Just a little project I've wanted to do since visiting The Mary Rose ship in Portsmouth last spring.
One of the Port Cannons just seemed like something I needed to make in miniature! These are the big guns that were added to the ship and contributed to her sinking. And was sort of Archaic Technology by the Tudor era. It was made of a thin tube with iron bands shrunk over it. Later, solid bronze cannons were coming into vogue and could be cast. But I liked the idea of making one with shrunk-on bands.
Started by trying to do it over a relatively thin-walled steel tube. But after shrinking on a few bands, the tube started to bow and then compress.
So found a cheap .50 Douglas pistol barrel on eBay... And it was probably cheap because it was bored off center by almost .0625. But for my purposes.... perfect! I was turning the octagon off and making it .750 anyway. So... perfect.
Turned up a series of bands... ribbed and plain. And a muzzle and a breech piece. This cannon is a breech loader so had to make a separate breech. Got almost all the metalwork for the barrel and breech done. I still have to make two 'ring pieces' for the breech. So can't assemble it yet.
Here are various thin and ribbed rings. The 'ears' are for a center 'lifting' hook area. Muzzle is at the left.
More of a close-up. Showing the ears. The first version the tube was a bit over .625" OD and a smooth 1/2" ID. The new one is rifled 1/2" with a .750" OD. Proper barrel. Much safer and a whole lot easier to assemble. The rings are bronze. Decided not to use cast iron. In part because I thought the cannon would look cooler in bronze. And the bronze is stronger and easier to shrink. I can get a good .003" shrink on the bronze... vs way less for cast iron.
Here is the steel barrel (below) next to rings before shrinking on. And with about half the rings (breech end) shrunk on.
Barrel complete with all the rings shrunk on and the initial pieces of the Breech laid out. I can make multiple breeches for 'faster firing.' This will be a fully-functional cannon, BTW. Black powder patched ball.
Here is the breech section in process. Note the bevel that will form the seal between the breech and barrel. These are cut at about a 60 degree andle and will be pressed together by the rear 'wedges' that hold the breech together.
And here is what it will be when done. I have a really cool piece of black Walnut that I pan on using for the carriage. Including the wheels. The finished cannon will be about 24" long and, as I mentioned, will fire!
More as I find some spring time to work on it! It should be a neat one to play with.
I'll do the woodwork for my war axe at the same time I start cutting the walnut for this.
Cheers,
Sirhr
