Bowling Ball Mortar

[zeezee]

http://www.docsmachine.com/nonPB/mortar.html

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[JohnH]

This is from a post on another forum:



Those shots are my mortar (built by Bill McKenna) and DDB's photography.

My sub chamber holds just about 4 oz of Fg or FFg but keep in mind that mine is a conventional mortar and not a gas cylinder. I've got a sub chamber in the breech plug (95 lbs of steel) and 1 1/4 wall thickness on the tube. In my mortar 4 oz of fg gives me about 400 yards at a very high angle. I once tried cannon grade powder and got about 50 ft range. With a sub chamber the diameter of the chamber counts as the bore of the gun for powder charge purposes, in my case about 3 in..

The high res picture links are here...

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I use two 1 qt ziplocks full of gas on top of the ball for those fireballs and the fireball has never touched the ground. All that hits the ground is the zip part of the bag which may start a grass fire but that's all.

Here are a couple of links to videos...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcU_J2XOx9k

These were done by my cousin's kid using movie mode on point and shoot digital cameras.

Lots of fun!

Play safe!!!

 

[chemist]

Everybody needs a hobby.

The best use I ever saw for cans of Old Milwaukee Light was as projectiles from a mortar that used lighter fluid for fuel. They flew hundreds of yards!

 

[Russianfist]

I built something like this about 15 years ago out of scrap steel plate and 4 1/2" pipe. I had a stand for it with an adjustment bolt to set degree. those rubber balls you find at batting cages worked great in it. It didn't go BOOM when you touched it off but more of a thump. Got to wondering if it was legal to have so I dumped it before I got busted with it. I still kinda miss it