# Geoff's REALISTIC cannon!



## Evil Bob (Sep 10, 2004)

Excellent cannon!


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## Screaming Demons (Sep 15, 2008)

That's very impressive.


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## theedwin (Sep 25, 2008)

Wow!!!!!!!!!


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## RacerX45 (Apr 30, 2008)

Fantastic job! It really looks like a genuine cannon. I need one of those on my pirate ship. Guess I need to get working. 

Randy


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## CraigInPA (Sep 11, 2007)

Wow! That's incredible! Great job!


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## scareisburg (Nov 3, 2004)

One of the Best I've seen


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## Demon Dog (Feb 26, 2009)

Excellent job! Very realistic, even up close.


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## Eyegore (Aug 23, 2008)

good job! now all you need is realistic cannon fire!


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## Frosty Don (Nov 25, 2005)

HOLY SMOKES!

That is beautiful!!!!!!!


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## alucard (Dec 1, 2008)

Excellent work! Very realistic!


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## fravak (Dec 11, 2006)

That's very impressive!


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## mem22 (Sep 10, 2005)

Wow....great job!! I have a question though. You said that it's basically a sonoflex cardboard tube with a long wedge cut out to give it the proper tapering shape. How do you cut a wedge out of a sonoflex tube? It's relatively thin cardboard and I don't see a way to taper it at all. How did you do it...also, what size tube did you use?


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## gumba (Jan 18, 2009)

very nice!


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## daffy64 (Jul 22, 2009)

Hey guys. Thanks for all the great compliments about the cannon!!!

I am going to post a more detailed description of how I put it together soon! I'm just busy right now.

mem22..You can make it out of any size cardboard tube. The trick is to figure out how much it would taper towards the front (I used graph paper to figure it out) and then cut a pie shaped wedge the whole length of the tube. Then you have to glue it back together (which is a pain) using an extra piece of cardboard on the inside to reinforce it.

More explanation to come! Wait till you see my pirate ship wheel.


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## doombugy (Oct 9, 2006)

i cant wait! we are also working on pirate halloween...just started and i really like your work.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Love it. Put it on the front lawn all year, that'll keep the robbers way or be a magnet for all the neighborhood little boys. 

Great prop!


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2009)

DANG!!! that looks fantastic!!!


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## daffy64 (Jul 22, 2009)

Thanks again you guys. I have the first two sections of how to make the cannon up now. Hope it helps. 

I'm just finishing off a very good ship's wheel for a pirate party I'm having, and then on Halloween, my front yard is going to have a sunken shipweck on it.


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## The Pod (May 19, 2008)

That is a very nice and very realistic looking cannon! Very nice job on both the cannon and your tutorial. Thanks for posting it!


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## daffy64 (Jul 22, 2009)

I tried building an air cannon into it, but had some problems. Maybe next time.


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## MassMax (Jul 20, 2009)

Daffy64,

Thanks very much for the cannon construction tutorial. I plan to construct my own naval gun for a Halloween pirate display as well. I found instructions for making a cannon using PVC pipe, wood discs, metal lathe, and mortar on another Website, but now I play to follow your lead.

My only question/comment is about the expected durability of the cannon. How well do you think the sonotube structure will hold up to wear and tear over the years? For example, what if someone tries to sit on the cannon barrel? As part of my initial plan, I was going to fill the body of the cannon with minimal expanding foam (such as Great Stuff) to help the outer shell resist crushing. Do you think that would help with your design?


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## daffy64 (Jul 22, 2009)

*Durability*

Hmmm. That's a good question. I wouldn't treat this design like the real thing. It will not hold up to a lot of abuse. One thing I did think of is making a latex and plaster mould of the whole thing and casting it in fiberglass resin.

It is incredibly realistic but only as a prop.

Maybe several heavy coats of outdoor oil based urethane AFTER painting it with water based to seal it would help to protect it from the elements, but nothing will change the fact that it's foam and cardboard.

Let me know how you make out.

Geoff


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## daffy64 (Jul 22, 2009)

Ahhhh...only six more days and I have to get my whole display out based on the cannon design.


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## Evil Bob (Sep 10, 2004)

Did you ever build a carriage for your excellent cannon?


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## IC_Dedpeeple (Sep 9, 2009)

Now THAT is really impressive! I absolutely love that...what a great, creative idea...and you're right, it does look real! Fine work, indeed.


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## Skelly215 (Sep 22, 2004)

What great results from such humble materials! Congratulations!


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## Mad Mad Mark (Oct 24, 2009)

*Oh....too COOL !*

WOW ! I know I'm getting in a bit late with this post, but...WOW ! 

I have thought of something like this from time to time (My den is done with a ships hold decor) 

I lift my ale and and drink to your honor (and creativity) Well done indeed!


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## Bryan316 (Oct 18, 2009)

So how did that cannon look for your haunt?


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## SKAustin (Nov 22, 2009)

very impressive. I'd never have use for a cannon, but I almost want to build one just on principle. Better I save my time and resources for something I can use. Excellent work!


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## savagehaunter (Aug 22, 2009)

Excelent cannon.


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## bobzilla (Nov 15, 2008)

Awesome job !


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

I have made several cannons, ex cetra, my main vandalism worry (and not at all unfounded) is some Idiot would stick a 1/2 stick of dynamite in the barrel, just like some one did to the excellant 357 magnum pistol.mailbox located near this town. The schapnel could have killed someone.
Since I work with scrap steel I weld a small plate about 3 inches inside the muzzle , just far enough after I paint it flat black, that it looks right.
A man told me he bought a very realistic looking Civil War cannon made out of foam? Once he got it home he didn't know where to keep it?
He left it at the end of his front room sofa, pointed at the sofa.
This was alot of fun for his daughter's nervous boyfriend who was sitting looking down the barrel as he talked to "The DAD"!
Yes! It's a concensus, VERY NICE WORK on your cannon!!


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## MokkNoir (Oct 19, 2009)

*The next level*

Nice cannon! 

But, wouldn't it be fantastic to make it fire? 

So, here's my idea; utilize a flash pot device to fit into the end of the barrel. I'm not sure if a traditional flash pot would work since it operates by a glow plug. You would have to play around with it. I was thinking that since you would need a simple reload method (you don't want to be trying to spoon flash powder into the main cavity, etc.) you could create a flash "ball". Basically, you take flash paper and put a small amount of flash powder and smoke powder in the middle. Then you simply ball up the flash paper trapping the powder mix in the middle. You could then drop the flash ball into the cannon. It would need to be touching the ignition surface, so I'm not sure a glow-plug would be the right way to go. I was even thinking of a cigarette lighter from a car with the outer jacket stripped away at the bottom of the flash pot (thus, a large glowing surface when powered to ignite the flash ball) and that would be much more resilient than a fragile glow plug. 


You would have to let the igniter cool before reloading, but you should be able to fire the cannon every few minutes. By having a bunch of flash balls pre-made they would just need to be dropped into the cannon barrel. You could even fashion a "ram rod" that actually has a cup in the end holding the flash ball and you just load the cannon as if you were ramming the load down, but you're actually just dumping the ball into the pot. 

This is just an idea, so you'd have to play around with it to work out the details, and to time it with the sound effect, but you could pull off a very realistic effect that is completely safe.


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## Hauntings by Design (Jan 2, 2010)

Looks real good. I like it.


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