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Medieval Hand Cannon

by jeanluc83 on May 7, 2012 Table of Contents Medieval Hand Cannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Medieval Hand Cannon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Design Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Firing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 3 4 4 5 5 5 5

http://www.instructables.com/id/Medieval-Hand-Cannon/

Author:jeanluc83
My full time job is being a husband and a father to my three children. My paying job is a mechanical engineer. Every once in a while I get a little time to work on a project. As long as I live to be 1,000 years old I should get to about half of my ideas.

Intro: Medieval Hand Cannon

This is a replica of a hand cannon, also known as a handgonne, that would have been used in 14th century Europe. It is a very easy and quick project if you have access to a lathe. Total time for the project was about 6 hours not including design and the cost was about $30. Materials: 1.5 dia. x 12 long steel 1.25 to 1.5 dia. wood pole (recommend ash or white oak) #10 x 0.75 long wood screws Boiled Linseed oil Tools: Lathe Drill press or milling machine Hand plane Carving knife Rasp

http://www.instructables.com/id/Medieval-Hand-Cannon/

Step 1: Design
I have a fascination with artillery of any kind. My preference is American Civil War but I also like the very early artillery. When I learned about the first hand held artillery I knew that I wanted to build one. After doing some searching I came across a design that I liked and that looked easy to make. I found a hand cannon dating from the 14th century. There were pictures detailed enough to base my design on. To go from a picture to an actual design I fist printed the picture full size. I knew that I wanted the final diameter to be approximately 1.5" and the bore to be 1/2". Once I had a print scaled to this size rough dimensions were measured directly off the print. These dimensions were then used to create the cad drawing. I tweaked the design until everything looked close to the original. Since the originals are likely to have been made one at a time Im sure there was a good deal of dimensional variation so I didnt worry too much over the actual dimensions. I just picked sizes that I felt were easy to work with.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Medieval-Hand-Cannon/

Step 2: Design Evaluation

I decided to be a good engineer and do a quick check of the stresses to make sure the thing was not going to blow up. I remember reading somewhere that a good rule of thumb for cannon design was to have the wall thickness at the breach equal to the bore diameter but I wanted to check what the math told me. I assumed the barrel to be a thick walled pressure vessels. I also assumed 10,000 psi for the maximum pressure from the black powder. I'm not sure where I originally found this pressure but I believe it was from something I've read about black powder rifles. Whatever the origin it seemed to be a reasonable number. The maximum tangential stress was found to be 12,500 psi. The maximum radial stress was 10,000 psi. The fact that this is equal to the pressure is not a coincidence. Since both stresses are quite high I thought it prudent to use a combined stress. I chose von Mises because that is my preference. The resulting combined stress is 19,526 psi. Assuming 1018 steel, with a yield of approximately 31,000 psi, the resulting safety factor is 1.6. This is acceptable. As a double check I also ran a case with a maximum pressure of 15,000 psi. The resulting safety factor is 1.1. This is still acceptable.

Step 3: Building
Machining the barrel was fairly straight forward. Unfortunately I dont have any pictures of the actual machining. I started by drilling out the bore with an extra long 1/2" drill. I would recommend reaming the bore. The drilled bore was very rough. This pretty much voids any hope of accuracy when fired. It also just happens that a standard 0.500 reamer is 8 long which is just long enough. The socket end of the barrel was drilled and then bored to size to accept the pole. With the two functional features finished the profile was turned between centers. The socket end was done first up to the bead detail. The barrel was flipped and the rest of the profile completed. The curves were done by setting the compound rest to the various angles that closely matched the drawing. Everything was filed and sanded to an even finish. This was a lot of fun because there were no real accuracy requirements. It just needed to look good. In some ways it was a lot more like wood turning. A CNC machine could have made very quick work of this but where is the fun in that. The last thing to do was drill a hole for the fuse and two mounting holes. The fuse hole was drilled with a #7 drill. This is a little large compared to the bore diameter but 1/8 fuse is readily available and cheep. A second hole was drilled to intersect with the socket for attaching the barrel to the stock. I made a pole from a scrap of oak. It was rounded using a hand plane then fitted to the barrel. I left it faceted because I thought It looked good and took much less time. The barrel was held to the pole with two wood screws. I found some from a hinge set that looked like cut nails. Alternately the barrel could be glued on with epoxy or even riveted to the pole using a small pin peened over on each side. The wood was given a few coats of linseed oil for protection. The barrel was left untreated.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Medieval-Hand-Cannon/

Step 4: Firing
With everything finished I took it out to the range for some test firing. I used standard 50 cal balls without a patch and about 60 gr of powder. It makes a good bang and has an ipmressive muzzel flash. On the down side, it has no accuracy at all. I believe this is due to the short barrel and the rough finish from drilling the bore. In battel it would be more effictive as a club. It does make a good bang and is a lot of fun to shoot.

Keep your powder dry.

Image Notes 1. the ball can just be seen leaving the frame 2. when firing keep you face away from the vent

Image Notes 1. 50 cal balls 2. black powder 3. cannon fuse 4. powder measure 5. powder flask

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Comments
6 comments

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May 17, 2012. 5:48 PM REPLY

Aron313 says:
I bet people would say thats dangerous but its perfect! Nice project!

jeanluc83 says:
Not just dangerous but extremely dangerous. This is not a toy and should be treated like any other firearm.

May 24, 2012. 4:40 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Medieval-Hand-Cannon/

Aron313 says:
Well of course but many may say that this should be illegal

May 24, 2012. 5:12 PM REPLY

nanosec12 says:
Any plans to make another one, using the reamer? Or to possibly rifle the barrel for some accuracy? Impressive piece of 'replicated' history.

May 24, 2012. 6:26 AM REPLY

jeanluc83 says:
Thanks. I do plan on building another at some point. This one has gone on to a new home to make way for new projects.

May 24, 2012. 4:39 PM REPLY

I will definitely ream the bore on the next one. Rifling is possible but a little modern for this period and I'm not sure how much accuracy would be gained for such a short barrel.

desertsniper says:
awesome!

May 16, 2012. 7:07 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Medieval-Hand-Cannon/