Candy Cannon

Interesting! I just went to a re-enactment of a civil war prison camp this morning.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Pretty interesting. You’d probably go to jail if you tried that in Minnesota.

-- Maplewood, MN

Too cool! I bet the kids love it!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Frank, Pretty neat looking canon, I see by the pivot rod that you can shoot in either direction. I’m with Rikkor though, If I’d fire that around hear I’d have alot of uniforms in blue….your brother in woodworking John

-- Your Brother in WoodWorking John, Pittsburgh , PA.

Yes, I see you all have noticed most of my friends & I are Politically Incorrect. But that being said, we have a historic city & the city fathers are historic minded. We have used the candy cannon in various parks in St.Louis County & in the City of Florissant. Other groups use their candy cannons at various events in towns in counties all over Missouri. Just as you suggested might happen… A couple of years back, two of Florissant’s finest noticed our candy cannon on display & inquired… “You fellows aren’t planning on shooting that thing in the city, are you?” We explained that everything was pre-arranged with the mayor, their dispatcher had been notified, all safety rules were to be adhered to & we have an actual permit from the mayor. Later in the day, those same cops were marveling at how much fun was had by all. I’m sure there’s re-enactors (especially Civil War re-enactors with BIG cannons) in PA & MN too & you probably just haven’t heard about it. It’s a lot of fun & you’ll find lots of woodcrafty ideas at these events. Some of the projects that I’m going to post have come from some of these events. I’ll try to point that out in some of the project descriptions.

-- Frank, Florissant, Missouri

sometimes we are just too safety-minded and prohibit the best of fun!!!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Sounds like a blast.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

The munitions in that cannon are okie dokie. I can see the kids running in my minds eye. Pretty nifty.

-- Betsy - GO BUCKS!

post the video to You Tube and link it here…then everybody can see at the same time…it’s not too tough…kinda like posting pictures from Flickr or some place like it. there are some pretty good directions on using video in the blogs section.

-- /\/\/\ BarryW /\/\/\ http://thecreekviewwoodworker.blogspot.com

I bet if you made it bigger to fire donuts, the cops would like it too…

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

This is a really interesting project. I am sure that the kids love it.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Questions :

1. How is the cannon itself is made?
2. What materials are used and there sizes?
3. How is the cannon loaded and fired?
4. How much black powder is used?

Black powder is dangerious stuff if you do not know what your doing. I had a brother who lost an eye to black powder because he did not know what he was doing with a toy cannon.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Very nice.
I have a small mortar as well and would like to see the base of the mortar tube and connection to base method.

As info: its legal in many states to fire black powder cannon’s as long as the barrel isn’t rifled. Check with your state as YMMV.

Show me your video.

BarryW, Tom & Ratchet…

Send me your e-mail address & I’ll send you a video.

Frank

-- Frank, Florissant, Missouri