fortunate here. The National Park Service is here to service civil war park but as part of that operation there is a full time shop of three guys and they can build cannon replicas that really have the look. Not sure what they turn the barrels out of but watching them make the old spoke wheels is neat. I like the idea of making a potato gun myself, lot saffer.

oliver power · Mar 21, 2013

I just come off a job where the home owner made two cannons. They shoot golf balls. He also made a log spliter, which splits logs up to 12' long. The log spliter has barbs on one end. It gets hammered into one end of the log. Add powder, hammer it a little more in order to tighten up powder, and light the fuse. He claims one time he split a log 36" in diameter. Myself, I'd be standing behind another tree of good size.

Goose · Mar 21, 2013

I forget where it was, but there was a cannon on display in a public park as a relic. Some guys figured out the bore was exactly the size of a cue ball.

They loaded that sucker up and fired it. The cue ball left the park, crossed a four lane Interstate, went through the window of a high school and embedded itself in a blackboard in the front of a classroom.

Luckily, school wasn't in session at the time.

hd6gtom · Mar 21, 2013

yep used to shoot old oil filters They would burn out in the air, kind of cool on a damp night. think you need a thicker wall though.

aarolar · Mar 21, 2013

I have never personally built one but I did build one for a guy at work once I even wrapped the wagon wheels he built to pull it around on. He was telling me when he tried it out he parked it on the edge of a 100 acre field and put what he thought was a "light load" in it. The projectile was a soup can filled with concrete and the last he saw of the can it was clearing the 20 year old pines on the other side of the field and gaining altitude. :lol:

Paul from MI · Mar 21, 2013

#1--DON"T Pipe is welded tube, not rated for that kind of pressure-You are looking a 35,000 psi or more. There's an article today about a guy that makes reproduction cannons for display at National parks, etc. They appear to be machined from solid.

GREGinMO · Mar 21, 2013

I always wanted to build a small cannon out of cummins n-14 wrist pins. They look about the right size to shoot c cell batteries...never got around to trying it, though, and that's probably a good thing!

Dennis (VA) · Mar 21, 2013

Way back when I was a kid in the mid 1950"s, a neighbor across the road was in the chain link fence business. He had lots of pipe laying around. So as kids some time do, we thought it would be fun to make a bazooka as the next step up from pipe bombs. We took the small CO2 cartridges, drilled out the cap and stuffed them with paper match heads, loaded the tube to see what would happen. Well, the cartridge went about 300 yard and ended in the school yard. After a while we thought, we should try gun power from shot gun shells. First and only one went off like a bomb and scared the heck out of us and ended the bazooka experiments. We moved to rockets. Surprisingly we all survived our youth. Still love to have a cannon.

SDE · Mar 21, 2013

In machinist class, a guy built one that would shoot 12 gauge shells. He had ribs that went around the barrel and had the welding class braze them so that the barrel was black and gold. They went out the back door of the school shop and shot it off. It scare the crap out of one guy who was in the shop using a lathe. The instructor figured out real quick that they got lucky that Tom didn't get hurt.
It was machined out of solid stock.
SDE

old · Mar 21, 2013

This is not welded type pipe but some other such thing. When I first saw this stuff at the steel place I made a comment about cannon barrels and the gal there said yep we have a lot of them.

VADAVE · Mar 21, 2013

Do search on punkin chuckin. Probably won't provide plans but will give you plenty of ideas. They use air power to throw pumpkins a really impressive distance.

Oliver662011 · Mar 21, 2013

I would build a air cannon if I was you. Use cutting torch bottles to build a air supply and a quick release valve, then just pick a barrel about one to two in thick of your diameter of choice.
Mike

Chris in SK · Mar 21, 2013

Cannon isn"t really practical for deer hunting. Maybe use the tube to make a bazooka. Just remind me your location so I can stay clear.

Bryan inIowa · Mar 21, 2013

instead of powder we used actelene and oxygen . Worked REAL good !

