Homemade black powder cannons.......

[Sparky2]

Legal to posses and manufacture?.... YES, but just like 3inSlugger said.... it must be a muzzle loader for certain sizes and whether or not you intend to sell it. Certain sizes of breech loaders could be considered to be artillery, and there is the whole manufacturing a firearm thing if you plan to sell. Muzzle loaders and or copies of anything made before 1898 are not firearms according to the ATF and these things fall into that category.

So you want me to cite the source? I can't say I blame you for not wanting to just trust any yahoo on the internet, but it is data gathered browsing several cannon forums.
A few places to look for some useful information (but sorry, no laws):

Good source for fuse

For those who don't own a lathe


Something from my bookmarks



When planning it out, there is some cannon society that set a guideline that the blast chamber wall thickness should be atleast as thick as the bore diameter (so a 1" bore would require 3" material).
This turns out to be sound advice in my opinion because if you calculate the hoop stress you are well within the safe zone if you follow that rule.

A place to calculate the hoop stress for the engineering types



Sorry I'm leaving you to search for your own peace of mind, but that's all I can offer you.
I do however build quite a few of these things and sell them....

And no, I'm not spamming... I'm almost out of them.

 

[NINEROUND]

Thanks for sharing the info. I am not planning on selling anything I might try to make and I guess I won't be going as large as I'd hoped on projo size. Soomething large enough to fire a coke can would be gawdawful heavy and large. I guess I show start out small anyhow.

 

[dennishoddy]

Very cool! Are you on the cannon builders site on Yahoo?

 

[JesseR]

There is a guy at big show that sells them. Really nice options that shoot D batteries and one that shoots soda cans. They start at 1800 I think. He is here in Oklahoma. Legal to own!

 

[Sparky2]

Very cool! Are you on the cannon builders site on Yahoo?

Didn't know they had one. I should check that out. I'm a senior engineering student at OSU. I also have a fairly diverse mechanical background (a few industrial sites including the MCAAP base), so I know a few things about machining parts and calculating stresses. It just seemed natural to make these things when I got a lathe.

 

[dennishoddy]

Didn't know they had one. I should check that out. I'm a senior engineering student at OSU. I also have a fairly diverse mechanical background (a few industrial sites including the MCAAP base), so I know a few things about machining parts and calculating stresses. It just seemed natural to make these things when I got a lathe.

I have a couple of lathes at home, and access to high grade scrap steel. The Yahoo cannon forum is pretty crude to use after being on a regular forum like this. Wish they would upgrade.

 

[Sparky2]

A "D" battery shooter for $1800... damn. I should re-evaluate my prices (or find out just how much detail he puts into them).
I'm working on a 1" to 1-1/8" bore model that will copy those I posted above (but double in size) for around $600 to $800.

and just FYI.... a golf ball is 1.68" - and that would require 5" material to shoot at full pressure. A golf ball won't likely cause full pressure, but a lead ball would - and you know some day someone would do it.
You could always go with some really nice steel (like 4140), but I'll just say right now that the cost is very prohibitive.

 

[dennishoddy]

You could always go with some really nice steel (like 4140), but I'll just say right now that the cost is very prohibitive.

I'm thinking you missed the part where I said I have access to high grade scrap steel.

 

[Sparky2]

No, I didn't miss it.... If you don't know what it is for sure - you are gambling.
Just as long as you trust the guy that marked the scrap before it hit the pile, then you can calculate the needed wall thickness and have a fairly large bore with relatively thin wall thickness.

I for one can't take that chance - nor do I have the good luck of high grade steel for next to nothing.

Not trying to be an ass here... if you can trust the source, then you are very lucky indeed.

 

[AKguy1985]

I've thought about buying one of those .58 cal blackpowder cannons that kennesaw cannon sells.