Badger Busting Cannon

[beowulf]

can finally tell what it is 

[Red Badger]

Yes  do have to give a bit of credit - for $35.00 it does look like a cannon... My only question is - with the wildfires is he gonna be able to shoot it> and if he gets caught are they gonna think he started the fires.... So for safetys sake cut it up and dispose of the evidence or pour cement down the tube!   

[hotfxr]

Man, I may not be the world's worst welder, but I am circling with him down at the bottom of the welders barrel. Outside of half a year of metal shop in 8th grade, I am for the most part self taught and now I am paying for that cheap education. Structurally the cannon cannot be beat, but cosmetically I am having some issues with my limited choices of cheap (free) materials. As a result, getting a little jiggy with the grinder has already caused me to do a lot of filling and patching, then of course a lot more grinding.But there is light at the end of the tunnel, a couple of more hours tomorrow and I should be ready for sand blasting, vent tube and Plum Browning. I hope Red Badger appreciates the effort I am gong through to make sure his demise is swift and sure.I wouldn't work this hard for just anyone.

[Dogshirt]

 

[hotfxr]

I tend to get tunnel vision and it prevents common sense from entering my poor overworked brain. After an entire  10LB roll of wire, a tank of shield gas and close to $60 in sanding disks, it finally dawned on me that this weld and grind of foil thin metal was just an exercise in futility and I was just creating a whole bunch of iron filings that get everywhere. So off to the local steel yard and dropped another load of $$ and got some more pipe and started cladding the outside of the neverending cannon project. The cruel rub is that now it will be much closer to the correct diameter for a true half scale 1841 cannon.

On another note, does anyone realize what a pain it is to try to drill a hole through a 3/8"grade 8 bolt and cut full threads to make a vent tube?





Well now I do. On the other hand, I must be one talented son of my mother to be able to do this holding the bolt with a vise grip and drilling that hole with my civil war era drill press. And this is the only bolt I bought and I didn't screw it up. Of course I now have to get that broken bit out before I drill the cannon and install it, but that is just a minor detail.

[mtnmike]

hotfxr,,if you ever get to production line status, I need to place an order   I think the way things are going here in DIXIE,that I just might be needing one

[pilgrim]

                 

[Red Badger]

It sure does look purty - now will it shoot?

[hotfxr]

What is that sound? Is the slight tremor in your voice the gradual realization of your soon to be accelerated mortality?     Casting disparities about the combustion capabilities of Bruce only shows to the world your desperate and disconsolate attempts to weasel (in a badger type way) out of your upcoming date with the Pale Rider.     Are you even thinking of (gasp)    acquiescence and abandonment of your contumelious twisting of my words that got you in this situation in the first place? I am from the South  and we don't quit until it's over, so stop with the pathetic attempts to besmirch my good name and (questionable) abilities and accept your fate. Of course I am always willing to consider any and all advice as to making this cannon more effective and accurate and will gladly defer to your advanced knowledge on these things.

[hotfxr]

                                                                              PROGRESS!!!         



After spending more than a week chasing my tail filling and grinding and filling and grinding, I finally got to the steel yard and "procured" some various sizes of black pipe, cut them to length and quartered them them (laugh if you will, just try and split some heavy walled 6" pipe 16" long with a fiber blade on a broken 10" miter box) and fit them to the outside of Bruce. A little welding, a little grinding, a little more grinding, and a little more grinding, and filling some air spaces with lead, a little more welding, a little more grinding, a little swearing when the welding wire hits some of the lead in a shallow spot in the metal, and so on. It's starting to look more like a cannon now.



Finally got the body where I want it. I need to do a bit to the muzzle end (detail work to make Bruce look pretty), and weld on the round handle/knob thingy that goes in the back end. It's balance is just a bit to the breech, right where I want it. Good balance is essential when hunting badgers as everyone knows.



While Bruce's main body is hanging out to dry, literally, it's time to start on the "made from scrap wood" half scale #1 Field artillery carriage. Since there is no way in the world I am going to pay the going rate for a 30" wagon/cannon wheel (Cheapest I could find $145.00 each plus shipping) I am doing it myself. And since my tired out brain can't figure out the math for 14 or 17 spokes, it will have 12 on each wheel. It all starts with a plan.



There is a lot of decision making and figuring going into this. I don't have any dimensioned drawings to go off of, I had to extrapolate sizes going from overall full scale and making my own drawings, or more correctly, a list of measurements at several points on the cannon and will have to do the same for the carriage. The first thing to be made is the hubs for the wheels. Had plenty of Northern Hard Maple left over from cutting the stock out for my long ignored 1780 flintlock project so they were glued together, cut to size and now a block of maple is sitting in the lathe waiting to become a matched pair of hubs. Already have the retention rings by cutting them out of some leftover pieces of 5" and 3" pipe.



That's as far as I have gotten so thus ends this entry into the progress of the cannon and will become part of Red Badge'rs eulogy which I will proudly give after the duel.

[pilgrim]

           

[beowulf]

so far ,so good ! it do look cannonish !

[Red Badger]

It is looking good!  Why not take a day and go to the local library where you will find a thing called a book which will have detailed instructions on how wheels were made.... 

[gunmaker]

I'll take two, can you ship end week ? or sooner would be really swell.......You got way tooo much time on your hands son, get a hobby...     Way cool dude ( I speak Cali"  don't ask me how I learnt it.....Tom
P.S. bring "Brucie" to sin city in Nov. for our rondy, we shoot those on line for score.......

[pilgrim]

I'll take two, can you ship end week ? or sooner would be really swell.......You got way tooo much time on your hands son, get a hobby...     Way cool dude ( I speak Cali"  don't ask me how I learnt it.....Tom
P.S. bring "Brucie" to sin city in Nov. for our rondy, we shoot those on line for score.......

    Sounds like the perfect time to have the Duel.    With both Duelists present.  Too bad it is so far from Tulsa