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Started on the golf ball cannon today

2

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  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    I got one extra piece 14" long of that 3 1/2" CRS. I had enough for three pieces 14" long. I found the receipt for that stuff; I paid $24 plus tax for a piece of 3 1/2" steel 44" long. I'll see what they have, but I doubt they have any 4.5" diameter in cold rolled. I'll call you if they have any that size. They occasionally get in brass round stock cutoffs; you interested in that?
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  • BuffcoBuffco Posts: 6,244 Senior Member
    The answer to that question is always yes.
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    cpj wrote: »
    I don't know, that 3.5 would give me a half inch wall thickness, reckon that's enough?

    No. Way too little safety margin. I'll call you tomorrow when I get over there and walk the yard to see what he's got.
      I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
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  • BuffcoBuffco Posts: 6,244 Senior Member
    tennmike wrote: »
    No. Way too little safety margin. I'll call you tomorrow when I get over there and walk the yard to see what he's got.

    Don't listen to him, cpj. He's a party pooper.
  • SirGeorgeKillianSirGeorgeKillian Posts: 5,463 Senior Member
    Any new pics?
    Unless life also hands you water and sugar, your lemonade is gonna suck!
    Wambli Ska wrote: »
    I'm in love with a Glock
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    Any new pics?

    No. The hole in the barrel is just bigger than 1" by about 0.070" which is as far as I got with the boring bar before the brass pads on the steady rest went T.U.
    But when I was finishing the drilling of the 1" hole on Tuesday(?) the drill got stuck and sheared off ALL FOUR of the 10-32 screws holding it in the extension shaft. :silly::silly: It would NOT come out with anything I tried. I had to drill a hole through the breech 3/8" dia. to knock the :cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss: stinkin' piece of :cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss:filthy drill bit out. I'll drill and then tap for a 1/2" x 13 plug, and weld it in place AFTER I contour the outside of the barrel.
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  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    Got some really hard brass rod in 3/4" and 1" sizes. I'll break down the setup and cut some new pads out of it on the lathe. Scored a couple of pieces of really heavy wall pipe to make a new steady rest. They are 7" i.d. and 8" i.d. with 1" wall thickness. I have the rest of the stuff I need to make the other pieces parts. Those ball bearings are hiding somewhere; I haven't found them yet.

    Also looked at an "interesting" piece of steel out in the steel yard. 24" diameter, 6" thick wall, and 6 feet long. A 12" bore SUPER MORTAR! Also had a 20 ft. long bar of 8" diameter hardened steel laying inside the building. I scratched the end with a carbide tipped lathe tool I took with me. That stuff would be a really not fun experience to try to bore a hole in. I could barely make a mark in it.

    Anybody need some 1" diameter x 18" long bars of 'linear steel"? It looks chrome plated, but isn't and the guy in the office said it could not be cut with an industrial band saw; the blade just rubs on it and doesn't leave hardly any mark at all. He said the railroads use it for something. He bought around 800 bars of it for 11 cents a pound. Probably make some really efficient 30mm penetrator rounds in a brass sabot.
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  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    cpj wrote: »
    As randy Travis said...since my phone still ain't ringin, I assume it still ain't you.


    No 4.5" metal?

    I calldided y'all at around 09:45 a.m. and got no answer. I DID leave a voicemail message, though. :tooth:
    No 4.5" round bar. 8"round and 3.5" round was available, though.
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  • 2manyhobbies2manyhobbies Posts: 49 Member
    Golf ball = 1.75 inches, will distort on firring, gun can easly hold 1/2 lfb of black, will have a range of over a mile, UBER DANGEROUS!!!

    Yeah I built one over 20 years ago, use 1-f black, no drill 36 hole for the fuse, brass pin for the fuse hole to clear n set.....

    Beware and be safe, I just wet wad mine now for the noise and clean up the newspaper later.....
  • TeachTeach Posts: 18,428 Senior Member
    tennmike wrote: »
    No. Way too little safety margin.

    Make a sleeve for the last 6" or so of the barrel. Bore and surface-grind a 1" thick sleeve about .010" smaller ID than the OD of the barrel. Heat the sleeve, freeze the barrel, and jam 'em together quickly. Then contour things to hide the fact there's a sleeve in place. It will be as strong as a 1-piece breech.
    Jerry
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    Teach wrote: »
    Make a sleeve for the last 6" or so of the barrel. Bore and surface-grind a 1" thick sleeve about .010" smaller ID than the OD of the barrel. Heat the sleeve, freeze the barrel, and jam 'em together quickly. Then contour things to hide the fact there's a sleeve in place. It will be as strong as a 1-piece breech.
    Jerry

    A sleeve could be made from a tie rod hydraulic cylinder. They're thick and tough steel. A 3.5" bore cylinder off a bulldozer would be a good choice.
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  • agewonagewon Posts: 655 Senior Member
    You guys ever look at McMaster Carr for stock? I know it's a bit pricier, but could get you to the range quicker.
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    agewon wrote: »
    You guys ever look at McMaster Carr for stock? I know it's a bit pricier, but could get you to the range quicker.

    Nah. Got a good bit of heavy industry in the area, and cutoff ends of stock are cheap for steel at 30 cents a pound retail scrap price. There's a hydraulic cylinder maker in town that sends their scrap to the place I go for steel. I've got some good deals on cylinder rods, aluminum round stock, and cylinders that they sell as scrap. I can find about anything I want in the scrapyard, or can buy new from inside the building, or order it and have it there in a few days. The place has three locations; if they don't have it, odds are I don't need it.
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  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    Sealed ball bearings for the modified steady rest should be here either Wed. or next Monday. I found the ones I already had but they are needle bearings,and not sealed. They wouldn't last too long. I'll make the new parts for the existing steady rest tomorrow, and finish them when the bearings get here.
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  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    cpj wrote: »
    I pretty much hate you right now.

