Blackpowder, bowling balls and sewer pipe! (Fire in the hole!!!)

One Fine September Morning... ^

[tophat9000]

Just sitting here doing my world famous god awful EVIL laugh known to make grown men blanch in fear and small children cry....:>

[norraad]

I fancy making an automatic that shoots used duracells(no shortage of ammmo ever), with interchangable barrels for AAA, AA, C, & D cells.

Are they enviro safe now that the mercury is out?

Wouldn't want to tear up the tree huggers.

[Atchafalaya]

Make your tube out of brass and it will ring like a bell every time you charge and fire.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I'm with you, Boris.

There's good reason breech blocks are forged. Fun toy today, but I'll bet the chamber pressures are far more than the ASTM specs ever imagined for sewer pipe walls needing to contain. One of these days somebodys head will be sailing as far as the bowling balls.

IMO.

[11B3]

The wall thickness is plenty for 3 ounce charges and bowling balls. Especially if the material is 4140 steel (normally used for howitzer barrels or tank main guns).

If someone around Puget Sound builds one of these and needs a place to fire it, let me know - you can come out to my place. As long as it doesn't fly over a mile, it's safe here. (If nobody else tries this around here, I guess I'll give it a shot so to speak.)

[Travis McGee]

I rather think the thickness a bit inadequate.

So do I, but I'm only guessing. In Charleston SC along "The Battery," the promenade along the harbor facing Fort Sumter, they have some old siege mortars. Those bad boys have a similar bore, but the wall thicknesses are about equal to the bore, or about 8" wall thickness! Of course, they tossed exploding iron cannonballs about a mile or so!

[Travis McGee]

Man, I'll bet that 175 looked like the dragon from hell at night!

[WorkingClassFilth]

"...a big 'ol hunk o' pipe...half-inch-nominal wall pipe...some sewer pipe..."

I'm not reading anything at all about 4140 steel or ordinance grade materials. The maker had welded the steel plate to the bottom but he was still concerned about inducing brittleness to the metal with further welds.

I'm thinking this guy's a few reloads short of a 'hold muh beer' alert.

[Britton J Wingfield]

wrap it with a couple hundred yards of fiberglass tape, it'll be just fine :)

[gorebegone]

Puts a new meaning into the word "STRIKE"!

[Orion78]

Freepers, Caption this Photo.

[in the Arena]

Every 4th of July our family has a reunion at my grand parents farm. Fireworks evolved into spud guns evolved into a small black powder cannon that my uncle built. One summer we spent a whole day trying to hit a telephone pole at 50 yards...It has a 1 inch bore and I believe we were loading 600 grains of Pyrodex...If they thought that rattled their teeth, wait until I show them this...

I ran across a web site that talked about anvil shooting and last time I was home I turned over my grand fathers anvil and sure enough there was that little spherical hollow...what an evil grin appeared on my face...

[jppickett1111]

Looks like seamless dom tubing (Drawn over mandrel)

Most common in 1026 or 1035 steel.

We used it for fork lift blade top of the fork tubes.

Should be up to the task.

not much different than a shotgun tube

with pyrodex the pressures would be less than with smokeless

J

[WorkingClassFilth]

'Hold muh beer whilst I look in an' see what went wrong...'

[Lurker]

Try 1 cup of flour, and 2 m-80's.

Now THAT'S a fireball.

L

[Lurker]

Count us in my friend.

L

[Squantos]

Yep we used to dump a little powder in that hollow, lay a piece of cannon fuze into the pile and to the edge opf the anvil. Cover that with a piece of cardboard and put the other anvil on top of that. Light the fuze .........run like hell.

Anvil Bingo, Cowpie bingo ......all the same if it lands on ya..........really crappy outcome.......:o)

Stay Safe ITA !

[Marauder]

I wonder what that bowling ball would do to a UN vehicle driven by turd-worlders who are trying to disarm the American people?

I'd like to know what goes through their little minds just before that bowling ball does.

[wolficatZ]

"It was whistling.."

No doubt those finger holes in the ball make for some hellatious whistling sounds..
VREEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee..!

[eno_]

No, that's what the breech end of the gun did to the dirt under it.