Smallest blackpowder artillery ever made
The blackpowder cannon enthusiasts over at the Graybeard forums came up with some amazing pieces of artillery.
CU_Cannon built the “Nano-mortar”. It fires .177″ BBs. The bed it sits on is 1″ long.
Click to expand the images.
The Nano-mortar
Here is a video of it in action
Blueprints
Cal.45 built a 3mm mortar called the “Pico “Mortar”
The “Pico Mortar”
The pico mortar was build solely with a drill-press, some files and emery paper. It fires 3mm shot pellets (0.118 inch diameter) and has a maximum load of 0.2 grains of blackpowder. It has a barrel length of 8mm (0.315″) and can fire 6 meters (20 feet)
Anyways. I started with a load of about 0.2gr Swiss #2 but this did just a sizzling sound, so from the next shots on I used Swiss #1 (which is even finer in granulation: about 0.011 to 0.015 inch) which produced a nice snapping. Cheesy.
The touch hole is 0.5 millimeters = close to 0.02 inch (that makes it about 16% of the bore diameter (if one may still call it so).
Priming was done by filling the touch hole granule by granule; sweaty hands help maneuvering these tiny particlesin place.
First I wanted to enlarge the touch hole to fuse diameter and keep the rest at the smaller diameter (to keep some pressure) but the wall thickness is that small, that this wasnot possible.
Ignition with a lighter proofed to be better than trying to do it with a match: the flame produces soot but therefore does not function (kept them as size reference on the photo though).
Whatever. At first I thought that the shot would barely leve the muzzle: wrong!
Firing from the kitchen table I shot dimples into the door! This was 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) away! By the trajectory (angle of the mortar and height of impact) this means an estimated firing distance of 6 meters (about 20 feet): I would never have guessed this to be possible with a piece that has a barrel length of just 8 millimeters (0.315 inch).
The “Pico Mortar” being fired
“Pico Mortar” blueprints
Rickk built the “Nano Cannon”
The “Nano Cannon”
Now I know what only the others who have made one know… what the tremendous roar they make sounds like Grin
Bore is 3/16 (.186), so it will take a BB. Fuse is 5/64, so it will takes 1/16 fuse.
Trunions, as well as cascable, are 3/16 inch steel rod pressed into shallow 3/16 holes and then brazed in place.
All the work was done on my drill press, with some help from an angle grinder and a file for shaping.
It needs a pit more polishing, but I just couldn’t wait to fire it ! Total time into is so far is about 2 hours.
The “Nano Cannon” with carriage
I found the smoldering paper towel pieces about 15 feet away, and the gun recoils back about 6 inches!
BTW, for BB caliber, Q-tips make excellent cleaning rods.
Terry C. built the the very first micro-gonne. A hand gonne is a hand held cannon. It fires #4 buckshot.
the micro-gonne
The micro hand gonne being fired. Note the wooden rod attached.
Victor build a bigger scale hand gonne:
Wow talk about minature cannons check out
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=269391566
David
Hey guys I curently hold the ” Guinness World Record” for the world,s smallest working cannon !
If you guys want to buy one premade (rather inexpensive) check out Nanocannons.com. I made a few things out of his “Hex Barrel”s. Saving for a lathe… lol
Hi,
This one has a 27 mm barrel with a 3mm bore. Check out the following face book link for a photo and a video of it blowing away some plastic army men.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3593695&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=318528835285&aid=-1&id=640931703&oid=318528835285
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=323415086703&oid=318528835285
Look up the “Zululand Black Powder Day” event on Facebook.
Regards,
Izak
Izak, very cool!
I bought a similar on on eBay. The seller is amazing and he also sells plans, or plans with a stock kit. He makes all kinds of stuff and his site is HardcoreHalloween.com The above cannons are sweet too, but you gotta check him out! They are called “Pocket Cannons”. He’s got a few videos too!
Peace.
-Tim-
Well done JR! I can’t wait to see the report. Lots of pics and videos please
I finally got around to building my nano morter. I’ll do a range report when I can get some pellets for it.
Now that was cool.
Cool… but this catapult I made actually has greater range and is safer for CQB use (er, you know, like in my apartment). Check out the video on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mcya8SrI6v8
I can just see it at a test fire…
“Why is your gun so small?”
“I’m compensating.”
This is a great post.
Hi Rob, thanks for submitting it!
Looks like a blast! (pun definitely intended!)
Nice summary of the story.. it’s been added to http://www.gearcult.com
Great blog too!
Those are the coolest things I have ever seen!
James