Does a cannon count as 'geeky stuff'?

[Jamesbeat]

My wife sure thinks so, so I thought I'd share it here.

I took some photos for a cannon forum, and on that forum it's traditional to include a common object in photos to show scale.
I chose to use my keyboard as I was trying it out on my laptop with an adapter at the time, so here's some keyboard/cannon porn for your enjoyment:























The cannon is 14.5" long, 3" wide at the breech end, and has a 1" bore.
When I've finished building it, it will fire a 1" steel ball bearing over a ~0.4oz charge of black powder.

[whiskerBox]

That is cool now blow up a rubber dome keyboard with it and post a video

[Jamesbeat]

A rubber dome keyboard would make a worthy target indeed!

There's still a lot of work to do (ie. build a carriage) but I'm hoping to get it finished and ready to go by July 4th.
Maybe I should start asking for donations of old rubber dome keyboards

[RickyJ]

Cool!  My uncle has a small cannon too, but he's lame and only shoots wads.

[Jamesbeat]

It might be a 'signal cannon', which can only (safely) fire blanks.
Either that, or he's being sensible. You can only fire projectiles somewhere where it's safe to do so, backyard is out of the question.
These things may be small, but they're certainly not toys, even the wad from a blank could kill at close range, and a steel ball can riccochet far more than a lead bullet...

[Roguemaster8]

Where are you planning to fire it at then? Is there a nearby range that allows cannons to be fired there?

[zirb]

Hell yes, that's kind of geeky
Awesome work thus far, I would love to see it with carriage and in action versus rubbers of course!

You should give yourself the title 'Blacksmith' btw

[glossywhite]

A cannon as a hobby? I bet that's a blast...

[Jamesbeat]

I didn't make it, it was made by a friend (machinist, not blacksmith!).
I'm going to use it to fire blank charges in the back yard on special occasions, and hopefully with projectiles at a range.
I haven't found a suitable range, but I haven't really looked yet because the cannon won't be ready to fire for a while yet.
Some ranges have extra rules about black powder, because it's usually used loose which is a bit more hazardous than a self contained cartridge, and also because it produces a lot of smoke.
I'm pretty confident that one of the outdoor ranges be ok with it.

[Roguemaster8]

That's awesome man, take pics or a video when you fire it for the first time.

[Wildcard]

I use to shoot off a cannon at the university I went too during our football games. I miss those days...

Great work!

[audioave10]

20 years ago, some friends and I made a 2" bore cannon and thought we would shoot a diesel wrist-pin out of it. It was too heavy and even with a large powder charge, it blew up and peeled the butt of the cannon back like a banana. Good times...even though we could have died!
Radical Geekdom for sure.