Model Cannon

I would do exactly as you're about to do.

No problems whatsoever. The brass, unless you make it crazy thin, will be more than sufficient for this.

The blanks are .22 and no, they don't go to any trouble to make them *quieter* though they do use smokeless powder which the old cannons did not have.

You might wanna pick up a pound of black powder for authenticity. (uh... a pound is good for a lot of shots... just sayin')

The .22 blanks would also be good for shooting. Not iron balls, but certainly plastic balls. That might be a real hoot.

I would make the fusing chamber to fit the .22 charges and use .22 charges to set off the black powder when I was using that. win-win!

Wrat
 
I must admit the idea of using the nail gun charges as a primer if I ever did want to load a black powder charge and a cannon ball had crossed my mind (don't know if I can even get gun powder here without a gun license - which I can't get as I'm still a forigen resident and not a SA citizen).
But you can get very large fire crackers here which I have considered cutting open.
 
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Not a machinest and never was at all but I won a small used smithy at a auction (was crazy to bid on it) so I wanted to try something. The black one (mortar) shoots golf balls about a quarter of a mile. The silver one is a 50 cal like a black powder rifle. Haven't shot it yet. Anyone can buy gun powder if over 21. I use a fuse on both. Be careful using anything but the muzzle loader black powder. And it looks neat to see all the smoke they are 10 and 18 inch barrels.
 
Couple things here
First, do not put oil in the barrel, oil will react with the powder and primer in the 22 charge and ruin them
second, check your local regulations carefully before doing much of anything In the states we can build black powder mortars legally. But your mileage may vary.
A mortar here is anything fired black powder that had a sealed breach and is over a certain diameter. I believe it's 60 caliber but not sure. Anything under that is a blackpowder rifle or pistol and again can be self constructed but again, check your local laws before constructing anything. Some of our firearms laws are pretty weird. You may have some weird ones as well.
 
Yes, still have to do some research into the law over here, which was part of my initial thinking to just make it a signal cannon and do whatever is necessary to make it deemed unable to fire a projectile - should make it easier to stay on the right side of the law.
Have also decided a taper turning attachment would probably be a good idea to make first so the cannon has been pushed down the todo list a bit - though I have already invested in a chunk of brass stock so it will get built at some stage.
 
Sounds like an interesting project. I will be following the thread in hopes that you share plenty of pictures or videos.
 
What I have read about laws is that they aren't covered under the FFA laws if no exploding projectiles are used. It is consider a toy. That is why they get to be used at celbrations. Causing a panic or disturbing the peace may be something else. But I know my mortar rocks the earth.
 
Fire fuse , sb ok, this is for black powder
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Folks please remember that he is in Canada. ATF is not his governing body and may well have totally different laws pertaining to all of this.
Here in the States, we can build a cannon, mortar or similar as long as it's sealed breach and muzzle loaded.
It also can't in any way fire a preassembled cartridge.

Have folks I know that are heavy into this and have stuff from Thunder Mugs to stuff that will send a bowling ball several hundred yards.
I never bothered myself with any of that but I have done some machining work on a couple of their projects.
 
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