Hope this isn't too far off topic for this forum...


I posted a pic in another thread of some of my scale model black powder artillery (all functional).

In that pic, my 1/4-scale Napoleon 12-pounder is mounted on its field carriage. But I have another carriage for that gun. How it came to have two carriages is the subject of this post.

It all started as an entry in a calendar photo contest. A photo of the Napoleon had already been entered in a previous year's contest on the field carriage. To qualify it for a new entry it needed to be different. Significantly different.

I decided to do something really different, and special. Halloween was coming up, as well as the deadline for the entries.

I set to work on a naval carriage. I'd always been fascinated by the Marsilly (or 'taildragger') style carriage so that was what the new mount would be. I was pushing a very close deadline, so the project went from CAD to cutting wood in a hurry. Soon I had the carriage roughly assembled.

I also had help. These characters were enlisted as a gun crew:



They're 18" pirate decorations from Wal-Mart, pretty accurate as far as scale for this gun.

The carriage never got 100% completed in time, a few hardware bits were left off, but it was close enough for this photo shoot:



The photo was titled "Pirates Of The Pumpkin Patch."

The 'eyeballs' are foil-covered chocolate candy. They were the perfect size for cannonballs (could have been loaded and fired).

The shoot was a success, the entry was made in time, and it was selected for the October calendar page.


All was well, until my gun crew got into the rum...

A few construction pics...

Very cool! I would love to build one myself. Where are you getting your cannon barrels from?

Scratch built tabletop Coehorn Mortar FTW:

too cool. very jealous I don't have anywhere like that to fire a mortar

I bought the Napoleon barrel from a company called Cannon Mania. My deal went okay, but a lot of others have had serious problems with this company so I can't really recommend them.

I prefer to build my own and will do so from now on. At the time I didn't have the capability to machine a bore that deep but that's about to change with the addition of some new equipment.


StealthyBlagga, what caliber is that Reb Coehorn?

I have a small .69 Coehorn (Union pattern) that was given to me, in kit form, as a gift:



Sorry, no powder can for scale in that photo. Here's one taken early on, temporarily assembled with screws:



In that photo it had never been fired, the brass is still pristine. Now, not so much...

It has a 0.75" bore and a 0.5" powder chamber, and it shoots musket balls.

Those are awesome guys!! I think I have to to have one now.

I also have a small brass Coehorn, but it is caliber beercan (or soda pop can for you teetotalers).  Said can must be filled with plaster so as to make it solid; lest the explosive charge in the mortar blasts its way through the can and shower the crew with its contents.  I found that out the hard way and was showered with dust and pebbles that blew out of the can.

Can mortar project is pending, waiting for a piece of stock of a sufficient diameter.

It will just be a scaled-up version of my golfball Coehorn.


ETA: That's the golfball mortar that the hungover pirate is, uh, "inspecting."

AAARRRRGH!, Matey,,,, there'll be no talk of Cannon on this ship!











I'm admiring your Muzzle Flash shot in the "Salute" thread.


, I get a much smaller touch hole flash, but no muzzle flash  






This piece is about .98 caliber and 18 1/2" in bore length.

I wasn't   trying to achieve an "Historically Accurate" look, at the time,
, but was wanting to remind of a Civil War era field piece in something I could shoot a lot


I have been worrying about shaking the wheels apart under recoil, and  been lately thinking of doing a ship mounted carraige for mine,

, and really  like what you've done with yours.

Are you shooting black powder or Pyrodex? I never use anything but black powder.

The shots with the biggest flash are the blank salutes, which use a lot more powder than live rounds with ball. But even the live rounds (5-ounce ball over 250 grains of GOEX Fg) give a really good fireball.

I get the muzzle flash photos by taking single frames from video. It happens so quick that I've never been able to get a good pic shooting stills, my 'trigger finger' just isn't fast enough!


BTW: Recoil is the reason I backed down from 300 grains behind a ball, to 250. Recoil is extremely violent with 300 grains, I was afraid of splitting the cheeks of my carriage!

Even at these scales we're fighting physics. That's what drove me away from the smaller, desktop-sized guns. They just cannot be made to behave realistically.

With mortars, this isn't so much of an issue due to the way they handle recoil.

Terry, Black Powder too,,  I have used Fg and FFg up to now.

A friend of mine has suggested FFFg to try to get the Flash, but I haven't been out with it to try yet.

