Brass Cannon Without a Lathe

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:10 pm • Post subject: Brass Cannon Without a Lathe

If you have a metal lathe, know someone who does, can afford one, have room for one or can buy cannon pre-made then don't use this technique. However, if you only need a few cannon and have a drill press, this technique works well enough.

Start off with round stock of appropriate diameter and mark off the locations of the rings, steps and cascabell. Chuck up the stock and use the bed of the drill press as a guide for cutting slots of the appropriate depth with a file. Use a wrap of paper to protect the drill press bed from the file and check frequently with a calipers till the exact depth is reached.

Cut all of the blanks at one time and resist the temptation to finish a cannon off first. This will help ensure maximal uniformity between cannon.

Once all of the depth cuts are made, connect the cuts to form the appropriate inclines for the various steps. Leave the rings at full diameter.

With the rings at full diameter the cannon can be set into a "V-block" to drill out the trunnion holes as per the plans.

Finish off the rings, cascabell and muzzle of the cannon before making an almost complete parting cut with a razor saw while on the drill press. I did this because I didn't want to take any chances in messing up the muzzle.

Complete the cut off of the drill press and mark the center of the muzzle with an awl. Carefully drill the bore of the cannon paying strict attention to keeping the bore centered on the muzzle.

Here is the final product. It took about three to four hours to make these nine pounders (1:48 scale) by this method. These cannon will not be exact duplicates but turned out well. If you don't have a metal lathe but do have a drill press and some time, this technique can be used in a pinch.

Scott

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:16 pm • Post subject:

Nice job Scott!

Applause

I am one of those who do not have metal lathe and I utilize the drill as much as possible. And I have vice that enable me to keep the drill in horizontal position... as an option:

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:38 pm • Post subject:

Those brass cannons are just simply fantastic. A doc copy of this goes into my tools file. I had no idea such beutiful work could be done on a drill press. Do you remember how long it took you to make them ??

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:34 pm • Post subject:

Thanks Guys for the positive feedback! It seemed like it took forever but as I think back it took about three to four hours based upon the number of Beatles albums I went through during the process. Wink

Scott

My friend,

this is a real good piece of work.....and this twin is looking really similar.

Great result......and I want to add ......."surprisingly" good result.

I did not expect that when I saw your very good muzzles first in your building log of your Triton.....
.....and than I saw how you did it and I was positive SURPRISED Shocked

......once more great work my friend 8)

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:29 pm • Post subject: Brass Cannon Without a Lathe

Scottacus

great to show how to do this, however I would like to add drilling the bore and keeping the drill at centre is not that easy. Ref: picture. It would be worthwhile to support the barrel in some way. Your picture has not shown this. Please understand this is not knowing it better, but I know some people will try this and I think this should be pointed out.
Regards
Fred

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:14 am • Post subject:

Thanks Uwe and Fred for the comments. I should have included photos of drilling the bore. The photo you reference showed the cannon with the barrel almost cut off, not drilling the bore. To drill the bore I mounted the cannon in a padded vice and used an awl to mark the center. A 3/32 inch drill in the chuck of a Dremel hand tool was used to very carefully drill out the bore. A drill press works well also but I wanted complete control of the process since I had several hours invested at that time!

Scott

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:31 am • Post subject:

Wow Scott! Thanks for posting this. Those are beautiful. I shall certainly be filing this away for future use. Smile

Regards,
Todd

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:36 am • Post subject:

Hi, Scott......

Those are fantastic looking cannon; you never cease to amaze me. I will definitely give it a try. I was going to try to do that with hardwood and then paint them black. I would never have thought you could turn brass on a drill press. Great work.

jim PDT_Aliboronz_24

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 6:19 am • Post subject:

Bravo. Excellent work Scott… Simply and effective. Applause