Black Powder Cannon

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Home build

I built this black powder cannon in my Junior year in high school. As you can see she is not to fancy. But this small black powder cannon can make a very loud boom. The bore is 1 and 1/8 " in diameter. I load it with around 200 grains of FFg Black Powder. I use aluminum foil as a wad to hold the black powder firm so not to set any fires like news paper would do. It is set off with a 1/8 diameter fuse. When it goes off you can hear the barrel ring after the very large boom. The hole cannon will roll back about 12" in grass.

The barrel is 11" long and the hole cannon is 19" long. I used poplar wood to build the carriage with. The wheels are 7" in diameter and are made of poplar also. I took 2 boards and glue them together with the grain going in opposite directions to made them stronger. The end of the carriage and wheels are finished in cooper. The barrel was made from a piece of scrap steel I got out of a scrap yard. I turned it on a lathe at school and had a friend bore it out for me. I welded the trunnions on for add strength. The lathe did not have any kind of tapper attachment on it so I had to free hand it so to speak. I used an half inch rod for the axel and brass line the wheels so they would roll better.

The first time I set the cannon off the barrel came sliding back on the drive way the cannon was sitting on. I did not make the straps at the trunnions strong enough to hold the barrel on. I had to use longer screws to hold the copper strips in place. Luckily no one was right behind it when it went off. I have never put any kind of a projectile in it when I have fired it. The recoil would send the hole cannon flying back and I am sure it would tear the barrel back off. I like to hear the boom and not worry about where the projectile went. 

This cannon has brought in allot of new years in and made plenty of nose at 4th of July parties. It has been a lot of fun, but one has to always be careful. Cannons of this size and even smaller can be very dangerous if not respected as they should be. You should always be behind when firing. I once took out a night light in my yard that was off to the side but in front of the muzzle and concision took out the bulb filament.  

If you think that you would like to build a cannon for your self, head on over to the cannon barrel building page.

 Go back to Black Powder Shooter home page, just click link.