Black Powder CannonMaking the CarriageOur next step to making our black powder cannon is to start making are carriage. Once we have or barrel made or at least have a set of plans or blueprints for our barrel, we can make our carriage to the proper size so our black powder cannon will be the right proportion. For the shape of our Navel Deck Cannon carriage, here again you can do a search on the Internet. For a very simple carriage, you would only need base plates to set the width, and two sidepieces along with the two axles and four wheels. To see some blck powder cannon pictures from Thailand, you can go to here. The wood to use should be poplar or any other type of hardwood. The reason to use hard wood over a soft would like pine, would be for the strength that the wood offers. This would be very important especially if you are going to fire your black powder cannon. When making your two sidepieces for your carriage, you will want the wood grain to run from the front to the back. This will ensure that you have a good strong carriage. Do not run the wood grain up and down. For the base plates the wood drain should run all long the length that determines the width of your carriage. For making the two sidepieces, you're going to want to clamp the two pieces together, now you can drill the holes for the axles, and also the hole for the barrel trunnions. This will ensure that everything will line up when you go to assemble the wheels and put the barrel on the carriage. The base plate can actually be two or three pieces one being mounted up front, one being mounted in rear and you can also mount one directly under the barrel trunnions. Your base plate widths should only be long enough to separate the side plates to allow the barrel to swing freely. If they are made too long the barrel will be able to slide sideways in the carriage. Where you have drilled your holes for the trunnions on the barrel, you will want to leave a good amount of wood around them. This way it will have plenty of strength without having to put any metal straps on top of the trunnions to hold the barrel in. Or you can use the metal straps making sure that you use long enough wood screws so that the wood will not shear off during firing. For your wheel axles if you're building a smaller size cannon, you can use hard wooden dowels. If your cannon and is on the larger side, you can use the correct size steel rod. This will support the weight and shock during firing. For your round wooden wheels you can either use the correct thickness plywood or you can take two thinner pieces and glue them together with the grain running opposite directions. This will ensure that the wheels will be strong, and will not split with the wood grain. Once you have your two sidepieces and space pieces made, assemble your cannon. Two mount the wheels use a small washer in between the wheel and the carriage side frame. This will keep the wheel from rubbing on the side frame to hold the wheels long drill a small hole through the axle on both ends and put it can in the whole with a small washer between the pin and wheel. For your wood screws, use brass round headed screws. Also if you use plates on your black powder cannon to hold the barrel down with, make them from brass. This will dress up your cannon up some. Once you have put everything together and you know everything runs freely, you can disassemble your black powder cannon and finish the wood with any finish that you like. You can also paint the barrel rather than using gun blue. Paint will hide any tooling marks and you will not have to sand down your barrel for a smooth finish that is required for gun blue. Disclaimer: Go back to Black Powder Shooter home page, just click link. Go back to the Cannon home page, just click link.
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