He also suggested useing less wadding in front to get the Flash up too,,,

My normal wad is  about 1/3 ~1/2 sheet of newspaper,,  
a small dry piece on top of powder, and a larger dampened piece on top of that.

Operating theory that more containment = more "boom"

,, more experimenting needed


I have used loads  up to a Nyquil  "cup runneth over"

Recoil  is VICIOUS  but the Boom is verrry satisfying  

, on the 4th of July,  I set off all the car alarms in my neighborhood    


My camera has a delay from the time I push the button till  the shutter trips,

,so I'm thinking of trying a night shot  with time exposure to catch whatever flash I can.



Cannons are FUN!



edit to add pic;

I would not use FFFg in a cannon that large at all! It's not a good idea to use fine grades of BP in very large quantities.

Between Fg and FFg, I would only use Fg due to the length of the tube and the quantity of powder being loaded.

You will actually get a bigger fireball with the coarser powders, finer powders burn faster and with a tube as long as that one you want to slow down the burn.

Coarse grades burn inefficiently in very small quantities, fine grades burn unpredictably in bulk.

In a cannon-length barrel it's actually the air column that creates the boom. A tight wadding will 'sharpen' the report but won't really make it any louder.

What it will do is increase recoil. Anything that interferes with the air column will increase recoil, even fouling!


Not sure how much a Nyquil cup holds, but it sounds like you are overloading to compensate for excessive wadding.

My load for that gun would be one ounce (438 grains) of Fg, prepackaged in aluminum foil (for safety) and no additional wadding.


Of course, this all applies to cannons, medium-to-large scale mortars are totally different and have their own set of rules (some of which totally contradict the cannon rules).

You want muzzle flash ? We have muzzle flash :

   Terry got flash,,,,    Stealthy got flash,,,,    







I got no flash.





I will try a much lighter overcharge wad next time I take it out,, and start from Fg



? why the tinfoil wrap on the charge, Terry ?

? Stealthy, what's the info on your piece ?

Maybe you're getting more flash than you're seeing?

It happens so fast that's hard to see in full daylight, and almost impossible to photograph (at least for me) manually.

Does your camera have a 'video' mode?

The way I get good flash pics is to video the shot, then open the video in an editing program (Windows Movie Maker is free from Microsoft) to sort through the individual frames.


The recommended safety practice with cannons of 1" or larger (yours is close enough for these rules to apply) is to load the gun with powder charges packaged in aluminum foil. This is much safer, and a lot more convenient, than loading loose powder. The foil cartridge is resistant to sparks or burning embers that might linger in the bore. It's also resistant to moisture from a wet-mopped bore, or even shooting in bad weather.

Many organizations will only allow foil-wrapped charges.

Basically, I form a double-wall tube of aluminum foil (Reynolds Heavy Duty) around a dowel, crimp the bottom closed, fill them with a measured charge of powder, then fold the top to seal the cartridge. Some recommend a plastic baggie inside the foil, while others are against this practice for various reasons. I don't use the baggie.

The foil cartridge must be have a hole punched in it after loading, for the flame from the fuse, quill, or priming powder to reach the charge. This is done with a punch inserted trough the vent ("prick and prime").

After firing, some of the foil tube will remain in the chamber, it must be removed with a worm before the bore is mopped.

It was built from scratch. I built it a couple of years ago as a summer holiday project with my sons (then aged 8 and 10). We did it mostly with hand tools... the only power tools were a drill press (to drill the bore, powder chamber and touch hole), a TIG welder (to weld on the trunnion) and a Dremel ('cause every project needs to be blessed by the Dremel ). The biggest challenge was drilling the bore without a lathe to keep it straight/concentric... I tack-welded the bar-stock vertically on a piece of scrap 1/4" steel, then clamped that to the drill press table while I drilled the 3/4" bore (lots of oil, go slow). I also rounded off the corners from the 1/2" bit I used to drill the powder chamber, to avoid sharp corners in this critical area. Here are some pictures that illustrate it in more detail:















HTH

Here is mine, I am overseas at the moment so it will be awhile before I can take them out to the mountains.

StealthyBlagga, good job!

Sixguns4Fighting, what caliber is the smaller mortar?

Terry,

The guy I bought it from said it was sized for marbles. I purchased it online from my CHU at Al Taqaddum. I got some boxes to open up when I get home in a week.