Pewter Cannons

[bdgiantman2]

Hello friends, I am looking again for suggestions from those of you who know more than I do. I should have noted this a lot sooner, but I've found out that the pewter cannons I purchased were not made correctly. None of the eight long cannons have the proper cascabel ball like supposed to. Does anyone on here have experience working with pewter and can give recommendations for fixing this? I have never personally tried doing any casting previously let alone do work with pewter before this project and have no clue what to do. Thank you in advance.

 

Brian D. 

[druxey]

To cast your own cannon you will need to learn how to make RTV (room-temperature vulcanising) rubber mold from a master pattern. Alternatively, you could build up the missing cascabel with a modeling compound and panit the completed cannon. Another route woudl be to buy quality resin-cast or 3D printed pieces.

[Dr PR]

A fairly simple way to modify the cannons is:

 

1. Find some round head pins of the appropriate diameter for the cascabel. Fabric stores carry a variety of pin sizes. Clip the pin about 1/16" / 2mm from the head.

 

2. File off the projections on the rear of the cannon and round off the back end.

 

3. Drill a hole in the back end where the cascabel should be. The hole/drill bit diameter should be the same or slightly larger than the diameter of the pin. The metal is soft so you can do this with a pin vise or motor tool.

 

4. Glue the shaft of the pin into the hole in the cannon. Use a glue that will adhere to metals. I would use Duco Cement or a two-part epoxy.

 

5. Paint with satin black paint.

 

Note: Don't try to solder the pins into the holes. Some of these fittings are cast from low melting point metals, and the whole cannon will melt into a puddle if you heat it very much.

[wefalck]

Before you modify the guns: what ship and period are they supposed to belong to? Their shape is quite strange and look almost like early Paixhans-type guns. Some guns of the 1830s or so seems to have rings for the brook, rather and the ealier cascabels. It may be worthwhile to confirm the exact shape of the gun needed first.

 

The carronade seems to be generally ok.

[bdgiantman2]

Hello Wefalck, thank you for your post on this thread. I am currently building Brig Eagle from 1814, she was built on and sailed on Lake Champlain. Everything I have seen for regular cannons of that time period still have the traditional cascabel on back end of cannon. These cannons as well as the carronades were purchased from Blue Jacket. 

 

Brian D