This is my newest revision of cannon. Yes, the magority of the parts were turned by me on my lathe. Yes, I bought a lathe... Well, I traded a custom website for a micro metal lathe. This gun is trying to address several problems: 1.) weight of the gun + mag high on the ship 2.) rotational mass of the gun making gun rotation slow 3.) magazine complications during rotation Notes: The barrel separated from the loading mechanism, to lighten rotation & lower the amount of "high weigh". This also allows magazine to be "fixed" straight tube (Although I used a flexible magazine). NOTICE no bent metal pipes! The "Breach" is 5 inches from the end of the barrel, to be in compliance with smallgun ruleset. Without the breach o-ring, the cannon repeatedly penetrated slightly over 1" blue foam w/ BB. No o-ring was available @ time of testing. Problems: 1. Although the weight & mass of the barrel has been reduced, the hard rubber tube still slows down rotation. 2. The 1/4" tube is lossy: when fired, air escapes... THEN the ball is ejected. 3. There is a delay from trigger to ejection of the ball... More testing is required to know exactly how much lagg. 4. Ball "bounces" when leaving the tube & entering the breach mechanism... This slows down fire rate even more.
you might look at using the 1/4" tube only where you need elevation control, as it is lossy. I found out some similar info on mine that the flexible magazine reduced the reliable rate of fire but that was solved by going to 1/8" ID hose rather than 1/16". The increase in air usage is not too bad/much IF you can supply the air fast enough to move the BB up the 1/4" hose fast.
