Yay! I start working on cannon next week.

Huzzah for me!

I just picked up my shiny new drill press and vise and will be able to start working on BB cannon next week right on schedule. I have all the initial fittings and stuff I need, just have to setup my workbench in the basement.

If you live in/near the Dartmouth area prepare to hear mucho screaming and swearing as I slowly learn my way around which end of the barrel points where.

...that reminds me, next item on my list is to make up a shooting test box.

Mack

 

Those are easy to make Mack, did you get a working cannon to reverse engeneer yet?

 

Yes and no. I have 3 working cannon courtesy of my buying HMS Dreadnaught + plumbing from Paul, but I'm not going to be building the higher tolerence (harder to make) piston selector valve guns.

The one's I'll be making will be the modified ball-bearing selector valve cannon. Much easier to build and tweak, less maintenance, and supposedly only a bit slower firing. They should be ideal for spurt guns and any Treaty guns, and once I test them I'll find out if they will work fine for regular fast-gun, although that's what they were designed for initially.

Oops, forgot to add that my initial cannon will all be built with the larger 1/8" fittings instead of 1/16". I intend to use only 1/8" hose on my cruiser so I'll testing that design first. Might not be much improvement but the air flow rate should be more than doubled for smoother firing between multiple guns.

 

good luck, i kknow i wouldnt try that on my first ship, youve got cohones

 

Mack;

Be aware that the ball bearing guns require a little more time for reloading and a good down angle on the feed into the "T".

Marty

 

Using the larger hose may or may not help. I tried that once and found it not to help because the larger hose needs more gas to fill it resulting in irratic loading and weaker guns.

 

Weird! I understand it would require more gas but the larger hose should promote higher flow as well for an overall gain at the cannon breach.

I'll try making some with both types of hoses then and conduct some cannon trials to see which one works better. I'll do four basic configurations:
1) small hose
2) large hose
3) small hose + expansion chamber
4) large hose + expansion chamber

I think that should cover all the possibilities for my firing tests.

Hey Chris, I did end up taking one of the cannon apart for a looksee and I can't believe how simple the piston setup is. I think I'll try making a few piston cannon as well for comparison, though I'll leave 2 of the Battler's gun intact far a baseline to compare my experiments with.

 

Keep me posted Mack. Are you planning to do spurt guns also, as there will be demand up here for them.

 

Be careful in working with brass which tends to grab the drill bit. Make sure everything is clamped tightly! A visitor once sent a "T" fitting sailing across my shop when the vice let it go.

marty

 

An excellent point for sure. It's best to use a dull drill bit, or dull one yourself before drilling. Brass will "suck in" a regular bit. It's best to put a cutting edge on the bit that more "scrapes" off the material rather than cuts it.

 

Thanks for the warning about drilling brass guys. I'd already researched it but you can't have too many "be carefuls" mentioned. I'll be clamping them down good and using titanium bits with oil lubrication so i should be fine.

And yes, Chris, spurtguns are my first priority as I need some for my cruiser.

 

Great news Mack if you get them working we will take some off your hands.

 

Hey Mackster,
Can you adjust the speed on your drill press?

 

Yes, it has variable speed and it also has a laser targetting lens built in for alignment.

Turn on the laser and center the item you want drilled, then clamp it down and you're ready to go.

 

Good Deal!!