Badger bob · Mar 21, 2013

yup rickieblue thats the one that i was thinking about. bob

Bill in IL · Mar 21, 2013

Sure did. Split some 3/4 think walled tubing with a cup of powder. Made a heck of a bang would love to make another some day but use less powder. Used to blow the slug off the end often before I figured out how to weld. Never had the guts to stand anywhere near it for some reason.

Mark-Mi · Mar 21, 2013

I have a mortar that will fire golf balls. Dump in two 45 caliber pistol casings of coarse black powder and it will send the golf ball up out of sight if your lucky enough to see golf ball going up.

redtom · Mar 21, 2013

Did you ever see the CO2 cartridge in the big 30? lb Ansul fire extinguishers? they're a round cyl with a thick foil on the end that gets pierced when you slam the lever down to activate the extinguisher. Well, they can be dropped into a "mortar" made of pipe with a pointy nail weld inside the end and "voila" out comes a cylinder projectile. Which one time went accross a large plant during the night, through an office window, and into a wall. Had three shifts then so carpenters sneaked over and replaced glass and cleaned up and moved portrait on wall to cover hole. Ta Da! no one knew.

JDB · Mar 21, 2013

Maybe grape shot for deer?

D beatty · Mar 21, 2013

I had time on my hands years ago and built two cannons . On is a 12 gauge bore and the other is a 410. Both were turned and bored out of a solid piece of steel and drilled to use cannon fuse. I use black powder but are built heavy enough to use silver powder.

ben there · Mar 21, 2013

Built one in jr. high metal shop class years ago.Turned it out lathe and my teacher helped me heat treat it in furnace.Still got it around here somewhere.Shot all kind of powder but no projectiles.3/8" bore out of 1.5" cold rolled tapered like a real cannon.NOISY SOB!

Richard from SE AZ · Mar 22, 2013

Never built a cannon but myself and two friends made hand grenades out of CO2 cartridges that worked REALLY well. Still have one.

ohiojim · Mar 22, 2013

i've been there, i used a 4 foot peice for the barrel that had a 1 3/4 bore, shot golf balls but were highly inaccurate, went to a 1 pound lead ball that was highly dangerous with mega penatration, just be sure the pipe you use can withstand more then the 100,000 pounds pressure that black powder can generate, i used the front wheels off an amish buggy and 4 ich square tubeing for the carriage, used 800 grains of 1 F pyrodex, also had the local machinist make a threaded plug for the breech so cleaning was a snap....

Bill Radford · Mar 22, 2013

Dont want to be a party pooper BUT:
In this post 911 day of hyperactive federal agencies trying to justify their budgets....
I would make sure that whatever I made is not in violation of ATF regulations and would not be regarded by them as a weapon of mass destruction.
The Atlanta big-house is not a very pleasant place to spend 5-10 if you know what I mean.

GeneMO · Mar 22, 2013

Rich, where can I get some of that steel?

I have a 1" bore, made out of some heavy walled tubing. Generally just shoot newspaper wadding, makes a heck of a boom.

We have shot C cell flashlight batteries out of it.

We have loaded it up real heavy, light the fuse and hid behind trees. Kinda a proof testing.

I never really trust it though. I always place it behind a tree and take cover myself. Use a long fuse, gives a minute or so delay and time to take cover.

Just be careful.

And I did (dumb like) call the BATF back when I made this. They had no problems with it then, but that was prior to 9-11 and they may have changed their tune now. Best to not talk to them.

Gene

old · Mar 22, 2013

Well if you ever get back down this way the place is called Dam Steel I think and it is at the junction of old Hwy 5 and south hwy 7 about 4 miles from my place if not closer. They have a lot of the stuff from small bore up to probably bowling ball size and all thick walled

Chris in SK · Mar 22, 2013

Not sure if you want to fire projectiles or just want it for show and noise? If you just want a big bang, you could maybe look for one of the old bird scarer field guns we used to use, and rob the mechanism off it. Hooked up to a propane bottle with a mechaical timer, they would release a charge of propane into the barrel and ignite it. You could set the timer, and have it blast away at regular intervals all day.... and all night if you wanted!

Building a Cannon anybody ever do it??

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