    Funny-dog-picture_zps10e84997.jpg

    :rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:
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  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    Completed the ball bearing steady rest parts today. Not all that good a picture, but the ball bearing is in there on all three supports. Runs smooth as butter, too.

    004_zps44610cef.jpg

    Also got 6 inches of the 12 inch bore bored out to golf ball size. I'll get the other half done by the end of the week.

    001_zps21d4ba47.jpg
      I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
    ― Douglas Adams
  • NNNN Posts: 25,236 Senior Member
    Good thing I know I have vertigo or I'd have had to go to the quack after looking at those pics.
  • SirGeorgeKillianSirGeorgeKillian Posts: 5,463 Senior Member
    Is it too early to get excited?
    Unless life also hands you water and sugar, your lemonade is gonna suck!
    Wambli Ska wrote: »
    I'm in love with a Glock
  • BigDanSBigDanS Posts: 6,992 Senior Member
    Is it too early to get excited?

    Sound like a question for your wife! :jester:

    D
    "A patriot is mocked, scorned and hated; yet when his cause succeeds, all men will join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." Mark Twain
    Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    Is it too early to get excited?

    Probably. Got to break down the boring bar setup and do the setup with the really long boring bar. I'm way past maxing out the ability of my lathe to do this, and having to make tooling. No such thing as an 18" long 1" diameter boring bar; well, not in my price range. Had to make that one myself, and the boring bar holder for it. Getting the bore done is the easy part; it's the outside contour work that will take a while.
      I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
    ― Douglas Adams
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    If this stupid thing gives me any more problems tomorrow, it's going to get a haircut and become a golf ball mortar.
      I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
    ― Douglas Adams
  • toymachinetoymachine Posts: 761 Senior Member
    Updates? A quick search didn't turn up anything.
    "Is 'milk bottle' literally a racist term?"
    "It is now." - Jack Fraggs
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    toymachine wrote: »
    Updates? A quick search didn't turn up anything.

    Mortar completed, but no carriage built yet. Too cold to work in the shop, and I got sidetracked on some other stuff.
      I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
    ― Douglas Adams
  • toymachinetoymachine Posts: 761 Senior Member
    Thanks, I've been researching legal destructive devices and non-NFA cannons lately and this is one of the more instructive threads I've found.
    "Is 'milk bottle' literally a racist term?"
    "It is now." - Jack Fraggs
  • SirGeorgeKillianSirGeorgeKillian Posts: 5,463 Senior Member
    Patiently waiting!
    Unless life also hands you water and sugar, your lemonade is gonna suck!
    Wambli Ska wrote: »
    I'm in love with a Glock
  • EliEli Posts: 3,074 Senior Member
    toymachine wrote: »
    .......... this is one of the more instructive threads I've found.


    That's because Tennmike there is an honest to god, redneck genius.

    One time he needed a backhoe.......so he built one.
  • DoctorWhoDoctorWho Posts: 9,496 Senior Member
    An M203 type golf ball launcher would have been nice, too bad golf balls are 42 mm, or an M79 would have been nice too.
    "There is some evil in all of us, Doctor, even you, the Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation, and I may say, you do not improve with age. Founding member of the G&A forum since 1996
  • toymachinetoymachine Posts: 761 Senior Member
    The CannonThunder link on the first page has some reasonably priced stuff, IMO, though it lacks the satisfaction of building it yourself. Dr.Who's comment got me thinking about using one of their golfball cannons on an M79 facsimile, anybody know if barrel length is a legal consideration when dealing with black powder? Looks pretty heavy, how bad do you think the recoil would be?
    "Is 'milk bottle' literally a racist term?"
    "It is now." - Jack Fraggs
  • tennmiketennmike Posts: 27,457 Senior Member
    toymachine wrote: »
    The CannonThunder link on the first page has some reasonably priced stuff, IMO, though it lacks the satisfaction of building it yourself. Dr.Who's comment got me thinking about using one of their golfball cannons on an M79 facsimile, anybody know if barrel length is a legal consideration when dealing with black powder? Looks pretty heavy, how bad do you think the recoil would be?

    Recoil with a golf ball projectile would be pretty nonexistent. Recoil with lead ball would be a bit more.

    With non breech loading non rifled barrels, there are no real restrictions on barrel length or bore diameter. Muzzle loading cannon and mortars that are smooth bore are pretty much non regulated. If it loads from the breech with fixed ammunition and has a rifled or smooth bore barrel then Uncle Sugar has some major restrictions as to bore diameter and barrel length.

    004_zpsd11ed70e.jpg

    Barrel length is 10 inches.
    Bore depth is 7 1/4 inches.
    Overall length is 11 1/2 inches.
    Bore is 1.690 inches.
    Barrel O.D. is 3.375 inches.
      I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
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  • toymachinetoymachine Posts: 761 Senior Member
    Thanks, I just wasn't sure if SBR regulations applied to shoulder fired muzzleloaders. If what I've read is correct, fixed cartridge ammunition brings about the majority of regulations, whereas loose powder and projectile are relatively unregulated. For example, modern mortars with the propellent contained in the projectile fall under the destructive devices designation, while a breech loaded cannon that uses separate projectile and powder would not. An extreme example would be 16" battleship guns that use separate bags of powder behind the projectile, though the amount of propellant required may throw a wrench in that idea. Plus it's just impractical and difficult to find a place to shoot. Of course this may all be incorrect, consult an NFA savvy lawyer or the ATF before proceeding too far.
    Glad I found this thread, arfcom used to have a pretty good DD forum, then most of it got relegated to the archives and new posts are slow to arrive.
    "Is 'milk bottle' literally a racist term?"
    "It is now." - Jack Fraggs
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