Hey, folks. How do you go about adding rotation to your O-ring restrictor cannons? Is there any way to rotate only the upper part of a straight-magazine cannon, or do you have to rotate an entire coil-magazine cannon?
yep... it is a pain in the butt to rotate them... I am working on making my tirpitz ones rotate, but we'll see.
I remember seeing this modification a while ago: http://www.battlestations.org/clubs/nzbg/howtopsgunrotate.htm but apparently it is difficult to completely seal. Has anybody tried using flexible hose instead of copper pipe between the tee fitting and the elbow fitting? That's actually how the first Big Gun cannons were made to rotate, and I wonder if that could be applied here as well.
I have used flexible, works ok for elevation control, no fun for rotation. I would suggest fiber reinforced hose as it is less likely to kink/fail after repeated uses. -GReg
I've actually seen an early "rotating" big gun cannon. It used flexible hose with a spring on the inside. The hose provided an airtight gas passage, and the spring was to prevent crimping or pinching as the hose twisted.
Actually, someone I know has been experimenting with a new take on the old muffin mags... Lots of room to rotate those. I think that a few of them are getting combat-tested this weekend
I had a rotate in my Courageous that was very reliable. I had it set up for 2 position left or right fire since I didnt want to deal with adjusting or aiming it. I just flipped a switch and it went from about 45 degrees right to 45 degrees left. It was a pretty simple design (which I can't take credit for; it was installed when I bought the ship. I think it's Bob Pottle's design originally) The gun was attached to a round plastic mount which sat inside the barbette. There was center rod that acted as a pivot and sat in a "cup" if you will at the bottom that allowed the center rod to move freely back in forth and keep the mount within the barbette which provided the support. A piece of linkage was connected from the center rod to a servo attached to the hull. The servo is what controlled the position of the gun. The gun used was a coil magazine gun. This set up was extrememly reliable. I never had it bind or jam in any way. the mount still exists, although for the time being I have removed the rotate servo and have fixed the gun in place since I originally intended to change her to 2 sidemounts for IRCWCC service. With the advent of the treaty system however, I will eventually set up the rear turret as a rotate as well and enable both guns to switch quadrants as necessary. Its my intention to set her up with a left/right system again, but if one sidemount is facing left, the other will automatically face right and so forth, to eliminate any possibility of having both guns in the same quadrant at the same time. Mike D
Crzyhawk, could you possibly post some pics of that set up please. I am interrested in a rotate and haven't found too much online. Thanks, Jay
The Froggyfrenchman had rotates in his French BB years ago in Knoxville. They worked quite well. Just ask Marty.
Just an idea, but why don't you use an "Indiana Cannon" like they use in Big Gun. These rotate and would work perfectly. I'm planning on installing one once I get my Heavy Cruser up and running. BDE sells the one below http://www.bderc.com/products/page4.html Here is another photo of an Indiana Cannon
the problem with the big gun cannons is that they can not fire as fast as the fast guns will in fast gun. If you are not trying to fire faster than the big gun firing rate limits, they work great. On the copper fast gun cannon, I have been able to do 4-8 rounds per second with a button press
The original reason why I asked was for use in a Big Gun ship, because Fast Gun cannons are ever so much more efficient with their CO2 consumption than Big Gun cannons are. Your average Big Gun cannon dumps 1.5 to 2 cubic inches of air with each pull of the trigger. Fast Gun cannons use a fraction of that. On a destroyer or other really small ship, efficient use of CO2 is crucial for combat effectiveness. I had hoped (when I asked the original question) to put a rotating Fast Gun cannon in a Le Fantasque destroyer, and irritate Torpedo-cruiser skippers with my rotating pea-shooter. But, based on the answers on this thread, I can safely assume that is impossible. I can now focus my efforts on building a ship that can throw up an impregnable wall of steel every six seconds, using more traditional Big Gun armaments.
Carl, 2 of our members now have cruisers ( a Houston & a Tone ) with cannon fixed to fire to one side. Excellent for killing merchies & also for sinking torp cruisers . Regards, Kevan
THIS IS MY IDEA yeah i was thinking about subs and the revolver gun of the wild west days how the bullets went in the revoling clip thing,but like you would hook the co2 tank up to the torp cannons on the sub and the revolving part would hoe 6 torps on each torp tube and it would be like a airsoft gun everytime u shoot the revoving part revolves and a new torp is loaded( it would have a chamber when it was loaded and it would shut) but thats another one of my ideas for torps
Carl, I may have something that might work for you in the near future. take a look at justin's tirpitz refit thread for some pictures of the cannons that justin has betas of
